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Jon Altman is a research professor in anthropology/economics at the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research (CAEPR) at the Australian National University.

Since coming to Australia in 1976, he has worked on Indigenous economic development issues mainly in remote Australia. Jon undertook fieldwork for his doctorate with the Kuninjku language community in West Arnhem Land and he has continued his collaborations there since then.

From 1990–2010 he was the Foundation Director of CAEPR and in recent years he has focused much of his research effort on issues of human economy, economic hybridity and political ecology, seeking forms of durable and appropriate development in the remotest and most difficult of Indigenous circumstances.

His recent books include the volumes Coercive Reconciliation: Stabilise, Normalise, Exit Aboriginal Australia (2007) and the award winning Culture Crisis: Anthropology and Politics in Aboriginal Australia (2010) (both co-edited with Melinda Hinkson) and Power, Culture, Economy: Indigenous Australians and Mining (2009) (co-edited with David Martin).