Noel Pearson was born on the 25 June 1965 in Cooktown, North Queensland. He is the youngest son of Glen Pearson from the Bagaarrmugu clan on the upper reaches of the Jeannie River, East Coast, Cape York Peninsula and Ivy Pearson (formerly Baird) from the Guggu Yalanji peoples on the upper reaches of the Bloomfield River, South East coast, Cape York Peninsula.

Pearson attended primary school at the Hope Vale Mission, Cape York, where he lived with his family throughout his early years. As a young boy he was sent to Brisbane to attend St.Peters Lutheran College as a boarder, where he attended until completing his matriculation.

Pearson then enrolled in a history degree at Sydney University, Sydney where he completed a History and Law degree. His History thesis, based on his home community Hope Vale, has been published in "Maps Dreams History", by the History Department of the University of Sydney.

Pearson has been strongly involved in campaigning for the rights of Cape York Aboriginal people and played a pivotal role in the establishment of the Cape York Land Council in 1990.

The Land Council was the first organisation established by Cape York Aboriginal people to work with and fight on behalf of Traditional Owner groups for the return of their homelands. Successful outcomes from this include the return of traditional lands known as Starcke and more recently Silver Plains.

Pearson also worked on both Native title cases including the historic WIK decision. The resulting High Court decision is recognised as one of the most important Native Title cases in Australian History.

Throughout the past ten years Noel has been involved in many key Indigenous issues including, as a member of the Indigenous Negotiating Team during the drafting of the Native Title Act in 1993.

Pearson also participated in the drafting of the Cape York Heads of Agreement for which he and other Cape York leaders were signatories on behalf of Cape York Aboriginal people. This historic agreement ensured an effective cooperative platform between Indigenous, Conservation, Mining and pastoral interests in Cape York.

Pearson was elected Chairman of the Cape York Land Council from 1996-1997 before resigning. He still acts for the Land Council in an advisory capacity from time to time. Today, he works in a voluntary capacity as a Team Leader with Cape York Partnerships a project negotiated between the Queensland government and Aboriginal Leaders of Cape York to plan and implement projects centred on a reform agenda for Cape communities.

In 2004 he became the Director of the Cape York Institute, a new regional organisation sitting at the nexus of academia, policy formation and community engagement and providing policy oversight for other Cape York oriented organisations.

The board of the Cape York Institute announced on May 6, 2009 that Noel Pearson would be taking three months leave of absence from his position as Director of CYI. Mr Pearson would spend most of his time focusing on the issue of the Wild Rivers legislation.

He would however continue the important work of the Cape York Welfare Reform agenda through CYI for twenty five percent of his time and continue in his current role on the Board of the Families Responsibilities Commission.

The CYI Board respects his decision and wished him well in his endeavours.