How Indigenous women can take a greater leadership role

My family keeps me grounded so that none of this goes to my head or changes me at the core. Without family and the support I receive from women generally, plus the people I work with, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, it would be a lot harder to do what I do. I draw on them for comfort, support and nourishment all the time. You simply cannot do this stuff on your own or without accepting help from others.

The other thing I would say about leadership is that people can pick phonies (especially my mob). If you are not fair dinkum, if you put on airs and graces and are not being yourself, you’re finished.

Be natural and with a bit of spit and polish from your minders, if you are lucky enough to have them, it will happen for you.

Respect other people as much as you respect yourself. Be confident in who you are and what you can produce. As a leader, you should never say things that you don’t mean or that you wouldn’t want others to overhear. If you don't know the answer to a question, be honest about it because people respect and respond to that honesty. My message comes from my gut reaction sometimes and I find this to be the most powerful instinct of all.

Take an interest in everybody, no matter how significant or insignificant they are, or think they are. We are all part of this evolving human race.

The responsibilities of leadership for women in our communities are all-encompassing, incorporating everything from dealing with domestic violence to sending the children to school. Just identifying the extent of these responsibilities is exhausting.

They are different for each community and situation, as we are not homogenous. Leadership means that you need to respect differences of views and start from where people are at - not where you want them to be. The trick is to listen, listen, listen, then act. Manage your often-competing responsibilities by using your networks. Never promise to do something that you cannot do. Never let people down – if you can’t help them, let them know and they will respect you for it. Be personable but truthful – leadership that is not reliable will inevitably come back to bite you.

It is an inspiration that, increasingly, Aboriginal women have our own models of leadership demonstrated at present through women such as Evelyn Scott, Lowitija O'Donoghue, Doris Pilkington and May O'Brien: senior Indigenous women who show true strength. I look up to them and many others, and learn from them according to our Indigenous way of learning and acquiring knowledge.

Often I will seek their counsel and advice on issues. The strength and dignity of having gone through a lifetime of trauma and survived to lead is something that we should all aspire to as Indigenous women.

Finally, I must come to the core challenges faced by Indigenous women leaders: racism and sexism. And, again, I can only really comment on these challenges by reflecting on how they have affected me.

First of all, I identify as a human being. Then Aboriginal, then woman, mother, sister, aunt, and then to my professional roles at Reconciliation Australia and the University of Queensland.

Indigenous women experience simultaneous oppressions including sexism and racism, and sometimes it’s hard to pinpoint which oppression is being experienced at a particular time. If you are dark-skinned and look Aboriginal, most often it's racism.