Women have always
been very powerful, but they have most of the time
not had the opportunity to make that a deep part of their life
and to make it a contribution to our society.
And so we have to change that.
This program of making women visible
by recognising them is a start.
Well, when I first started the university
of New South Wales,
I found it very challenging.
I remember really clearly my first day at university.
There was only about three or four women I'd seen all day at the university
because I was in commerce and they weren't very many women.
And this was part of being at university in the sixties.
I remember going to the first International
Women’s Day March
with my mother when I was about ten years old.
I knew that there was a world out there to be fought for.
So when I graduated actually,
I got this phone call at 10:00 at night.
It was the Attorney-General of New South Wales.
We set up the Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs and immediately
appointed me first woman, never mind first Indigenous woman
to be appointed to head up a government department.
I came to UNSW in about 2014.
I remember there being
quite a number of women
actually in a lot of my classes, so that was really fantastic.
And I think science and women in STEM generally is an area
that has grown so much over the past sort of ten years or so.
And I think after my third games in London where I won my gold in 100 breaststroke,
I was just so humbled and so proud that I had really incredible support
and there's no way I could have achieved what I did without that support.
Celebrating UNSW women and making them visible.
It is making a lot of younger women
very excited.
It is assisting everybody
in this university to see their future
because they can see that it is possible.
I was a student here and my honours thesis supervisor
Maria Skyllas-Kazacos; one of the leading researchers in her field,
Rose Amal;
still one of the leading researchers now in the country here,
but didn't necessarily loom large in the lives of all students.
One of the things that this project is absolutely vital for is in celebrating
the really incredible achievements of UNSW women over a very long period.
I think you can't be what you can't see.
And for women to walk around campus and to see
these role models is, is so inspiring.
It's only a few weeks ago the University of New South Wales contacted me.
I said to Lydia, my daughter, I've just been told
that they want to name a building after me.
Well, I mean, I almost fell of the chair.
I love the thought that my grandchildren might be at
university here, to have my grandchildren come out and see my name.
I think that would be amazing.
To know that this woman has stepped in exactly the same
sort of environment that I have means there's nothing stopping me from then
going on and doing extraordinary things, just like they have.
Through that celebration.
Not only do people get inspired, but the rest of society can understand
the impact that we have.
And I think that's how you create social change.
It's really exciting to to see the progress that has been made
and to be part of that progress as well.
It just provides so much more for us to learn about each other as people,
which I do hope goes on to inspire the world-
As silly or as idealistic as that might sound to make the world a better place.
Really.
It was always a dream of mine to live and study in Sydney.
So when I finished my time at college as a student,
I wanted to sort of seek a leadership role within the organization itself
and got a position on the board, which was incredibly exciting,
very nerve wracking.
And then from there
having done one year just on the board, I became the chair of the board,
which was amazing and an opportunity that I'm forever
grateful for.
So when I graduated, actually,
I was invited to work in Central Australia as a lawyer.
Then when I came back from Central Australia, I got this phone call at 10:00
at night, a really cold Canberra night,
and it was the
Attorney General of New South Wales.
We he set up the Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs
and immediately appointed me to Hill Perth.
WOMAN Never mind.
First Indigenous woman, first woman in the country
to be appointed to head up a government department.
And of course I was a
the first Aboriginal person, not just the woman,
first Aboriginal person to be admitted to the New South Wales
bar as a barrister.
I mean it's always
been after men, hasn't it?
And sometimes I've walked past and wondered what on earth goes on
in that little, you know.
I used to say that to myself, you know, I'd
look at what somebody was doing and say, I can do that.
And didn't even seem to me to be climbing over,
you know, big, big balls.
This is the women's brigade.
This is the sisterhood in action here.