In 2026 NAIDOC Week is celebrating 50 Years of Deadly. It’s the perfect time to recognise a couple of career pioneers among us, be inspired by their journeys to maybe think about carving your own path too.
Reshaping the legal system
A proud Kamilaroi woman, Justice Louise Taylor made history as the first Aboriginal person appointed as a judicial officer in the Australian Capital Territory back in 2018. In what was described as a landmark moment, she then went on to become the first Indigenous woman in Australia appointed to a Supreme Court, and more recently took on the role of Chief Magistrate of the ACT Magistrates Court. Justice Taylor has spoken about how proud she is to represent First Nations people, and particularly First Nations women, in a profession where they’ve long been under-represented. Referring to the Australian legal system, her message to you is “There is a place for you here”.
“I did not inherit a pathway into the law. I am the granddaughter of a wharfie and a publican. My pathway to the law was driven by my experience of it as a girl growing up in inner-city Sydney. Even when you feel like a tourist in the profession, you must carry yourself as if you belong, because you do” – Justice Louise Taylor
On the cutting edge of medicine and technology
Professor Misty Jenkins is a Gunditjmara woman who grew up near Ballarat and an immunologist leading brain cancer research at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (WEHI). She was the first Indigenous Australian to attend the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge as a postdoctoral research fellow, and later helped set up a national scholarship programme so more First Nations Australians could study at Oxford and Cambridge too. Creating opportunities that simply didn’t exist for Indigenous students before 2010. In 2024, she became the first woman at WEHI elected as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering.
“You decide the kind of person you want to be and the legacy you want to leave and how you want to live your life, you go out and make that happen. I love what I do; I love the joy of discovery, of the research science I think it’s fascinating and certainly that passion I like to share.” Dr Misty Jenkins
The one piece of advice she’d share with you, is to stay in school.
“I would just tell the students how exciting it is to be on the cutting edge! I mean we are writing the text books, we are discovering things that will go into text books that the next generation will learn in due course in their science classes and how exciting it is to be one of a handful of the people in this world to have this knowledge and you’re working on the cutting edge”
Closer to home (or at least, closer to your phone), Tamina Pitt is a proud Wuthathi, North Queensland and Meriam Mir (Torres Strait Islander) woman working as a software engineer at Google, helping build the Directions Platform behind Google Maps. As an Indigenous woman working in tech and winner of the 2018 NAIDOC Youth of the Year award, Tamina is something of an equity, diversity and inclusion pioneer, she’s spoken about wanting to bring her own perspective into tech so that products end up genuinely useful for a wider range of people. If you’ve ever used Google Maps to find the fastest way somewhere, there’s a good chance her work has helped get you there.
“What inspires me most about engineering is that engineers create the things that people interact with every day, things like Google Maps that can greatly improve peoples’ lives. I want to add my perspectives to the mix so we can create better products that appeal to, and help, a wider diversity of people” – Tamina Pitt
Changing the face of media
In New Zealand, besides being a successful politician, journalist and translator and interpreter of Māori and English, Oriini Kaipara was the first broadcaster with a moko kauae (traditional chin tattoo) to present mainstream television news, and later the first to host a prime-time news programme on national television. Her moko kauae is a visible mark of her Māori identity, and by wearing it on camera, she showed audiences that culture and modern media don’t need to be kept separate.
In her maiden speech, after which parliament had to be temporarily suspended when a haka broke out in the public gallery, she said:
“We are the combination of dreams, of purpose, of hard work and intention. We are here by design. Every single one of us who walks our own reo journey is a beneficiary of the efforts of all those who held and still hold the line for all of us today” –Oriini Kaipara
Changing outcomes for others
Butchulla and Gawara saltwater man, Isaiah Dawe who grew up living in 17 different foster homes, and experienced the many disadvantages that came along with that. He went on to overcome lots of barriers to become founder of ID Know Yourself, a mentoring and empowering program for young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people within the New South Wales foster care system. Designed to “improve outcomes for Indigenous young people within foster care in five key areas. The key areas are identity/culture, education, life after care, health and yarn time”. He says:
“The slogan ‘know yourself’ is about knowing what you are capable of, knowing your worth and what you can achieve in this world.” – Isaiah Dawe
Solving problems and empowering others
Morgan Coleman proud Torres Strait Islander entrepreneur, isn’t a vet himself, but a frustrating vet visit with his dog Milky gave him the idea for Vets On Call, a mobile service that brings vets to pets at home rather than the other way around. He built the business from scratch, including selling his house to fund it, and grew it into a national service before eventually stepping away from day-to-day running of it.
A firm believer that entrepreneurship can change lives, Morgan wants to empower more young people to pursue their own dreams, he’s also a founding member of Blak Angels, a network of First Nations investors backing the next wave of Indigenous-owned start-ups.
‘I want my success to be what helps these kids say, “I can do that, I can achieve something”.’ – Morgan Coleman
Morgan’s story is a good reminder that you don’t need to be the expert in the room to spot the gap others have missed – sometimes all it takes is a bad day at the vet and your own unique perspectives and thinking.
What their stories have in common
Notice a theme? None of these trailblazers set out purely to be “the first”. They followed what interested them and worked hard within it. The “first” label came along afterwards, almost as a side effect of them simply refusing to let their background or circumstances be a reason to hold them back.
If you’re wondering how you might follow in their footsteps, a few things can help:
- Get curious about your own interests first. The career comes from the passion, not the other way around.
- Find your mentors and community. Every person above has spoken about the people who backed them along the way.
- Let your identity be part of your strength, not something to leave at the door.
Your time to shine
You don’t need to wait until you’re an adult to start building toward a career that makes you proud. Whether you’re drawn to the courtroom, the lab, a keyboard, or a camera, there’s a whole community of people ready to support you on your way.
Head over to our First Nations resources page to find scholarships, mentoring programs and more information to help you take your next step, or be inspired by reading about other First Nations people with deadly careers.
