Lidia Thorpe is a Gunnai-Gunditjmara woman, living on Wurundjeri Country in South Preston in Melbourne’s north.

She’s a community worker, mother and grandmother.

After leaving school at 14 and furthering her education at Preston and Epping TAFEs, Lidia has become a public education advocate and sits on the Smith Family’s National Advisory Board. She was also the Chair of the Victorian NAIDOC Committee.

Lidia received the Fellowship for Indigenous Leadership Award in 2008 and was appointed to the Bairnsdale Regional Health Board and the Lake Tyers Aboriginal Trust managing the training centre. And as an environmentalist, Lidia led a successful campaign against the eastern gas pipeline to save Nowa Nowa Gorge in East Gippsland.