Tay Byrne, an emerging young leader from Tharawal country recently completed the 2025 NSW Parliament Young Aboriginal Leaders Program with 20 other young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people from around the state.

“We all got the chance to come together and workshop some leadership skills, hearing directly from community (leaders) and organisations, how they were successful in making change in their community,” Byrne said.

“Pretty much hearing their story, how they were successful in making change in their community and their advice on what that looks like for the next generation going through that process.” 

Byrne shared that they struggled with identity and figuring out who they were as a young person, but also with their education.

“I wasn’t very good at reading and writing, so I struggled a bit with school and lack of support.”

Having experienced this within their own schooling, Byrne speaks with authority on the issue of providing greater support for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander school students.

One of the issues raised by Byrne is that the initiatives and programs established by governments in schools are unreliable and students, like Byrne, become subsequently displaced educationally.

“A lot of the things that were offered to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander student would often go for about a year, and then funding would subside and you wouldn’t have anything else for a couple of years until some new government policy would come in and there would be some incentive to do it,” they said. 

“The limitations at the moment that we are facing is we’ve lost funding, so we’ve lost the worker.

“We’re not able to support our Year 7 and 8 students at the moment to the full capacity that we could be.

“It is just the attendance rates of our children, it’s a crucial part of schooling. So those development years are going to impact if that child stays for their senior schooling and their employment.”

Part of the NSW Parliament program Byrne attended was preparing and delivering a speech to the Upper House of the NSW Parliament.

“I was pretty lucky in the sense that I was able to represent two communities, the Illawarra Aboriginal Alliance Corporation and the Gunya Gurindja team from Vincentia High School, which started under Aunty Gai,” they said. 

“Just being able to showcase what they do in school, how effective the program is (Gunya Gurindja) and highlight how underfunded these programs and initiatives are.

“I’m passionate about preserving our culture and ensuring that all the fight our elders have fought was for something and they can rest.

“So we can continue to carry that fire and we (younger generations) continue to represent our culture.

“We have the longest living and continuous culture. It is something that all people should be proud of, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people, because we both benefit from the knowledge of traditional owners.

“Everyone can benefit from embracing Indigenous culture and knowledge as a collective. We have adapted to the westernised and colonial Australia that we live in and it is now time those systems adapt to Indigenous people and grow together.” 

This year’s national NAIDOC week, which runs from 6–13 July has the theme ‘The Next Generation: Strength, Vision, & Legacy’ highlighting the achievements of the past generations, while looking forward to the future strengths of young leaders, the vision for communities and acknowledging the legacy paved by ancestors.