Lidia Thorpe is a Gunnia-Gunditjmara woman, a lifelong fighter for First Nations people in Australia and a proud supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement. In 2017, Thorpe became the first Aboriginal woman elected to Victoria’s legislative assembly. Just three years later, in June 2020, she was preselected by the Greens to represent Victoria in Australia’s senate — once again, becoming the first Aboriginal woman to assume that role.

Thorpe was born in housing commission flats in Collingwood, Melbourne. She dropped out of high school early, survived domestic violence, and raised three kids as a single parent. More than anyone in parliament, Lidia Thorpe is justified when she says that “I’ve met hardship head-on, which enables me to meet my constituents at eye level and not from a position of power looking down.”

On October 6, Thorpe was sworn in. She wasted no time making good on her promise to shake things up when she entered the chamber defiantly, one fist raised, wearing a possum skin cloak and carrying a message stick bearing 441 marks — one for each First Nations person who has died in police custody since 1991.