A Woman of Sovereignty

By Taylor Fitzgerald, Calleo Indigenous Community Fund, CSW Fellow 2026

I am a woman of sovereignty from wild, unique waterways, vast plains, and incredible starry skies, carrying generations of women within me from Aboriginal and Maltese bloodlines. I stand, I scream, and I protect with my fist in the air for my family, my people and the land. With that, I tend not have a seat at the table to grow in spaces of policy and leadership.

I am not afraid to speak facts, truth, and to challenge systems that were not created from the voices of those who were here first. I understand the responsibility, emotional labour, and strength required to walk in two worlds, and I bring this awareness into my leadership, mentoring, and now into my policy work.

I have dedicated my working life to advancing outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and will continue to do so with passion, accountability, and respect, continuing to break down barriers for our women and children whom we have lost. 

I have been labelled an “angry woman” because I speak differently, because my face carries the features of my matriarchs, and because my voice is shaped by lived experience and survival in all its forms.

The day I found out I had been selected as a next Fellow with Global Voices, I was sitting at my desk when the email appeared on my screen. I went to the bathroom and looked at myself in the mirror. For me, this was always personal. I could hear the voices of the women who came before me and see the strong woman who raised me. In that moment, I knew a journey had been created, and that I would finally be invited into spaces where I am truly seen. I am not perfect, and I believe life holds many lessons. To have this opportunity to learn in different ways through policy writing and by sitting in rooms with people of diverse lived experiences is something I do not take for granted. I knew when I applied that this would be challenging and different to  the way I operate, speak, and show up.

People may see fire in my eyes, but I see advocacy and strength, because that is what I know. Global Voices being a non-advocacy organisation has been a lesson I needed so that I can  continue creating open doors for my people to walk through, with strategy, intention, and purpose. Through this journey, I have learned the language of policy, how to translate lived experience into evidence, structure recommendations, and engage with systems in ways that influence change while remaining grounded in community, truth, and accountability.

I am currently writing a policy proposal for Australia from the voice of lived experience. I was a young carer for my brother, a child and adult survivor of sexual abuse, a survivor of domestic violence, and I come from generations shaped by intergenerational trauma. I do not yet hold a formal educational degree, and I am not in a high leadership position yet, but I am forever a survivor and a Global Voices Fellow. With the support of Calleo, I have been able to walk a journey into policy spaces that were never designed for voices like mine. I have been given the opportunity to learn, contribute, and grow in ways I never imagined possible, and for that I will be forever grateful. 

If I can survive all that I have lived through, with my family as my backbone, then there is no doubt that I will deliver a policy proposal for Australia. In addition to this, I will undertake a degree in Law and Social Sciences, and one day I will hold a leadership role with the same fist in the air standing strong in who I am and where I come from. I will return to the United Nations, and I will never question this new direction. This path is clear to me, grounded in purpose, resilience, and responsibility to my people and future generations of leadership to come.

I hope that on my journey, I make my young self, my family and my people proud. I know I am not alone in this work. I am one of many, and it is an honour to stand and contribute in this way. 

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The views and opinions expressed by Global Voices Fellows do not necessarily reflect those of the organisation or its staff.