Lesley Richardson

For more than 20 years, Lesley Richardson has dedicated herself to closing the gap for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. When you speak to her about this enduring belief in building a brighter future—it comes across as both pragmatic and inevitable. It is also born out of her hard-won lived experiences, as a child of The Stolen Generation and devoted public servant. She embodies the maxim on empathy, about walking a mile in someone else’s shoes.

“I’ve faced a lot of adversity in my life. My decision to go to Griffith University was to assist troubled young people and secure my future and financial independence, for myself and my daughter. I needed to go to university to be able to get the career I wanted,” she said.

Lesley’s realisation started in the classroom as an Aboriginal teacher aide. Doing everything she could for struggling kids within the school gates, she couldn’t influence their home lives. After a while, even her constant encouragement started to feel off.

“I’d talk to the kids about doing the hard work to reach their full potential and then I thought, hang on a minute—I’m a hypocrite. I haven’t done that for myself.”

Despite this tough self-reflection, Lesley wasn’t coasting through any easy existence, if anything she was making the best of being a single mother and recent survivor of domestic violence.

Even on paper, going to university as a first-in-family mature student would be challenging. What Lesley found was the invaluable support of her lecturers and GUMURRII staff—from a kind word, to finding resources for her to use, like a computer.

“I was one of those people who thought that there was no way I could do it. It was too hard. But the support was incredible. I speak about my time at Griffith with such pride because of the help I received as a student.”

Studying the Bachelor of Human Services helped Lesley to understand Australia’s complex system and more importantly where she could make the biggest impact.

“I wanted to help people. I started off helping Aboriginal children, but I didn’t see myself becoming a teacher. It has become my career, supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people, parents, families, and communities to thrive.” She also had come full circle from being a child in care to working in child protection systems for over 20 years. Her first role in public services was in Education and that is where she is back today, trying to make a difference in getting children school-ready.

Lesley now works approximately 50 kilometres off the Northern Territory’s eastern coast on Groote Eylandt, as the Director of Connected Beginnings, an Australian Government early years program preparing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children for school. “We take a holistic approach, it’s about improving education, health, and developmental outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children whilst incorporating identity and culture at the forefront. It’s about putting the child at the centre and wrapping the right services around them,” she said.

According to Lesley, it’s also critical to get their parents engaged in accessing early childhood services from the beginning.

“If they do, then their children have better outcomes in the future and they will be better prepared for school.”

But historic inequalities also complicate service delivery on the front lines, with low literacy and numeracy rates being a major challenge for the local workforce. But by building up the capability of the workforce, Lesley and her team are making major gains in this area.

“It’s one of our recent success stories over the last 12 months, training up ten local Anindilyakwa women to be Aboriginal Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ-TRAK) trained practitioners. We’ve gone from being able to do just four screenings to now doing up to 79 over the past 12 months.”

The University of Melbourne developed ASQ-TRAK as a vital screening tool for observing and monitoring the developmental progress of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children over five domains – Gross Motor, Fine Motor, Communication, Problem Solving and Personal/Social, to highlight their strengths and to catch delays early on.

Lesley was also integral in re-establishing a quality preschool education program with the local school principal, where there was none for over two years. Now 18 students are going to preschool in Angurugu, and we are on target to close the gap of 95% of children attending preschool by 2025.

“It’s about investing in the early years and those first 1,000 days of life to give Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children the best start. It’s about prevention and early intervention to support families, rather than just taking the children away.”

Lesley’s advocacy extends beyond her day-to-day, as a member of several important national committees and advisory groups, including the Australian Government’s Department of Education Connected Beginnings Evaluation Working Group and the Aboriginal Steering Committee for the ASQ-Trak.

With all the impressive work that Lesley has done, it is her confident leadership and ability to work across sectors—across government that attracts people to her cause. She inspires others to do the incremental changes unceremoniously that cascade into revolution.

“Working as a public servant you get that mindset, the strategic vision of the organisation and how you can break it apart into the pieces you work on, and when joined together can make a change in social impact. It’s about investing long-term effort that goes into creating sustainable change by building up the community.”

When it comes to reflecting on her mission, there is an unmistakable feeling of coming full circle.

“Whatever I do in my work, it’s about ensuring that no matter where a child comes from, that they’re supported through life to reach their full potential.”