Sharon is New Zealand Maori, and her tribal affiliations are Rongomaiwahine ki Kahungunu from Pakipaki, Hawkes Bay, NZ. She has been a member of Zonta for 18 years in New Zealand, the ACT and Victoria.
Sharon has comprehensive operational and strategic experience working in Human Services in the Government sector over a 25-year period in New Zealand, and in the ACT and Victoria.
From 2012 to 2015, Sharon gained 3 years of Non-Governmental Organization sector experience while living in Thailand, and attended a number of charity events hosted by several Zonta Clubs of Bangkok. Upon returning to live in Melbourne in 2015, Sharon joined the Zonta Club of Melbourne on Yarra and has chaired the Fundraising Committee for the past seven years. She has been responsible for delivering several innovative fundraising events to support club projects and awards.
In 2018, Sharon joined the Australian New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG) as a Senior Advisor, First Nations Program and Strategy. She led the development and delivery of the First Nations program to improve the leadership of the public service and create public value, improve outcomes for Indigenous communities across all Australian jurisdictions and Aotearoa New Zealand, and increase First Nations leadership in executive roles.
Her responsibilities include developing and delivering a number of First Nations Senior Public Sector Leader forums, conferences, workshops, tailored programs for government agencies, and providing cultural support and cultural capability-building advice across ANZSOG.
Sharon has also started to take her Zonta club on a journey to build their cultural awareness and confidence, and commit to the development and delivery of a First Nations Young Women’s Leadership Award in 2025.
Lois Peeler AM is of Yorta Yorta/Wiradjuri heritage by her mother and Wurundjeri/Yorta Yorta by her father. She grew up on her Mother’s country on the Murray River, the Barmah Forest and Cummeragunja Aboriginal Reserve.
Following in the footsteps of her parents and other family members, Lois has had a lifetime of involvement in Aboriginal community development. Her extensive experience in Aboriginal Affairs includes the community level as Assistant Director at the Aborigines Advancement League and at senior levels of State and Federal Governments in the Aboriginal Affairs arena.
Lois’ public career includes being the first Aboriginal fashion model. She also worked in television (GTV 9 Breakfast Session in the 60s). She was part of the group that toured Vietnam at the height of the Vietnam War that were the subjects of the hit play and then internationally acclaimed movie The Sapphires.
Lois entered the Victorian public service in the 80s as Aboriginal Liaison Officer of the Department of Conservation, Forests and Lands, where she managed the first Aboriginal Ranger Training Program and worked in the development of policy of acknowledgment of traditional owners across the landscape of Victoria’s public parks. In this role, Lois conducted Aboriginal cultural education for parks personnel. She later became manager of the Victorian Aboriginal Employment Unit within the Victorian Public Service Board.
Lois was Chair of the Binjirru Regional Council of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC). More recently she has held elected positions within the Department of Justice and Community Safety as Chair of the Eastern Metropolitan Regional Aboriginal Justice Advisory Committee (RAJAC) Koori Justice Caucus, the Victorian Aboriginal Justice Forum. She currently leads ‘Lotjpadhan’ an Aboriginal-led restorative practice program.
Lois co-authored the Yorta Yorta Language Heritage Program and authored the Aboriginal Oral History of the Flats of Mooroopna/Shepparton and was instrumental in the development of The Flats DVD.
In June 2014, Lois was made a Member (AM) in the General Division of the Order of Australia. The award was made for her "significant service to the Indigenous community as an educator, advocate and role model."
In 2017, she was Senior Victorian of the Year and in the same year she was awarded a Doctor of Social Science, Honoris Causa, by RMIT University. Six years later in 2023, she was awarded a Doctor of Education, Honoris Causa, by Latrobe University. After more than a decade as Principal/Executive Director of Worawa Aboriginal College, Lois retired from that role and currently holds the position of Elder in Residence at Worawa.
In early 2024, Lois’s exemplary contribution to education was rewarded when she was inducted into the Victorian Aboriginal Honour Roll.
Magistrate Falla is a proud Wotjobaluk/Wemba Wemba/Mutti Mutti woman born and raised in Melbourne.
In 2013, Her Honour became the first Indigenous Magistrate appointed in the state of Victoria. Magistrate Falla’s involvement with Koori Court began in 2001 when she was working in the legal policy unit of the Department of Justice to help establish the first Koori Court in Shepparton.
In October 2019, Magistrate Falla was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Deakin University in recognition of her career in law and her service to the community through the establishment of the first Koori Courts in Victoria.
In 2020, Magistrate Falla was appointed to the role of Supervising Magistrate for Koori Justice. As well as sitting in both Koori Court and Mainstream Court, Magistrate Falla works with other Supervising Magistrates and Heads of Division to supervise and support Koori programs at the Magistrates’ Court of Victoria.
Allira is a proud Yorta Yorta and Dja Dja Wurrung women living in Narrm (Melbourne)
Allira is an Engagement Project Officer for the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria (FPAV), the democratically elected body representing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the Treaty Process in Victoria.
From the age of 15, Allira has been sharing culture with her father, a renowned Yidaki (Didgeridoo) player, through Dja Dja Wurrung traditional dance.
She also started volunteering at Aboriginal Community Elders Services (ACES) helping with elders, and has maintained these contacts.
Upon finishing school at Ivanhoe Girls' Grammar School in 2018, Allira commenced work at the Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency (VACCA), as an Intake Worker for the Aboriginal Kinship Findings team.
Allira took up her current role at FPAV in 2020 and, as a traditional owner in Victoria, she is proud to be involved in the ground-breaking historical reform and ‘Truth-Telling’ process that the FPAV have embarked on.
This critical work will position Victoria to be one of the first jurisdictions to finalise their Treaty Framework for Indigenous peoples in Australia. Allira highly values her role, responsibility and the contribution she makes to this process.
Alana is an Aboriginal woman with connections to the Ngarrindjeri, Wotjobaluk and Gunditjmara peoples on her mother’s side.
She is the Deputy Head of Humanities at Ivanhoe Girls’ Grammar School, and has been a history teacher for six years, specialising in Australian history.
She studied a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Melbourne, where she discovered her passion for Australian history, and then completed the Master of Teaching (Secondary).
Alana loves teaching history because of the storytelling element – every class is an opportunity to engage students in the incredible stories of the past. She also values history because of the subject’s ability to improve students’ empathy for others and their critical thinking skills.
She has specialised in Australian history because she believes that an understanding of our country’s own history is so important for students to have when they leave school. To fully participate in Australia’s rich democracy, young people need the historical context and understanding to be truly informed citizens. Alana particularly enjoys teaching VCE Australian History at Units 3&4 level for this reason.
Alana also served as a Director of the Board of the History Teachers’ Association of Victoria (HTAV) for four years between 2020 and 2024.
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