She represented Australia for 13 years in sports, competing at two Olympics, four World Championships, three Champion’s Trophy’s and the Commonwealth Games.
On 22 January 2013 the Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced she would invite Nova to join the Australian Labor Party and stand as a candidate for the Senate in the Northern Territory at the 2013 election. On 29 January 2013 her preselection was endorsed by the ALP executive 19 votes to 2, meaning her name was placed first on the ALP’s Senate ticket in the Northern Territory, supporting the likelihood that she would become Australia’s first female Aboriginal federal parliamentarian.
On 7 September 2013 Nova became Australia’s first Aboriginal woman elected to federal parliament. She was sworn into parliament on 12 November, and noted the apology to the stolen generation in her maiden speech.
Nova is a passionate campaigner for Aboriginal rights and reconciliation in Australia. She has also actively campaigned on issues of mental and physical health, Racism, No Nuclear Waste Dump at Muckaty Station NT, Free the Aboriginal Flag Campaign, Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, Treaty, Djab Wurrung Save the Trees campaign and many more.
Drawing from her unique experiences in sport, government and as a leader within Australia’s Aboriginal community, Nova effortlessly tailors her keynote presentations to inspire audiences from diverse ages, backgrounds and sectors. She takes the audience on a journey of her confronting family history speaking about Stolen Generations, her early childhood growing up in a housing commission with her sister and their single Mum, her memories of Cyclone Tracy and her sporting prowess in Darwin leading her to a life shunned into the Australian and International spotlight. She talks with immense pride of her three children, her trailblazing leap into Federal Politics as well as all the things she’s done post politics and what she has in store next in her incredible life!
