QATSIF Round 16 New Recipients and Student Leaders Celebration

Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Foundation (QATSIF) Co-Patron, Professor Cindy Shannon AM; Chair, Professor Keitha Dunstan and Board of Advice members past and present; Community Elders Uncle Dennis Bobongie, Uncle David Miller and Aunty Deb De Bree; Australian Catholic University Acting Campus Dean, Associate Professor Tracey Sanders and Executives; distinguished guests; student leaders and scholarship recipients; ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls.

I begin by acknowledging the Traditional Owners of the lands around Brisbane, the Turrbal and Jagera people, and pay my respects to Elders past, present and emerging, and all First Nations people here this morning.

I was delighted to accept the invitation from Professor Dunstan, on behalf of the Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Foundation, to join you for today’s celebration of the success of the Round 16 Scholarship students and student leaders.

This event is an important occasion for the students, their parents, and the teachers, support staff and community elders who have supported and encouraged them.

It also marks a significant anniversary for the Foundation – 15 years of making a difference to the education of Queensland’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students.

But it is also personally important to me because one of the key pledges I made when I was sworn in as Queensland’s Governor in 2021, was to promote the importance of education and literacy for Indigenous children and young people.

In fulfilling that promise over the past three years, my husband Graeme and I have visited Indigenous communities throughout the state.

We’ve been warmly welcomed in Weipa, Napranum, Mapoon, Aurukun, and Lockhart River in Cape Yorke, Hope Vale and Wujal Wujal near Cairns, Woorabinda in Central Queensland, and Cherbourg here in the South East, and every one of those nine visits has given us invaluable insights and deepened our understanding of the challenges confronted by young Indigenous people in completing their secondary education.

It's a challenge that the Foundation has met with exceptional commitment, expanding far beyond the hope of its founders in 2010.

Today, some 4,300 Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in Year 11 and 12 receive support and over 400 Queensland secondary schools are involved in the program.

Collectively, those schools have now administered Foundation scholarships to over 21,300 students, and around nine per cent of Queensland’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population has received a Scholarship through the Foundation.

That is a truly remarkable achievement, and I congratulate and thank everyone concerned, but today my congratulations go especially to the young women and men in Year 11 and 12 who have been awarded scholarships for 2025 or who have been elected to leadership positions in their schools.

To the Round 16 Foundation scholarship awardees, your selection recognises the vital role that education plays in building a foundation for satisfying and rewarding employment, and in creating opportunities for a better quality of life, not only for yourselves but for your families and for the generations that follow.

To the 2025 school leaders, you have been recognised by your teachers and peers as role models and mentors, and with that recognition comes the responsibility of doing all you can to promote the value and importance of education and encourage others to do as you have done: to dream big, empowering dreams and work hard to achieve the best results you can.

Congratulations again and my very best wishes to you all for your continued success.