Aunty Faye Carr, a Yuggera Elder from Ipswich in Queensland, has been working hard to help her local community for over fifty years and after being named Ipswich Citizen of the Year in 2016, Aunty Faye has been honoured as the 2017 National NAIDOC Female Elder of the Year.

Aunty Faye started her advocacy career when she was young, working to better the lives of the Ipswich Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community.

She has been involved in the creation and running of a range of community organisations, including the Brisbane Aboriginal Legal Service, now known as the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Service (Qld) Ltd (ATSILS), which provides legal services throughout Queensland; the Kambu Progress Association that  delivers housing and sporting services to the Ipswich community and the Kambu Aboriginal and Islander Health Service, which delivers a range of primary health services in Ipswich and the surrounding area.

Such has been Aunty Faye’s contribution to Ipswich that when the town awarded her its Citizen of the Year, they recognised her contribution to the entire community.

In naming Aunty Faye the Female Elder of the Year, the NAIDOC committee recognised that she is a strong, wise Elder, advocate and leader in her community and that she exemplifies the values important to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Aunty Faye has no plans to slow down; she recently met with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to campaign on behalf of women and raising awareness about the impacts of domestic violence on women and families.