Celebrating South-East Queensland’s Emerging Leader at NAIDOC 2024

In life, for a thousand varied reasons from
upbringing to education, social status and finances, there are things you just
don’t expect to happen and then there are the
surprises, things that through determination or
perhaps even luck, which change your life and
influence others.
This year, the big surprise for twenty three-
year-old Tannille Law-Douglas was the
announcement of her selection as South-East
Queensland’s Emerging Leader at the 2024
Brisbane NAIDOC awards. For Tannille, this
recognition is not expected and yet at the same
time, she has always worked towards it.
Tannille received the honour in recognition
of her work as the Indigenous Community
Engagement Officer at Ipswich Flexible
School. The school is part of EREA’s network
of alternative education schools which
support students who have disengaged with
mainstream schooling, through providing
more collaborative, flexible approaches to
teaching and education.
For the past three years, Tannille, the great
granddaughter of Eva Coolwell descended
from the Mununjali (Beaudesert) mob, has
dedicated herself to empowering First Nations
young people, building relationships with
Elders and support agencies, and educating
the school community on their path to reconciliation. She is much loved among
students and staff for her passion, humility and
determination to bring the best out of the next
generation.
At the time, the Logan Local, completed
much of her education at the Murri School,
however she did spend a couple of her high
school years in the mainstream system, which
was unable to empathize with her situation.
“The saw me as the problem -for being late,
for my absences.”
But, she said, it was often because of family
reasons way beyond her control, such as having
to babysit or travelling time and distance, that
were behind these instances.
“Mum didn’t have a car,” she said.
Nevertheless, Tannille was able to keep up
her education by changing back to the Murri
school.
“I felt culturally safe there,” she said.
Tannille felt pregnant in year 12, but with
support she graduated from Grade 12 and her
first child was born the following January.
She said her graduation was something of a
milestone for the family, as she was the first to
attain this qualification.
Recently, Tannille purchased a new car and
received much the same response as when she
graduated.
Basically: “People like us don’t get to do
that.”
Yet, these things have happened to Tannille
and despite the odds, she has changed a presupposed
destiny.
She says she didn’t so much as have a role
model in her life – as have people she didn’t
want to be like.
Now, she’s driven to ensure a better life for
her own family.
“I want people to know that your
background doesn’t define you, there’s no
clear-cut path into life,” she said.
From starting her role as a casual Tannille
is now on her way to undertake leadership
training in Melbourne where she will
become the school’s first ToP (Technology of
Participation) Facilitator, which encourages
participation in education.