Lidia Thorpe is a Gunnai, Gunditjmara and Djab Wurrung mother, grandmother, and advocate for First Peoples. She is an Independent Senator for Victoria and represents the Blak Sovereign Movement. She was the First Victorian Aboriginal person to be elected to the Federal Senate.
Lidia carries on the legacy of her family, who are proud working class activists and organisers. Growing up in Melbourne’s inner north public housing flats, Lidia was raised to advocate for herself and those around her. After surviving domestic violence, Lidia raised three kids as a single mum and went on to university to study public policy. This equipped her to advocate for First Peoples, women’s rights, public health, environmental protection, public housing and the protection of children. Lidia is a devoted campaigner for social and environmental justice, and she is a sought-after facilitator, public speaker and commentator.
In 2017, she was the first Aboriginal woman elected to the Victorian parliament. As the Victorian Greens MP for Northcote, she held several portfolios including Aboriginal affairs, mental health, consumer affairs and sport. In 2020 Lidia was chosen to replace Richard Di Natale in the Senate and was sworn in holding a message stick burned with 441 marks, one for each death in custody since the handing down of the findings of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody in 1991. As she entered the chamber to be sworn in, she held her fist above her in a gesture of strength and solidarity with First Peoples.
In 2023 she left the Greens to sit on the crossbench as an Independent Senator and represents the Blak Sovereign Movement.