Former young Australian of the Year Tania Major was given a life lesson the day she left her humble community of Kowanyama for boarding school.
Telling her where she "stood" in the scheme of things, her brother listed life's hierarchy.
"White man, white woman. Black man, black woman," he told her.
On Monday night the Kokoberra woman joined four prominent black women to shake up the status quo, in a discussion that tackled racism, sexism and violence against women, and paid homage to the Aboriginal female pioneers of Australia.
Hosted by Stan Grant and Catherine Liddle, the special edition of NITV's Awaken program, called Influencers and Game-changers, included retired magistrate Pat O'Shane, Director of Recognise Tanya Hosch, actor Shari Sebbens and young activist Amelia Telford.
The episode is among a spate of 'all-women' themed events in the month of International Women's Day. Among them, the ABC's Q and A featured an all-women panel at the beginning of March and replaced the ubiquitous Tony Jones with Annabel Crabb as host.
But viewers were quick to notice a gap in that Q and A panel, with the conversation failing to include an Australian Indigenous woman. And while many of the issues discussed were universal for women, Monday night's Awaken episode highlighted the difference in lived experience of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and girls.
Sharing stories of aunties and sisters, the women agreed it is often Aboriginal women who hold communities and families together, but the discussion revealed it is those women who are hit by the brunt of inequality.
Hosted by Stan Grant and Catherine Liddle the special edition of NITV’s Awaken program was called ‘Influencers and Game-changers'.
Tania Major asked how communities are going to train and educate Aboriginal women and men to think critically about the world when "programs are being cut left right and centre."
O'Shane, a Yalangi woman from the Kunjandji clan, said the violence of colonial settlers against black women is mirrored in the policy-making of "violent governments."
She lambasted recent comments made by Prime Minister Tony Abbott, saying "I have been subjected to abuse all of my life. It has never, ever stopped. And the worst abuse that I have suffered was what happened last week.
"I have been subjected to abuse all of my life. It has never, ever stopped. And the worst abuse that I have suffered was what happened last week.
"To be told that it is a lifestyle choice for our people to live in remote communities on land that is traditionally theirs. In fact the land owns them, body and soul."
The women also touched on disparities in principles with the feminist movements of the 1900s, with Tanya Hosch saying she was surprised to encounter "racist views among women who claimed to be feminists."
O'Shane agreed, saying she often had to "pull these women up about their racism," and that non-Indigneous women had to be "awakened" to the issues unique to black women.
But O’Shane says black women were never silenced.
"When you talk about women in the Indigenous political movement, I can't think of one, honestly, I can't think of one who was going to take a back seat," she said.
"We were never out of politics because it was literally the air we breathed, the land we walked."
"We were never out of politics because it was literally the air we breathed, the land we walked."
For the younger panelists, that political nature has manifested in different ways.
Ms Telford, a Bundjalung and South Sea Islander woman, says her first political act was petitioning to change the national anthem to "We Are One."
Today the young activist is head of the Indigenous arm of the Australian Youth Climate Coalition (AYCC), and wants to see Indigenous people leading the climate movement.
"As Indigenous people we're often hit first by a lot of social, environmental… a lot of issues," she said.
Sapphires star Shari Sebbens never accepted the sexism and racism rife in the acting industry, saying she entered from a very "empowered position."
"They [Indigenous acting roles] are not roles that are just the hot girlfriend or object. They're complex characters. And that's because Indigenous people are telling the story," she said.
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