Focused on celebrating Old Grammarians 40 years old and under, the Emily Hensley Award gives our community the opportunity to share and celebrate the achievements of their peers and inspire the next generation of Grammarians to pursue their passions and reach their full potential.
The School, in partnership with the Old Grammarians Society, presents the Emily Hensley Award each year to a nominated Old Grammarian. The recipient must demonstrate a commitment to the School values, dedication to their field of endeavour and a contribution to the wider community through engagement. After receiving and reviewing many nominations, we are delighted to announce that Ginger Ridgeway (2006) has been selected as the 2023 Emily Hensley Award recipient.
Please join us in congratulating her. Read more about Ginger’s achievements below.
Ginger ridgeway
2023 EMILY HENSLEY AWARD RECIPIENT
Ginger Ridgeway (2006) is awarded the 2023 Emily Hensley Award in recognition of her outstanding contribution and commitment towards advancing social justice, law reform and self-determination for First Nations Peoples in Australia, and in her demonstration of the MGGS values – integrity, compassion, courage and self-discipline.
Ginger has always had immense drive and a burning passion for improving social and criminal justice among communities experiencing systemic disadvantage. When she was a student at Merton Hall, Ginger built a case for a school fundraiser to support Whitelion, a Victorian charity helping young people in difficult circumstances. Ginger’s nominated charity was supported by the School Executive Council (SEC) and the parent community; the outcome was more than $8,000 donated to Whitelion and public recognition for the School.
Ginger completed Year 12 at Melbourne Girls Grammar with an impressive ENTER score of 98.90, which equipped her well for the challenging direction she would later choose as her career. She completed a Masters of Public and International Law from the University of Melbourne, where she specialised in comparative First Nations collective self-governance, public law and human rights law. She also holds a Bachelor of Arts (Criminology and History) from the University of Melbourne, focusing on Australian history, public policymaking as well as Indigenous communities’ experiences with criminal justice systems, over-policing and over-incarceration.
Ginger first commenced work on the Treaty process in Victoria in April 2017.
She has had the privilege of contributing to the Treaty process through distinct phases and milestones. First, building the case for Treaty from within government, writing early Cabinet Submissions at the Department of Premier and Cabinet; then conceptualising state-based Treaty-making and establishing the Aboriginal Representative Body through the Victorian Treaty Advancement Commission (VTAC) with Commissioner Jill Gallagher AO; and more recently supporting the elected Members of the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria. The Assembly is the democratically elected body representing the rights and interests of Traditional Owners and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the Treaty process. She has contributed to the design and operationalisation of the Assembly as well as the standing up of a truth and justice body, the Yoorrook Justice Commission, and the crafting of the Treaty elements: a Treaty Negotiation Framework, Treaty Authority, and Self-Determination Fund.
Ginger is currently the Strategic Adviser to Assembly Co-Chairs Ngarra Murray and Rueben Berg, and was previously Strategic Adviser to the inaugural Co-Chairs Aunty Geraldine Atkinson and Marcus Stewart.
For the past twelve years Ginger has worked in policy, strategy, research and advocacy. She honed her knowledge of international treaty instruments at the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), in Geneva, Switzerland. There, Ginger undertook legal research, analysis and stakeholder engagement for the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) and the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) during respective sessions to determine member countries’ adherence to and violation of international human rights.
Prior to this, Ginger worked in policy and advocacy for the Aboriginal Family Violence Prevention and Legal Service Victoria (now known as Djirra), to improve outcomes for Aboriginal victims and survivors of family violence and sexual assault.
Integrity
Integrity is one of Ginger’s core values. Her strong commitment to influencing social justice outcomes is the common thread across all aspects of her professional and personal life. Ginger is particularly interested in the way that integrity is structurally manifested in our society through the sound operations of public institutions and organisations. In this vein, she likes to work on projects that build integrity and good governance, and strive to correct historic wrongs. She consciously chooses to work for values-driven organisations and seeks to use her skills to strengthen their effectiveness.
Ginger was fortunate to be part of the close-knit team of the Victorian Treaty Advancement Commission, establishing the First People’s Assembly of Victoria. She has contributed to standing up the Assembly through working the the enrolment and voting periods of the historic statewide elections, operationalising the election rules and the Assembly’s Constitution, engaging with Aboriginal Communities across the state, and acquitting corporate, legal, financial and legislative requirements. Ginger has enjoyed criss-crossing the state from Kerang, Lake Tyers, Robinvale, Heywood, Echuca, Seymour, Mildura, Horsham, across Melbourne and more, to maximise in-person participation for Aboriginal Communities and ensure that no one is left behind.
Aboriginal cultural perspectives and ways of doing business benefit the entire Treaty process immensely – for example, the membership of the Assembly is inclusive, transparent and collectively-determined; it has mandated gender balance at each level including in its leadership; and it prioritises the inalienable rights of Traditional Owners, plus the wisdom of Elders and the energy of Youth. These design principles imbue the entire Treaty process with integrity at a structural level not only at the individual level of employees.
Self-discipline
Ginger has demonstrated a sustained dedication to excellence and hard work throughout her career. Ginger’s self-discipline has always been in service of things that she believes in. At School, she achieved her Year 12 results by taking subjects she genuinely loved to explore – including Literature, History, English, Legal Studies – and giving it her all.
Ginger recognises that policy changes affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and their self-determined decision-making are a long game. This demands resilience in the face of setbacks and it requires her to bring constant energy to this area. Working in this space requires her to be reliable, trustworthy, and constant, because the broader environment is characterised by the sharp intervals of election cycles and shallow media headlines.
In 2013, whilst working full-time, Ginger returned to the University of Melbourne, studying a Masters of Public and International Law to ensure that her policy decisions and advice are informed by a sophisticated understanding of domestic and international legal frameworks. She finalised her course with an in-depth academic examination of how Australian federalism may mature to facilitate Aboriginal rights to self-governance.
Courage
Ginger works primarily on First Nations issues, which requires her to courageously and respectfully engage with stakeholders to drive meaningful social change. She is determined to advocate for, and support self-determination of, First Nations peoples in Australia through Treaty processes. It takes courage not to accept the status quo – but arguably more to apply oneself to redesigning it. The political environment for Aboriginal Communities is complex, and there are different considerations from Swan Hill to Gippsland to Ballarat to Shepparton. Ginger’s work also requires comfort and expertise in navigating mainstream politics at the local, state and federal levels.
In 2022 and 2023, Ginger was actively involved in supporting the campaign for an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to Federal Parliament. She gave every moment possible to assisting First Nations leaders to engage in dialogue with the general public. Her work spanned phone-banking, speechwriting, policy briefings, supporting television and radio and print interviews, sourcing guest speakers and volunteering for the YES campaign at voting locations. Despite the Voice Referendum being unsuccessful, Ginger firmly maintains that the way forward is through localised state- and territory- based Treaty and Truth processes which raise awareness about the continuing harms of colonisation and enable collective self-determination.
Ginger has held a wide variety of roles to achieve her goal of contributing to First Nations collective self-governance. Her flexibility and overall approach that ‘no job is too big or too small’ has seen her dive into many areas and has required her to believe in her abilities to continue to deliver for the cause she believes in. Her courage in the workplace has seen her successfully step up to leadership positions across policy and research, governance, community engagement, communications, procurement, as well as Aboriginal education and employment.
Compassion
Throughout her work Ginger has continually employed the softer skills of listening and supporting whilst working as an advisor. She has demonstrated how one can ‘lead from behind’ – by sharing her knowledge and enabling Aboriginal peoples to make their own informed decisions, in a legally, politically, and culturally complex space. Ginger demonstrates compassion by acting deferentially and dedicating her efforts to achieving the priorities that First Nations peoples have for Treaty.
Ginger is a passionate advocate for the Uluru Statement from the Heart and the value of learning more about First Nations people in this country – the oldest living culture in the world. Jill Gallagher AO, Gunditjmara woman, former Victorian Treaty Advancement Commissioner and current CEO of VACCHO, states that:
Actions speak louder than words, and Ginger has dedicated her day-to-day to further Voice, Treaty and Truth. I see that she is also trying to bring more people on board who do not yet know about the work that Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations do. Ginger is among those who have shown up as allies when we have needed it the most.
Ginger has also devoted considerable time to pro bono work. Whilst living in Perth, she volunteered her time to work on the feasibility of applying income contingent loans to fine default, in order to remove unnecessary and discriminatory instances of Aboriginal peoples being incarcerated in Western Australia due to unpaid fines. She also proudly volunteered with the Young UN Women Australia – Melbourne Chapter and the MGGS Merton Hall History Society. She has run awareness raising and fundraising events on topics of gender equality, human trafficking, the Australian gender pay gap and women’s rights in the Pacific.
This year marks the seventh successful year of the Emily Hensley Award. The award program provides a unique opportunity to look back at the wonderful diversity of achievements and personal strengths that students of Melbourne Girls Grammar go on to demonstrate in their professional lives. The Award has recognised achievement in the areas of Engineering, Public Health, Nutrition, Agri-Science, Medicine and the Performing Arts. The awarding of this year’s Emily Hensley Award to Ginger Ridgeway continues to demonstrate the potential of the School as a springboard that inspires ethical women of action.
We are looking forward to welcoming Ginger to speak at our International Women’s Day Luncheon at the Lyceum Club in Melbourne in March.