BIANCA BOND was recently announced the young citizen of the year by the Sunshine Coast Regional Council. Bianca has demonstrated outstanding, positive leadership and shines in her roles as youth worker and organiser for Nambour High School’s Women’s Business workshop for indigenous women. In 2009 Bianca attended the Inaugural Indigenous Youth Parliament at Parliament House, Brisbane. She is also a member of the cultural board for the Noosa Biosphere and the Queensland Indigenous Youth Advisory Committee. The Hinterland Times interrupted Bianca’s busy schedule to find out what drives this amazing young woman.
“To be recognised by the Sunshine Coast Regional Council, and to be named as young citizen of the year is an honour.
“I suppose that for the next year I can set an example for other young people to start standing up and taking roles in our community. My role will be continuing to be a voice for young people and the Indigenous community of the traditional Gubbi Gubbi people. I will be involved in cultural discussion papers, sitting on the cultural board of the Noosa Biosphere, and be a voice there for the things I hear from other young people, for what needs to be happening here on the Sunshine Coast.
“I’m employed by an organisation called Interactive Community Planning where I develop programs, projects, events around employment and training, self determination and identity. I coordinate a young women’s business program at Nambour High School. I just connect with the young girls there and build a relationship with them and create a space and find comfort with that.
“As a young person I have faced a lot of hardships and obstacles and have been in some very dark places. I was in a head-on car collision in 2007 and doctors thought I would die, and certainly never walk again. That period of my life revealed what is important; that we have only one life and one time, and the time is now to start trying to create a future for my children and build a better community.
“I was brought up in contemporary times in a modern day Australia. So, I am walking in two worlds, having to have respect and stay connected to my traditional aboriginal heritage, but knowing that I live in modern times where things are very different.”
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