How Michelle is breaking barriers to Close the Gap

Swinburne University of Technology alum Michelle Maxwell is a proud Koori woman who is working to close the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples’ education. 

Michelle’s own experience with education has taught her how vital it is for students to feel empowered, express their opinions and ask for support. “In high school, I was told I was stupid and wasn’t going to achieve anything,” she says. 

Refusing to allow the comments to define her, Michelle enrolled at Swinburne in her early twenties to attain her Diploma in Community Sector Management. As a young mother working full-time, Swinburne’s flexibility allowed her to study on weekends. “There was no other place that allowed me to work and be a mum at the same time,” she says. 

Once at university Michelle faced additional challenges due to her dyslexia, but her determination led her to discover alternative ways to succeed. “I love a good audiobook. I’ve got to use the tools around me.”  

Balancing raising her children and working to support her family, she found a goal that made higher education worth pursuing. “I wanted a career progression. I looked at where I was financially and knew I wasn’t happy. Money isn’t everything, but it does give your family choices. Having a history of stolen generation in our family, I’d like to create something for my kids to inherit other than trauma,” she says.

Now as the Principal Aboriginal Advisor for the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing, Michelle is dedicated to teaching government organisations about cultural safety and identification. Michelle consistently works to create spaces for students of diverse backgrounds, abilities and genders, providing the empowering school experience she was denied.

“We rely on education as a foundation in moving forward with our treaty process,” says Michelle. “We’re still working with old-school colonial structures that do nothing but set up barriers”. 

Working with Swinburne’s Moondani Toombadool Centre, Michelle now tutors Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, providing guidance and support to help them navigate their own educational journeys while fostering a strong sense of community and cultural connection. Established in 2018, the Moondani Toombadool Centre oversees all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander matters at Swinburne, including Indigenous student support and success services, teaching and learning, research, staff, culture, engagement and governance.  

Michelle continues to provide invaluable assistance to students across Australia, through tutoring and generating critical conversations about how to improve systems that currently limit students.

“It’s about making systems and structures that are accessible for the community that require them. What I would like to see in the future is more accessibility for people, more integration, more diversity. We all have something to offer,” she says.

“I want to encourage people that this is our space, we can write it.”