 As an Aboriginal woman who's lived in Canberra and Sydney in cities all my life, I was motivated to pursue a PhD around Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander belonging in urban spaces. I'm also interested in how Indigenous people in Canberra are taking back spaces where they can belong. ANU is a great place to be having these conversations because we have so many amazing visiting academics not just from Australia but from around the world. Doing a PhD can be really tough on a day-to-day basis. I think what keeps me going is looking to the future and having hope about how things could be changing. I'm also motivated by just and inspired by the people around me. The community here at ANU is really important for me being able to stay here as a post grad. Academia has been a really useful tool for me in terms of being able to articulate my understanding of how I exist in the world. Well I think it's really important that Indigenous people are in these spaces in Indigenous studies because for so long we've been misrepresented in this arena. Research can be a powerful tool in taking that story back and getting a voice out there. Long term I'd like to be an academic. I'd love to teach and work on my own research projects and I'd really like to be a part of the future of Indigenous studies here at ANU.