N'arwee't Carolyn Briggs

N’arweet Dr. Carolyn Briggs AM is a Boonwurrung senior elder from Victoria and is the chairperson and founder of the Boon Wurrung Foundation. A descendant of the First Peoples of Melbourne, the Yaluk-ut Weelam clan of the Boon Wurrung, N’arweet is the great-granddaughter of Louisa Briggs, a Boon Wurrung woman born near Melbourne in the 1830’s.

N’arweet is a language and linguistics expert and is dedicated to recording her Boonwurrung language in oral and written form. She has been active in community development, Native Title, cultural preservation and cultural promotion, and for many years she ran the Tjanabi restaurant in Melbourne, which specialised in contemporary Aboriginal cooking, promoted the Boonwurrung culture and became ‘the place to meet’ for Indigenous people. N’arweet established Australia’s first Aboriginal childcare centre and is CEO of the Boonwurrung Foundation, which she set up to help connect Aboriginal youth to their heritage. Her cultural knowledge and experience has been recognised by communities throughout Australia.