Gayle Kennedy – 2026 Ambassador – Auslan

My name is Gayle. 

I'm an Elder of the Wongaiibon clan of the Ngiyampaa speaking nation of New South Wales.

And I'm an Ambassador for International Day of People with Disability.

I'm a writer, public speaker, an advocate. I've been an actress.

I do have a wicked sense of humour, emphasis on wicked. [Laughs] 

I'm a polio survivor. I've lived with a disability basically since I was three. I was able to walk for many, many years until around about 2004.

You're not finished when you hit your 70s. Life just begins. So now I find myself really busy doing all sorts of things.

I do have an obligation as an Elder to speak out and affect change.

I don't want people to be inspired because I managed to get out of bed in the morning. 

I don't mind being inspiring if it's for a valid reason. If I inspire people to go out and advocate, get out there and start doing things, then I'm happy with that.

An act of advocacy can simply be noticing that the restaurant you're going to doesn't have a ramp, or they're using their disabled toilet as a storeroom and complaining about it. You're being an advocate and you're being an ally.

The disability is not so much within us, it's within the society that we live in. Society makes it a disabled environment. It doesn't have to be the way it is.

None of us should have to walk up the main street and want something in a shop and basically have to stand outside and yell out and wait for somebody to come.

You know, you don't have to make me feel comfortable. You just have to treat us as you would treat anybody else.

Come up and say, “G'day, how you going?” The more that we get to know each other as people, the more fairer and more equitable society we will start living in.