Noah Smith is a passionate advocate for Aboriginal issues not only among his peers. The 16-year-old is on a mission to share the knowledge of his culture with the Northern Beaches to build a strong and united community.
Noah Smith speaks loud and clear. His words are coloured by the passion of his 16 years of age, but have the strength of ancestral wisdom.
“My goal is to make sure that people learn more about Aboriginal culture. [To] create a level of awareness to close the gap and make our voices to be heard,” he says.
Noah is a Year 11 high school student from Bilgola Plateau. He is the NSW Youth Parliament Member for Pittwater and the Youth Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, and has received the Youth Parliamentarian of the Year award. He was also recently awarded Northern Beaches Young Citizen of the Year 2023.
Noah works at the Bush to Bowl program on the Northern Beaches, an Aboriginal-owned enterprise showcasing traditional foodways.
Actively participating in his community, he is also a member of the Bilgola Surf Life Saving Club (SLSC) and Council’s Youth Advisory Group, and one of the Student Council representatives at Barrenjoey High School.
Noah dedicates his time to sharing his knowledge to close the gap between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people in Australia, becoming a voice for his culture and the obstacles they continue to face. As a Gomeroi person, Noah knows first-hand what those challenges are.
“My personal experience with racism, it’s quite broad. It ranges from being called names at school, to being asked, ‘How much Aboriginal are you?’ Or ‘You are not Aboriginal’ for having a lighter colour of skin,” he explains.
“That is really dismissive and attempts to take away your connection to culture.”
Although these questions are hurtful, he knows they do not always come from a place of purposeful harm, but from a lack of knowledge.
“As much as you can try to ignore it, it’s still always hard to hear someone say, ‘You are not part of them’,” he says.
“People think we do it just for the free stuff from the government. But the government doesn’t give you free stuff because you’re Aboriginal. The reason there are more spaces and people are encouraging Aboriginal kids to go to universities is that Aboriginal males are more likely to go to jail than to go to university.”
Noah’s passion and advocacy are something that run in his family. His greatest motivation is to reconnect with his late father, who passed away when he was only nine years.
Bilgola Plateau local Noah Smith received the Young Citizen of the Year 2023 Award for the Northern Beaches.
“I feel every time I learn more about my culture, I get close to my dad. I know he is looking down on me and I’m sure he’d be proud of what I’m doing and what I’m learning about culture,” he says.
Noah says while the Aboriginal community on the Northern Beaches has created a space where they can connect, they need to share that with the rest of the community.
“There’s an Aboriginal support group in Pittwater that has been in operation for over four decades now.
“We’ve always had that level of awareness and connectivity with our community, so now we need to educate the non-Indigenous community about Indigenous issues and the challenges we are facing.”
Noah is very optimistic about the future, and he hopes the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice referendum, to be held later this year, will be another step to close the cultural gap.
“The future I see is hopefully where we can work together. Where we embed First Nations people and their knowledge in everything that we do, because we have so much to offer and so much to teach to build a stronger and more cohesive Australia.”