Sharon Atkinson-Firebrace is a Yorta Yorta woman. She studied business at TAFE before working as an accounting officer at the NSW Aboriginal Land Council and as a bookkeeper for a farming business. In 1998, she began working at First Nations Advantage Credit Union in Shepparton, Victoria, owned and operated by Aboriginal people. She was the first Indigenous Australian appointed to a managerial position at a credit union.
Penny Tweedie spent a year travelling around Australia in 2000 photographing and interviewing successful young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, which resulted in her 2001 book Indigenous Australia: Standing Strong. This image of Atkinson-Firebrace at work was taken as part of this project.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2004
© Estate of Penny Tweedie
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