When someone asks me about my childhood or asks where I was born, I always answer with a simple “oh out bush”. Too ashamed to say I was born in Katherine, too ashamed to say I lived near Alice Springs. With the young people I now attend school with as well as teachers, when those two towns are mentioned negative thoughts instantly spiral through their minds. “Terrible kids there,” “all of those kids only care about themselves.” The way that the media has portrayed these two towns in the past 2 years has been poor, pessimistic and bleak. Yes, there are some issues surrounding crime, but you don’t see news headlines talking about the incredible young people coming from these towns who run their own businesses, are NT youth ambassadors and even hold their own state wide youth conferences. So with that, it’s time to change these stereotypes and the way the whole of Australia views the NT and it starts with young people. My name is Sophie Bedggood and this is my tightly packed story of becoming one of eight NT youth ambassadors and how I was able to put a spotlight on young people living rurally.

After a long selection process myself and seven other young people from across the NT were chosen to have the privilege of being selected as a 2023 NT youth ambassador. As a team it was our job to organise and deliver NT youth week with myself then being able to go on and be offered many other opportunities through my position. The events I also worked with included guest speaking at the 2023 Youth Conference talking about mental health, my story and living out bush, guest speaking at the 2023 NT young achiever awards as well as receiving an award, and being able to attend multiple events around the community.

Throughout NT youth week I was able to create multiple events for young people in rural communities so that they could engage with one another and be involved in their community. Knowing how hard it is to be able to be part of sporting groups, family fun days and events in general due to living out bush at a young age myself, it pushed me to help bring these amazing events to them.

It wasn’t until this experience of being an ambassador I was able to see how many amazing young leaders and people we have in the NT that the public have never heard of including myself. I was able to hear the stories of many people growing up in Alice Springs, working in the Barkly region and even from Gove and their ideas on NT youth. This group of young people want to make a difference, they want to make a change, and they have the ideas for all sorts of things. By bringing opportunities like Country to Canberra and NT youth ambassadors, we are able to help grow and improve both our future and others simply by listening to young people. I’m currently in the process of holding my own conference in Darwin for young people in agriculture. The conference will highlight mental health, guest speakers, careers in the industry and a lot more.

This is all happening because I had the chance to give an ambassador position a crack and it led me to wanting to make a change and help others whenever possible. I was able to openly speak my ideas in front of thousands of people and it helped my confidence in public speaking, pushed me to take new opportunities and helped shape who I am. Imagine how many ideas and amazing young people could be recognised if more programs like these two were Australia wide. I’d like to attend the Country to Canberra event to engage with other incredible like minded people, be able to enhance my leadership skills, spread my ideas for the NT and to simply be able to have a great time doing something I love.