First Nations financial counsellor Lynda Edwards has seen the financial literacy and community sector grow and change in immeasurable ways over the decades.
Edwards chatted with CHOICE ahead of NAIDOC Week from her home in Narromine, near Dubbo in New South Wales. She reflected on her experiences and the way the sector has evolved to put First Nations voices in charge of the conversation around their own financial needs.
We held our first meeting and it was a room of non-Indigenous people at the front talking about us
First Nations financial counsellor Lynda Edwards
"When I started the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Financial Literacy Network in around 2006, we held our first meeting and it was a room of non-Indigenous people at the front talking about us, and all us mob quietly up the back," she says.
"I was actually, like, 'No, we need to get a lot of these people out of the room'. Sometimes it needs to just be us mob in the room."
From NSW Police liaison officer to financial counsellor
Lynda Edwards
Lynda was born in Bourke, NSW and is Wangkumara on her father's side and Barkindji on her mother's. Her family moved around NSW a lot through her childhood, and she finished her HSC at an Aboriginal hostel in Newcastle. Lynda became a mother in her early twenties and worked for the NSW Police Force as one of the first Aboriginal liaison officers before relocating her family to Narromine and taking up a job as an administrative clerk for the local council.
She left the council around a decade later and landed a job helping people in financial hardship – something she says she was already doing for friends and family before making it a career.
"Assisting people with bills, helping them with budgets – it's something I was already doing, though of course it is different when you make it a job," she says.
At that time, there were not very many First Nations people within this sector
Financial counsellor Lynda Edwards
"At that time, there were not very many First Nations people within this sector and there were certainly not a lot of conversations around First Nations financial hardship or even financial literacy."
Lynda says the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Financial Literacy Network was a foundation on which to build understanding about the unique financial situations facing First Nations communities and the different approaches needed to address them.
The idea that there is one rule for all customers and all are the same shows no cultural competency or understanding
Financial counsellor Lynda Edwards
"When we started meeting together as a national group, we realised that there are just so many things that are just so wrong in terms of how financial services engage First Nations people. There were policies and processes that just really didn't fit," she says.
"The idea that there is one rule for all customers and all are the same shows no cultural competency or understanding. We know that it can't work because you have people that are extremely disadvantaged, extremely vulnerable, that have been excluded from financial systems since colonisation," she adds.
Financial literacy key to Closing the Gap
Lynda joined Financial Counselling Australia (FCA) full time in 2017 and says leading their work around the country on First Nations issues has been incredibly rewarding.
But, while she has seen some positive change in the attitudes of the financial services industry and relations with First Nations customers, she says other changes have been slow to arrive.
"Some services are trying – and trying to do well – while for others it is a box-ticking exercise," she says.
Lynda adds that there has been a groundswell of financial counsellors from First Nations backgrounds taking on the profession around the country and she hopes to see the trend continue.
My dream is for us to have our own peak body for First Nations financial literacy in this country, I think we need it
Financial counsellor Lynda Edwards
"Now, in 2025, we have around 40 qualified First Nations financial counsellors and another 40 or so financial capability workers. It is very good to see," she says.
"My dream is for us to have our own peak body for First Nations financial literacy in this country, I think we need it."
Lynda says financial literacy is key to many of the government's Closing The Gap targets and something that needs to be embedded and invested in around the country.
"Every other area that you have feeds into financial literacy. When you think about health, when you think about education, money plays an important role in access to those things too."
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