People

Dedja Billawook Batcho (dec)

Dedja Batcho sits crossed legged in the middle of the front row. She has paint on her chest and face. Her father stands on the far left in sarong and songkok.

Dedja is the great-grandmother of our CEO.

Dolly Gurinyi Batcho (dec)

Dolly Gurinyi is sisters with Dedja and is also great-grandmother to our CEO. Read more about Gurinyi here.

Leonard May

Leonard is a Kulumbirigin Danggalaba man who has spent the vast majority of his life dreaming and fighting for a better life for his family.

Leonard was a stay-at-home dad of his two daughters who are now adults. He has experience across many sectors: warehousing operations, early childhood education, middle school and high school education, that demonstrate Leonard's versatility and flexibility.

We value Leonard's connection to his land and community. He holds important cultural knowledge that is crucuial to understanding how First Nations law and protocol must be followed in order to get our people thriving again. As a passionate fighter for his country and community, Leonard's drive for teaching all generations about the history of Larrakia country is paramount to his current work.

Image of young woman (Mililma May) sitting crossed legged on a chair. she wears a long orange dress, blue head scarf and holds a piece of paper in both hands. she stares past the camera with slight smile.

Mililma May

Mililma May is a Kulumbirigin Danggalaba Tiwi woman living, working and learning on Kulumbirigin Country. Mililma is CEO and Co-Founder of Uprising of the People Ltd.

In 2018, Mililma was employed as a paralegal cadet at Gilbert + Tobin. In that role, Mililma learnt from the staunch women in the pro-bono team the importance of challenging the colonial system through clever articulation and comprehension of laws. Mililma sees this work as critical advocacy that influences genuine change. 

By 2019, Mililma was the inaugural recipient of the On Country joint cadetship between Gilbert + Tobin and North Australian Justice Agency (NAAJA). In this role, Mililma worked as a Community Legal Educator at NAAJA where she co-ordinated the legal education program ‘Legal Crew’ for young people in Don Dale Youth Detention Centre. In that role she was exposed to the determination and resilience of the young people who were facing notoriously punitive NT youth justice laws. This experience cemented in Mililma the need for alternatives of detention to be built in Darwin. 

Since 2021, Mililma has been working on consolidating Uprising of the People Limited. UP's work has followed on from generations of strong and resilient work from the Danggalaba Kulumbirigin people on Kulumbirigin Country.  Through her work at UP, Mililma is determined to see justice from within and between Tribes and Clans that will seep into the broader community. Mililma wants her people to determine their own dreams, futures and lives, so that First Nations peoples can live in joy rather than just survive. 

In her spare time, Mililma is a writer and poet. Through her works she an advocate for Rest as Resistance and has written pieces on the topic for Teh Cha Magazine and Indigenous X. 

To see more click here