The former Warrnambool resident has been chosen as an indigenous delegate to the 56th Session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women between February 27 and March 9.

Along with two other Australians, Ms Rawlings Hunter will attend the event aiming to achieve equal rights for women and men through developing policy recommendations for the international community.

The trainee lawyer at Maurice Blackburn, Australia’s second biggest plaintiff law firm, has a wide understanding of issues in rural and remote areas, growing up in the south-west and working with indigenous communities in Western Australia.

“In the lead up I’ll be doing more consulting with women from rural areas to represent their views of not just indigenous women but all across Australia,” she said.

“From a rural context there will be an important discussion of domestic violence, access to formal training opportunities and the provision of enhanced resources in health and education.

“I’m quite amazed to be accepted because it’s quite an exciting opportunity and there was quite a field of candidates to choose from.”

Ms Rawlings Hunter will contrast her experiences living in Warrnambool and the West Kimberley area when she attends the highest global forum on women’s issues.

“I feel I have a broad knowledge because I’m able to contrast rural and remote communities,” she said.

“I saw how the impact of isolation is more challenging in Broome in such a vast region.

“I’m looking forward to gaining a much broader perspective of women’s issues internationally, and to be able to share these with different groups I’m part of.”

After reporting back from UN to the Australian Government Office for Women, Ms Rawlings Hunter will take the experience home as the acting president of Tarwirri, the Indigenous Law Students and Lawyers Association of Victoria, and as a member of the Indigenous Human Rights Network Australia and the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Women’s Alliance.

The Minister for the Status of Women, Kate Ellis, congratulated Ms Rawlings Hunter on her appointment this week and said she would make a valuable contribution to the gathering.

“Next year’s theme for the (conference) will be the empowerment of rural women and their role in poverty and hunger eradication, development and current challenges,” she said.