Ms Peris is one of a select group of athletes to have competed at Olympic level in more than one sport. 

She became the first Indigenous Australian to win an Olympic gold medal when she played in the victorious Australian women’s hockey team in Atlanta in 1996.

She then turned her attention to the track, reaching the semi-finals in athletics at the Sydney Olympics in 2000. 

Ms Peris went on to make history and break the glass ceiling in politics by becoming the first Aboriginal woman elected to federal parliament.

At an Aboriginal health conference in Ballarat, Ms Peris shared her story with the intention to inspire and motivate the younger generations.

Under the theme of ‘because of her, we can’, she spoke of how the matriarchs of her family – her mother and nana – played a pivotal role in her successes. 

The conference, run by the University of Melbourne’s department of rural health and the Western Victoria Primary Health Network, included insights from health experts across Australia on topics including cultural awareness, cutting-edge programs, research findings and effective partnerships. 

Ms Peris, who is a national patron of the Australian Indigenous Doctors’ Association, wanted to emphasise health was not just about the physical.

“You can’t be active in sport and recreation if you don’t have good health, the two go hand in hand,” she said.

“Health is not just the modern medicine. Us as Aboriginal people, it’s a spiritual health. If your spirit is not good, the rest of it doesn’t take care of itself.”

While working for the federal government, Ms Peris spent two years on the road encouraging Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to use health services and have health checks. 

“It was basically informing them you don’t have to be sick to go to a clinic,” she said.

“We as Aboriginal people, our longevity in life is cut short by almost a decade compared to the non-Indigenous population.

“But also we suffer from chronic diseases more than any other Australian and chronic diseases are all curable and all preventable if diagnosed early.

“We came across about 35,000 kids that came in and had their health checks and sadly almost 60 per cent of those kids were diagnosed with something on the spot.”

Ms Peris said working at a grassroots level was uplifting and believed that inspiration worked both ways.

“It’s not just the community drawing inspiration from someone like myself, who has travelled the world and done a lot of things on the international sporting stage,” she said.

“I draw my strength from the everyday hero in the community. We have our community champions and without lifting them up society would fall over.”

Other keynote speakers at the conference included University of Canberra chancellor and Aboriginal Elder Tom Calma, a driving force behind the Close the Gap campaign, and Kerry Arabena, chair for Indigenous Health and director of the Indigenous Health Equity unit.