Pathway to Politics Program is creating the next generation of advocates and community champions

“Where does Mij belong?” Multi-award-winning 25-year-old community stalwart Mijica Lus first had to reckon with this question when she found herself stateless when she was five years old.

“People got confused about my citizenship. ‘Where does Mij belong? Does she belong in Papua New Guinea or Australia?'” the three-time Canberra community service award winner remembers people asking. Mijica was born in Canberra to Papua New Guinean parents but discovered she had no citizenship when she moved to PNG on the cusp of beginning primary school.

“My parents had to write a letter to the High Commissioner of Papua New Guinea to say that she’s actually Papua New Guinean,” Mijica says.

“They were my first examples of advocacy, them being able to advocate that I deserved the right to have a citizenship somewhere.”

Nearly two decades later, Mijica is back in the capital and on the path to becoming an advocate herself, especially for those in Canberra’s migrant and refugee communities.

“I came for one purpose only and that was to study and have a better life. I came as a migrant, and I was the first girl in my family to graduate with a Bachelor’s degree,” she says.

Mijica says few women in her family had the opportunity to access education, “so it was a really big deal for a girl in our family to finish uni.”

Mijica resolved to “invest 100 per cent” in the community and became a prolific volunteer, earning her the 2023 ACT Multicultural Individual Champion title.

She has also been named 2023 ABC Canberra Community Spirit Youth Champion and 2022 Young Canberra Citizen of the Year (individual community service).

But Mijica says her “childhood dream” of making it in Canberra has taken her down an unexpected path.

“Getting involved in my community really encouraged me to learn more about the people in Canberra,” Mijica explains.

“The more I got time to actually sit down and listen to their stories, it started making me think a lot about the different needs that we have in our community.

“So when the opportunity came to do Pathways to Politics, for me, it was really more about learning how I can advocate for people in my community in Canberra.”

The Pathways to Politics Program for Women is a national, non-partisan training initiative that seeks to address the underrepresentation of women in Australian politics.

Mijica says her views of leadership growing up were strongly influenced by the politics of Papua New Guinea, where the national parliament has only had nine women since the country’s independence in 1975.

“It was always a man in the seat,” she explains.

“Like a lot of women, we just considered the homemaker role, which was what I saw in my own family as well.”

After completing the program, Mijica urges other migrant women to apply and hopes to one day run for political office herself.

“I want to encourage migrants that have chosen Canberra to be their home to be open and start learning as much as you can about your community,” she says.

“It might definitely feel very uncomfortable, but I think it’s time now that we start building those bridges of understanding and relationships with our communities.

“That means learning about the Australian culture, as well as providing the opportunity for Australians to learn about different cultures … for me, that’s reconciliation in action.”

Pathways to Politics is a free, non-partisan initiative hosted by six universities around Australia. UC’s program is open to NSW and ACT residents.