Ella Te Waka

Speaker

Melbourne City Mission

Ella Te Waka is a proud descendant of the Gooreng Gooreng, Ngā Rauru and Ngāti Ruanui Nations and an advocate dedicated to improving outcomes for young people experiencing family violence and homelessness. Through her work with the Lived Experience and Participation Team at Melbourne City Mission, she contributes to advocacy, policy reform and systems change initiatives grounded in self-determination and lived experience leadership. As a youth advocate with the Home Time Campaign, Ella has worked to elevate the voices of young people and influence solutions to youth homelessness and housing insecurity across Australia.

Alongside her advocacy work, Ella works in Communications at Children's Ground, a First Nations-led organisation that centres Apmere-ngentyele ("from the land") in all aspects of its work, supporting community-led approaches that strengthen culture, wellbeing and self-determination.