Receiving a call from the Governor General's office and learning of being appointed a Member of the Order of Australia, it initially took Dr Aunty Caroline Hughes AM by surprise, as she was unaware of the nomination.

"I was really honoured to be nominated and I asked who nominated me so I could thank them, but they wouldn't tell me," she said.

When considering her acceptance of the nomination, Dr Hughes AM said she spent some time deliberating her response.

"I had to think about it, because being Ngunnawal, we haven't let go of our sovereignty. We are still the sovereign traditional custodians of our country and that's the same all over Australia. To receive an honour from the King of England… I wondered if this was something that I wanted to be associated with," she said.

Unable to speak to anyone about the nomination due to the embargoed nature of the award, she only confided in her husband whose advice at the time was "Just because you accept it, doesn't mean you are going to get it, but if you do get it, imagine what that could do for your community, for your people".

Individuals are appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for service in a particular locality or field of activity or to a particular group, who have demonstrated outstanding service or exceptional achievement.

The award has helped Dr Hughes AM realise just how many people she has helped throughout her career in education, which has been in the thousands.

"It's not a 9-5 thing, it's 24/7, 365 days of the year and it's not just education there's a whole suite, whether its child protection, social justice or community development" she said.

Once Dr Hughes AM accepted the nomination and was subsequently advised of her success, she was humbled.

"Seeing how many women and how many First Nations women were on that list this year, I felt really incredibly honoured to be alongside these wonderful and amazing people." she said.

On top of her work with community, languages and her senior executive role with the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, in her thirty-year career Dr Hughes AM has been involved with thirty boards, some of which have included; homelessness, child protection, health, Ngunnawal Bush Healing Farm, education, public and catholic schools and cultural heritage.

Dr Hughes AM has also been heavily involved in the revitalisation of the Ngunnawal language, having done this through the Ngunnawal Language Group which consists of a team of volunteers. She advised that the group have recently received funding to run Ngunnawal language workshops and training Ngunnawal people in their language, so they can be facilitators and the group are encouraging people to reach out, connect and express interest.

"There's a huge demand out there for our language and ours is very unique" she said, before explaining the Australian Capital Territory is an island on Ngunnawal Country.

"There is Wiradjuri language which is the 8th 10th cousin on the language tree and then we have Ngarigo, Yuin, Gundungurra and Dharawal, who our sister languages."

"We are wanting to see stronger partnerships with the language groups that are around us. We will be running more workshops for Ngunnawal people and also for other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living on our country and will be taking it into schools, police force and workplaces," Dr Hughes said.

Dr Hughes AM said that the award "Is a positive recognition not just for me, but for my community, this is for my Ngunnawal community, because we do so much as a community that is often unseen or unrecognised."

"I want to really encourage people out there to nominate our people. All First Nations people should be looking at each other with pride and thinking, what can I nominate you for. Because we need to shine, we need to see our people shining and the success of our people.

"There's the wonderful NAIDOC Awards, but there are also other awards in other categories throughout different areas all year and we need to nominate people for those and we need to ensure that the tall poppy syndrome doesn't pull our people down."

With regard to her role at AIATSIS Dr Hughes AM shared "I'm working in a wonderful organisation that is committed to telling the stories of our people, not just here in Australia but also internationally".

"We have a strong commitment to our communities across Australia in caring for our collections, but also in sharing those stories."

Other well-known recipients of the Order of Australia include; Archie Roach, Jonathon Thurston, Ken Wyatt, Mick Dodson, Pat Dudgeon, Marcia Langton and Russell Taylor.