Jessica Ling is a qualified legal professional experienced in prosecuting native title claims in the Federal Court of Australia on behalf of traditional owners. Throughout her career, she has had extensive engagement with Indigenous clients providing technical advice at large claim group meetings and has gained exposure to difficulties faced by traditional owners in implementing good governance practices to effectively manage, and leverage, their native title rights and interests.

Jess also has international experience providing support to high-level governance functions of a multinational company and on the ‘Voice of Freedom’ project, telling the stories of Eritrean and Ethiopian migrants who were kidnapped and sold into slavery in the Sinai desert.

At AIGI, Jess leads the team reviewing and redeveloping the Indigenous Governance Toolkit and our partnership with the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research (CAEPR) at ANU, focusing on documenting and sharing stories of success in Indigenous governance for the broader network of Indigenous organisations to learn from.