Pushing for progress no matter how uncomfortable

"I'm now a mother myself, so I would like to continue this feeling of having a village to raise your children and having everyone interconnected," she said.

"I would love to see how cultural awareness adapts in all different spaces."

"It's progressing in the education sector, in my kids going to school and in Aboriginal studies, where it's just everyday practice."

The Wadawurrung woman grew up near Talbot and came into Ballarat to complete high school at Loreto.

"I lived out in the bush, in a mud brick house off the grid," she said.

"That's how I spent my childhood but I wouldn't have it any other way, it was really fun."

While at high school, Ms Johnson had her mind set on a pretty traditional education path.

She wanted to go to university and become a doctor.

"Then in year 12 I had a baby," she said.

"So all my plans got tipped on their head."

After high school Ms Johnson stepped into a full time role at Loreto, becoming its Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander liaison officer.

"I got to support [students] through school and watch them succeed in graduating," she said.

"[They] broke down the statistics and stereotypes that First Nations students don't finish high school."

In June 2022, Ms Johnson left Loreto and spent a year working on the 2026 Commonwealth Games.

She was putting together plans to ensure the Games' workforces, architects and community festivals included First Nations culture.

After the sudden cancellation of the games, Ms Johnson has started her own consulting business working in a similar role - this time for herself.

It might not have been the life she was imagining as a teenager, but Ms Johnson said she has fallen in love with her work.

She said she did not want the fact she did not go to university to "prevent her from doing something she was proud of".

"I think it was very much a priority of mine to go to university and I thought that was what being successful meant," she said.

Working in the reconciliation space has not been all smooth sailing.

"I definitely had misconceptions because when I first started in the space ... it was all really positive, we were ticking boxes," she said.

"[But] it shouldn't be comfortable and it shouldn't be that easy ... it really needs those hard conversations and people will feel uncomfortable at times."

Coming to terms with this different way to look at reconciliation is how Ms Johnson became the United Nations Youth Australia First Nations reconciliation chairperson.

"A couple of weeks after I started my consultancy business I saw the ad for the United Nations position and I thought why not?" she said.

Her application essay was about how "no one really likes the process of reconciliation" which Ms Johnson thought "was a bit out there".

"It's probably not what they wanted to hear, but it's the truth of some of this living and working in reconciliation," she said.

It ended up working and Ms Johnson started in the role at the end of 2023.

READ MORE: BALLARAT'S 40 UNDER 40

She is finding her feet but said she was looking forward to diving into the space in the new year.

"I can't remember having a United Nations Assembly member address the Australian public ever," she said.

"So a big priority of mine is to make myself known and approachable to the public."