Julie-Ann Guivarra (born in Cairns) is an Australian diplomat who was the first Indigenous person to serve as a senior executive in the Australian Foreign Ministry and the first Indigenous woman to represent Australia as an ambassador, serving as Ambassador to Spain from 2018 to 2020[1] with non-resident accreditation to Andorra and Equatorial Guinea.
[1] She held assistant secretary and director roles and served in Geneva as a counsellor at the World Trade Organization.
[3] She was posted to India and worked on trade policy in the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) negotiations.
[6][7] In March 2020, on International Women's Day, Foreign Affairs Minister and Minister for Women Marise Payne announced the appointed of Guivarra as Ambassador for Gender Equality,[4][3] the fourth person to hold the role after it was created in 2011.
[8] The purpose of the role is to ensure that gender equality and empowerment of women and girls is a "key focus of Australia’s diplomatic, development, and regional security efforts".