PROSERPINE local and young Whitsunday resident of the year Keisha McEwan and Kalila Parter were among the 80 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women from across the continent who converged on Canberra for Oxfam Australia's week-long Straight Talk summit.

Ms McEwan said it was an "amazing” opportunity to learn more about the political process.

She also took the chance to bathe in the media spotlight and participated in an interview with ABC radio.

"With thanks to the Hon Julie Bishop MP, Senator Rachel Siewert and Senator Penny Wong who shared some very inspiring words on driving change and the importance of having strong women in leadership roles,” she said.

The Straight Talk summit is designed to strengthen the voices of community leaders on the issues important to their people.

In the nation's capital last week, delegates met female politicians to share their stories and learn from those trusted to lead our country.

Susan Lamb, member for Longman, said "it is our job in this place to ensure that amazing women like these become leaders of our country.”

Ms McEwan said on the first day of the summit, delegates met with federal politicians in a big group and she gained a real insight into what it was like to be a woman in politics.

Delegates then had a chance to meet with the first and second women to ever be elected to federal politics, Linda Burney and Nova Peris, which was a great honour, Ms McEwan said.

"On the second day of parliament, in smaller groups we met with two politicians and talked about our community's issues and how we are going to go forward and how we are going to address these issues,” she said.

"With Susan Lamb we talked about youth disengagement and the Drum Beat program in the wider community for adults from violence-affected backgrounds.”