Meet the Founder – Temple Williams

Temple is the founder of Walking With Wisdom, a grassroots initiative grounded in emotional strength, self-leadership, and deep spiritual insight. She is a proud Aboriginal woman from the Gumbaynggirr Nation (Macksville, NSW) and Anaiwan peoples within the Gamilaroi Nation (Tingha), now based on Worimi Country in Port Stephens, NSW.

With over 30 years in customer service roles—including work across corporate, government, and telecommunications sectors—Temple developed a deep understanding of people, how organisations function, and the emotional patterns that shape how we live and lead. Her work has always been guided by two enduring questions: 
“Why can’t anybody tell me how life works?” 
“Why do people do what they do?”

Temple’s career journey includes key roles at Telstra and Service NSW, where she built a reputation for collaboration, service excellence, and community engagement. Whether supporting Aboriginal businesses through state-wide programs or resolving infrastructure challenges through grassroots dialogue, her strength has always been her ability to listen deeply, connect genuinely, and lead with empathy.

Over the years, Temple has drawn wisdom from books, conversations, and lived experiences—but each insight ultimately helped her remember what she already knew deep within. This inner knowing became the foundation of her work: creating space for others to gently reconnect with their own truth. One moment that stayed with her was when a university professor she once served said, “People like safe change, Temple.” At the time, it sounded simple—but the phrase lingered. Over time, she came to see that while people long for growth, they often seek it only within the bounds of emotional safety. That reflection helped shape her gentle, intuitive approach to facilitating transformation.

Temple’s most profound growth didn’t come from professional milestones, but from navigating life’s emotional terrain. From the trauma of family separation to the challenge of a cancer diagnosis, she discovered that true wisdom comes from within.

She came to a life-changing realisation: no one was coming to save her or put things right—that work had to come from within.
By choosing to face those emotions long after the original events, she didn’t just build resilience—she uncovered a deep inner strength. That strength now anchors her life and her work.

Drawing on a unique blend of real-world leadership, emotional clarity, and spiritual purpose, Temple created Walking With Wisdom—a transformative initiative offering workshops for First Nations female youth and women. Her workshops are not clinical or conventional. They are spacious, intuitive, and culturally safe environments where participants are invited to reflect, reconnect, and rise.

Temple now offers the insights, tools, and emotional clarity she once sought for herself—to those ready to walk forward grounded in their own wisdom.