Matilda is a Ngambri-Ngunnawal elder. She is the Chair of the Ngambri Local Aboriginal Land Council in Queanbeyan, NSW, and the Joint Chair of the Interim Namadgi National Park Committee. She assisted in establishing the Aboriginal Legal Service in the 1980s, and has continued more recently through her membership of the Aboriginal Justice Advisory Committee. Matilda has performed numerous welcoming ceremonies, including notably the first Welcome to Country to be held at the Australian Parliament at the opening of the 42nd Parliament of Australia. Matilda has also served on the first ACT Heritage Council, the United Ngunnawal Elders Council, the Queanbeyan Regional Council of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission, the Ngambri Local Aboriginal Land Council, the Tent Embassy Advisory Committee and the ACT Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community Consultative Council. She has also acted as an ACT honorary ambassador. Matilda delivered the welcome at Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation’s ‘Sea of Hands’ installation. Matilda was named Canberra Citizen of the Year in 2006. She received an honorary doctorate from ANU in 2017.