Ten of the most inspiring women we've met in Bega Valley

Below meet 10 of the most inspiring women of the Bega Valley (in no particular order) and learn more of the work they do in and for their communities.

The work of Christine Welsh and the Sapphire Community Pantry has been vital to the Bega Valley Community throughout the past few years of bushfires, floods and throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. But her work has been relieving hunger in the community since 2014. She is a force to be reckoned with and when she sees an issue in our community she goes above and beyond to ensure people are not left behind despite what hardship may come. During the bushfire emergency the pantry was a centre point for people who needed goods and food, and its volunteers worked in the kitchen at the Bega Showground to support evacuees and assisted with the food deliveries. Last year she also came up with the idea to create hampers in the community for people isolated with COVID-19 and unable to get groceries and ensured those packages were delivered to the most vulnerable.

Dijringanj and Ngarigo elder Aunty Colleen Dixon has been a pivotal member of the Bega Valley community, and regularly shares her stories of growing up in the Bega Valley as an indigenous woman. Her stories of early life are a stark reminder of the history of how Indigenous people were treated in the Bega Valley community. Aunty Colleen's parents fought for proper housing in 1968, which led to them being the first Aboriginal family to move into a house in Bega despite protest from the white community. She now shares with the community her warm Welcome to Country at many events and is an educator in the shire about cultural issues affecting her community.

Jane Hughes is the face behind the Bega Women's Resource Centre and is an advocate for all women in the Shire. She has worked in the welfare sector for more than 20 years, focusing on women facing homelessness. A big part of her work also revolves around assisting women to access recourses and services in the community to help them out of hardship. Much of the work of the WRC does also involves helping women and children escaping from domestic and family violence. As the WRC coordinator Jane creates a safe space for women and has helped create workshop opportunities on issues such as the housing crisis, mental health, art and craft, gentle exercise for older women, assertiveness, family law and other legal issues.

Since moving to the Eden on the Far South Coast over four years ago, Mia Maze has supported, inspired and mentored many local women in business to work towards achieving their goals. Mia is the co-creator of Sapphire Coast Business Women and the founder of Mazey Consulting & Coaching. She won a silver award in the 2021 AusMumpreneur Awards and said she aims to change the game for women in business one enterprise at a time. Through the support and networking group Sapphire Coast Business Women, Mia has been assisting women in business to stay ahead of the curve in the aftermath of the bushfires and COVID-19.

Clare McMahon has been a fierce fundraiser, advocate, volunteer, and facilitator for her community of Kiah, despite losing parts of her own property during the Black Summer bushfires. As the lead representative of the Friends of Kiah Hall, Clare McMahon worked to secure $3million funding from Bega Valley Shire Council and former Bega state member Andrew Constance for the community hall rebuild. She worked with charities to fund the bathroom on the site, as well as sporting equipment such as new nets at the courts. Clare has also driven support for water and septic tanks, nesting boxes, the Bega Valley Water and Sanitation Project, bushfire debris clearing, and fence-building. She was presented with the Bega Valley Senior Citizen Award at the 2022 Australia Day Ceremony.

Bega Valley building designer Kelli Rieck has kicked down major barriers when it comes to women in building design. She took out two major national design awards in 2021 for a complex home she designed in Tura Beach in collaboration with owners Peter and Anne Brannelly. She was also a finalist in the 2020 TIDA Australia Designer Kitchens, as well as a finalist in multiple Bega Valley home builds at the Building Designers Association of Australia Awards- just to name a few. Kelli is also a big innovator when it comes to sustainable building and prioritises energy efficiency and passive solar solutions in all of her builds.

Nienke Van Doorn has defied anyone's expectations of a woman in her 70s. After her and her husband's two-storey house on Thompsons Drive in Kalaru burnt down in the 2018 Tathra fires, she was determined to create a bushfire resilient home. She become a mature-aged student and completed a university level sustainable housing design course. She taught herself a lot of the engineering concepts she needed to build the house and did a lot of the work herself, gifting herself handsaw for her 71st birthday in 2021.

Reiko Okamoto Healy has lived in Bega for over 20 years, but originally comes from Osaka in Japan. Reiko is an artists and has bought many aspects of her culture to the people of the Bega Valley. She is a member of the Stonewave Taiko Drumming group in Bega and has taught Taiko drumming to many people in the community as well as performed on Harmony Day each year. She is also a member of various local galleries, volunteering her time and selling her jewellery, and handmade clothing. She is happy to share many aspects of her culture such as origami folding with the community and is a part of the rich cultural fabric of the Bega Valley.

May Blacka OAM has spent the last 15 years, since the death of her husband, raising money for charities. Every year in the month of February, Ms Blacka raises money for charities by selling handmade pies and bouquets of flowers grown in her own garden. Over the years Ms Blacka has supported the Cobargo Rugby League Football Club, CRABs (Cancer Research Advocate Bikers) Cancer Research, BlazeAid, and the Cobargo Rural Fire Service, among others. In 2021 May was presented with the Medal of the Order of Australia by the Governor-General of Australia during his visit to Cobargo.

Cheryl Robinson is a Bega Valley disability worker and advocate. In 2021 she set up a non-for-profit shop that sells handmade gifts from people with disabilities living in the Bega Valley. She also spoke out during the shortage of rapid antigen tests during the Omicron COVID-19 outbreak and the impact the shortage had on her and her supported clients. She has also been a fierce advocate for the rights of women and has regularly been involved with the organisation of the March4Justice Bega event against gendered violence. This week she also launched a campaign to collected donated items to send to the flood affected victims in Northern NSW, knowing about the slow response to natural disasters after volunteering for the SES in Blayney for eight years.