Harmony Heroes - CWA Recognises Australia’s Finest Women

On Monday March 27 the Country Women’s Association Australia (CWAA) celebrated community harmony and the importance of local communities working together by awarding six of the country’s finest women as Harmony Heroes.

Harmony Heroes, a national Harmony Day initiative, is designed to recognise and acknowledge outstanding individuals that do practical things within their communities to promote goodwill, understanding and mutual respect.

All six women awarded as CWAA Harmony Heroes have contributed significantly to the welfare of their communities, with their active roles including welcoming newly arrived families to their regions and helping migrants and refugees from diverse backgrounds settle in.

In 2005 over 100,000 new arrivals arrived in Australia, many of these arrivals settling in Australia’s regional and rural areas.

The Country Women’s Association Australia is the largest women's organisation in the country. The CWAA serves in almost every small country town and community across Australia, with a total membership of 44,000 members and 1855 branches.

Harmony Day is Australia’s largest multicultural celebration. Every year communities across Australia come together on and around Harmony Day to celebrate Australia’s cultural and linguistic diversity, to reinforce Australian values that lead to tolerance and understanding and to recognise the social, cultural and economic benefits that our cultural diversity brings us.

The Harmony Heroes initiative enables the CWAA to acknowledge some of the very hard working women that make a difference in their local communities and to the lives of others, each and every day.

The six CWAA Harmony Heroes travelled to Canberra to be presented with the awards on Monday March 27 at the Hyatt Hotel.

Click here to view a copy of the Running Sheet.

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CWA Harmony Heroes

QLD, Gunalda - Katrina Van Der Brank

Katrina is representing the Queensland Country Women’s Association where she is the International Officer for the Gympie and South Burnett Division. Katrina’s role is to facilitate International work in the QCWA.

NSW, Broke - Pauline Hunt

Pauline has been a member of the CWA for a number of years and did a great deal of work assisting the Kosavar refugees when they were housed in Singleton during the Balkans crisis.

VIC, Gowangardie - Helen Wall

Helen Wall was the driving force for CWA Victoria on a project called “Eating the City”. This was a multicultural food festival organised by the City of Melbourne. This resulted in many of the different cultures and religions represented in the city not only learning more about each other’s food, but about other aspects of each others cultures. The project created a map of the city of Melbourne in food. Each of the nationalities represented creating an area of the city in food typical of their heritage.

SA, Cleve - Mary Edwards

Mary Edwards has done great work for indigenous people at Ernabella and also Maree. During the last year Mary was working with Kaurna children around Salisbury, helping with a wetlands project at the school. Mary’s work has resulted in increased interaction between indigenous and non-indigenous communities which has led to greater understanding and acceptance.

NT, Tennant Creek - Alison Lorraine

Alison is the President of the Tennant Creek Branch of the CWA. Over the past 29 years the CWA has held an annual art award which provides Tennant Creek with a culturally and artistically stimulating event and also provides artists from all backgrounds with an opportunity to present their works. This body of work is representative of the history of Tennant Creek and is an illustration of how art can be used to bring a community together.

TAS, Howrah - Shirley Morrisby

Shirley Morrisby joined the CWA in 1972 and has recently become involved with holding cooking classes for recently arrived Sudanese residents. Shirley would also take families to the local supermarket to help them with their food shopping and then return to their homes to join together with them to cook meals.