Laughter, friendship and even a few tears—Northern Gulf’s women’s events for 2020 kicked off in September with events in Mount Carbine and Walkamin, and concluded in Mount Surprise.
This year’s event, Bloom and Prosper, focussed on disaster preparedness and personal development, with participants gaining skills and knowledge to support their families and communities with disaster resilience.
Lyndal Scobell from Community Bred led participants through disaster recovery arrangements and highlighted how our community connections are impacted by disaster and what we can do to support personal and community recovery from events.
“Topics of the workshops at our events change annually to suit peoples’ needs and topical regional situations” Kathy Rowling
‘Increased knowledge helps women living in remote areas prepare and respond better,’ Lyndal said.
Building on the preparedness theme, Kasmin Brotherton led a conversation around developing your own inner management plan—building awareness around the ongoing and broad nature of self-care, the key “buckets” to monitor yourself through, and the development of a supportive structure to help deal with the chaos of everyday life.
The day concluded with a bit of fun as personal stylist Gerlinda led us through how to feel our best through our personal presentation. The ladies enjoyed having a colour consultation and learning some tips for dressing for their body types.
Tahna Jackson attended the event in her capacity as a Regional Recovery Officer for The National Drought and North Queensland Flood Response and Recovery Agency, where she supports communities impacted by drought and flood.
‘These events in my mind are priceless. They bring together women from different backgrounds to one place to receive the knowledge to cope with what living in rural and remote communities can deliver, be that drought, flood, or cyclone.
‘These events teach ladies new skills, provide them the access to service providers and what programs and grants are available.
‘I see the women make connections to other like- minded women, and these are very important to ensure the women, who may not get to many events during the year, have a safe environment to share stories and get individual help and advice,’ Tahna said.
This event was proudly delivered by Northern Gulf Resource Management Group and Cape York Natural Resource Management, and was jointly funded by the Australian Government and the Queensland Department of Communities, Disability Services and Seniors under the Commonwealth/State Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements 2018.
