BOTH the young and old gathered at the Country Women's Association (CWA) of WA's 97th conference opening held at Optus Stadium last week.
The ceremony, which included a presentation of awards to CWA members, as well as scholarships and bursaries to various community members, saw about 250 CWA members travel from all over the State to celebrate the organisation's achievements over the past year.
Member of the National Native Title Tribunal and winner of the Aboriginal category of the 2019 West Australian of the Year Award, Glen Kelly officially opened the conference and spoke of his journey as the son of a proud Noongar woman and non-Aboriginal man.
In his speech Mr Kelly announced the commencement of a year-long study by the 135 WA branches on Australia and its First Nations people to help promote better understanding, trust and respect and enhance relationships between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people.
"Projects like this can have a really significant impact because of the conversations they open and the realisations they enable," Mr Kelly said.
"Sometimes the catharsis you see on both sides of the conversation is really quite profound.
"I've seen a number of occasions, at a local level, where different parts of history have been worked through by the Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal parts of the community and the other end of that conversation brings such a release that it changes that place forever, or where increased knowledge brings members of the Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal community together to work on some sort of wicked problem that is affecting everyone - in small towns for example - and by working together they overcome it.
"The point is these things are worthwhile."
The conference's keynote speaker was Masonic Care WA chief executive Marie-Louise MacDonald who spoke of the importance of women, including WA members mentoring other women in the community.
Former chief executive of the WA AIDS Council and Council on the Ageing, Trish Langdon was announced as the organisation's new CEO and will commence the role on Monday, August 9.
"I grew up for the first five years of my life in Harvey and mum was a member of the CWA so one of my earliest memories was going to CWA meetings and I'm sure I hovered around the cake table before being told off," Ms Langdon said.
"But it's more than just cakes, cooking and cookbooks - it's about the fellowship of women and I think the contribution the CWA has made as an institution in not only WA but around Australia we must never forget.
"The strength of women is really important and I'm really looking forward to my role."
Badgingarra CWA branch member Sara Kenny was announced as an Honorary Life Member while the Gidgegannup and Yuna branches were the joint winners of the Clarice Rudduck Memorial Award and the Augusta and Bolgart branches were the joint winners of the CWA Community Project Grant.
The Duncraig Outdoor Girl Guides were announced as the inaugural winners of the CWA Girl Guides Service Award, which is a partnership between CWA and Girl Guides of WA and recognises service to the community.
The CWA's new corporate partnership with Audika was also launched on the opening night, with Audika to offer a scholarship in which the recipient will have their audiologist studies paid for and also be provided the opportunity of a career with the organisation upon the conclusion of their studies.
CWA of WA president Elaine Johnson said the past six months had been action packed, with CWA members providing support to people impacted by the Wooroloo and Gidgegannup bushfires, Carnarvon floods, Cyclone Seroja in the State's north as well as the Albany flash floods.
"We provided Rapid Response Grants, which were $500, to victims of those events and we've also continued to give out grants to people that have been impacted by drought," Ms Johnson said.
"With the bushfire grants, we were very proud that most of those people had the money in their account within 48 hours of applying.
"We were very lucky that CWA Queensland gave us a very big donation and we had donations from CWA Victoria as well and our members were just incredible - they sent money through very quickly, which enabled us to help those people quickly."
Ms Johnson said the organisation's membership base tended to go up and down but most recently had increased in spite of COVID-19 lockdowns and restrictions.
Over the past year the organisation has opened new branches in Geraldton-Greenough, Onslow, Newman and most recently Cowaramup.
"We have a few branches opening up north soon, so that will see another increase in numbers and we find it's typical that when one of our branches closes down it is replaced by another," Ms Johnson said.
She said it was important to acknowledge that there were no age barriers, with the organisation also including 'belles' branches angled towards younger members, who work during the day and so attend night rather than daytime meetings.
"These days women are working well into their sixties though, so those groups are starting to include a lot more older women as well and it's really lovely to see," Ms Johnson said.
"We find both our younger and older members learn from each other, with the younger ones bringing fresh, new ideas to our branches and the older women acting as mentors," Ms Johnson said.
