A social media post and a piece of butcher’s paper set the Northern Territory’s Tanya Egerton on a path towards empowering women in remote Indigenous communities while also tackling the waste produced by Australia’s obsession with fast fashion.
Named AgriFutures Rural Woman of the Year at a gala event in Canberra last night, Ms Egerton founded the Remote Opshop Project after responding to a call for help from a group of Indigenous women while working in Katherine as an Indigenous Business Facilitator.
The Rural Women’s Award, now in its 22nd year, aims to identify, celebrate, and empower women to help ensure Australia’s rural industries and communities continue to thrive.
“Those women were required to turn up for 25 hours a week. They were getting their names ticked off, but they were literally given nothing to do,” she said.
Ideas developed
“[They] called and said, we are creative women, we are artists, we don’t want to sit here wasting our talents and gifts … can you help us start our own arts centre?”
Out came the butcher’s paper, and through a community brainstorming session, the idea of starting an op shop was born.
“Given that clothing and household goods are so hard to get in remote communities, it seemed like the perfect fit,” Ms Egerton said.
A call to action was then posted to Facebook.
“We wanted to get a couple of boxes of clothing to help them start their op shop and self-fund this arts centre, and what happened was that post went viral.
“We ended up with storage sheds in every major city, two trucks full 700 boxes of clothing to Katherine,” she said.
The op shop was a resounding success.
“They made around $ 10,000 worth of sales, they bought all their own art supplies, incorporated their arts centre, and for me, that was self-determination,” she said.
Op shops growth
Eight years later, community-owned and led op shops have popped up across remote First Nations communities in the Northern Territory and Western Australia, supported by the online platform established by Tanya Egerton.
“What we’re doing really is creating that safe platform, that safe space for women to be able to get the resources that they need to be able to leverage that opportunity.
“They already have the capability, and it’s enabling them to set up their own op shop to run it in a way that meets the needs of their community and is fit for purpose, enabling leadership, self-determination, and empowerment.
The op shops are run completely independently by local women, and funds raised are pooled to support projects that enhance the health and well-being of the community.
“People have been forced to participate in their own lives for so long, and the op shops give them that vehicle of ownership, which means that they can now stand up, lead, and take control of their own future, and that’s powerful.
As the winner of the Rural Women’s Award, Ms Egerton plans to develop a network of Reuse and Recycling hubs in the Northern Territory, to redirect high-quality and affordable essential goods from landfill to First Nations communities.
Rural Woman of the Year 2024 runner-up Grace Larson. (Supplied: Chloe Smith Photography)
The AgriFutures Rural Women’s Award National Runner-Up is Victoria’s Grace Larson, a paediatric critical care nurse who co-founded the Sisterhood Project to address health disadvantages faced by rural children by equipping their parents with lifesaving skills.
