International Women’s Day is a day to celebrate all women. Women who are fighting systems which only elevate a particular type of women, or a particular way of doing things. Women who are advocating for the representation of those who, too often, are not heard. Women who are often risking their personal freedoms, reputations and careers to raise their voices and call for a better standard for all women.

In this spirit, I would like to celebrate four young emerging leaders and activists from around Australia, who are doing some incredible work in this area.

ARETHA BROWN

“I want to see more Indigenous politicians in foreign affairs and education and trade and science and all those areas.”

Aretha Brown is an Indigenous Australian youth activist, artist, model and podcaster. She is a strong advocate for indigenous issues and at just 18 years of age, she is the first female Prime Minister of the National Indigenous Youth Parliament. 

National Indigenous Youth Parliament delegates with the then Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in 2017

JAX JACQUI BROWN

“I change the world by being proud of my body, by being proud of my disability. By being here.. living. Sometimes I think that for people with disability, just living is an act of resistance.” 

Jax Jacki Brown is a disability and LGBTIQ activist, writer, public speaker, disability sexuality educator, and workshop designer and facilitator. Jax is a member of the Victorian Ministerial Council on Women’s Equality, the Victorian government’s LGBTI taskforce Health and Human Services Working Group and the Victorian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission’s Disability Reference Group.

MARIAM MOHAMMED

“We as student leaders, come into positions that we may never have been in before … and then we discover … that the vision we have, or the vision our people have, are very different to what the organisation is willing or able to do.” 

Mariam Mohammed is the founder of MoneyGirl, a social enterprise focused on making financial education more fun and accessible for young Australian women. Her work often provides insights into why financial literacy is such a pressing issue, particularly for women due to the links to domestic violence. In 2017, she became the youngest President in the history of Sydney University Postgraduate Representative Association (SUPRA).

TINA & RENEE DIXON

Tina and Renee Dixon founded the Queer Sisterhood Project. The group is open to all women who identify as queer (homosexual, bisexual, lesbian, same-sex attracted, pansexual) and have sought asylum in Australia because of the persecution on the grounds of gender of sexuality. Tina is a PhD student at the Australian National University, and she has extensive experience working with the UN bodies on issues affecting both LBTQI and refugee women. Renee is a multi-disciplinary artist exploring how art can bring social change and heal trauma.