Author Archives: Emily Facoory

I don’t think you’ll find a woman with the same strength and determination as Keelen Mailman.

As the first indigenous woman to manage a cattle station in Australia, Keelen has had her share of highs and lows.

SheSociety had the honour to chat to her and find out more about what motivates her to achieve what was once thought of as an impossible feat.

After suffering through a childhood of poverty, abuse and racism in her hometown of Augathella, 800km northeast of Brisbane, Keelen moved down into the city wanting to give her children a better chance at an education.

But after 12 and a half years, Keelen had a spiritual calling to go back to Augathella, drawn to the traditional Bidjara country.

“When I did get back out there, I wondered if I needed my head read, because I was coming back to a town where I wasn’t even going to be able to get a job,” Keelen said.

But she did find a job, after elder leader, Ray Robertson got her one managing the Mt Tabor station. She stuck to the role despite the many insults and people’s predictions that she wouldn’t last six months.

Through hard work and continued grit, Keelen established herself in the community and is still at Mt Tabor 20 years later.

The station accommodates up to 1600 to 2000 head of cattle with Keelen herself pumping boars and putting out supplements, she also has a 84 year old helper, Dave Hagger.

“He’s like a father figure to me, he’s non-indigenous and without his help I’d be buggered. His bush knowledge is worth more than gold,” she said.

Keelen’s motivation comes down to her children, her grandchildren, her family and her ancestors, whom she says keep her safe on a day-to-day basis.

Family is everything to Keelen, as she also fought a court battle to gain custody of her four nieces and a nephew to get them out of a bad situation. She represented herself before the judge in spite of leaving school halfway through year eight.

“A lot of times when I’ve felt like I was in a dark place, it was just the love of my kids that gave me the strength to keep on going, along with the spiritual connection to the country and my culture and being here on the property,” she said.

Keelen also shares her knowledge about the Bidjara culture at the local schools, taking children out into the country and speaking about the significance of preserving and protecting the land.

“I let them know that you can be anything you want to be if you work hard and set yourself a goal, making the point that you’re accountable for your own destiny,” she said.

Keelen also wrote the Power of Bones, a memoir that details her heartbreaking childhood, through to her rise to become the first Aboriginal woman to run a cattle station as a single mother at the age of 30.

An interesting fact that Keelen shared was that her cousin is Australian actress Deborah Mailman, known for her roles in TV series Offspring and the movie The Sapphires.

Deborah and another Sapphires actress Shari Sebbens came out onto the property before Christmas, discussing plans to adapt Keelen’s book, The Power of Bones into a movie.

Last month Keelen celebrated 20 years of running the Mt Tabor station, which is an amazing feat for someone who was only predicted to last six months.

Along with being a Queensland Australian of the Year finalist back in 2007 she was the first ever Aboriginal woman to win Barnado’s Australian Mother of the Year award in 2016.

“I always joked that I wanted to go down in history,” she said.

Published on April 11, 2018 on She Society

Professor Susan Scott has established herself as one of Australia’s top experts in theoretical physics. She was apart of the 1000-strong Nobel Prize winning team for their discovery of gravitational waves.

Susan also became the first female Professor of Physics (with one other woman) at the Australian National University in 2009. Her research expertise is in gravitational physics, general relativity theory, cosmology and gravitational waves.

Susan’s interest in physics started when she was in primary school in Melbourne and saw the first luna landing on the moon.

“I was extremely inspired by it and by the time I was 14 at high school, I knew that I was deeply interested in physics and wanted to pursue a career in it. I didn’t know what it involved at the time, but I knew that it sparked my excitement,” Susan said.

Her most proudest moment was when her team made the first detection of gravitational waves ever, the waves being predicted by Einstein 100 years ago.

“To finally achieve that in 2015 was an amazing moment in my career and life, it was a dawn of a new era and it was phenomenally exciting.”

“I was very inspired in my career by Marie Curie, she was a very famous female physicist, well ahead of her time. In the fact that there were very few women in the western world doing physics when she was and not only was she doing it she was one of the best in her field and won the Noble Prize twice. She remained very true to her values throughout her career which I personally find very inspiring for my own career,” Susan said.

“I think the biggest driver for me is curiosity and adventure and that applies to my working life in theoretical physics as well as my personal life. The curiosity drives me to understand much more deeply the way the universe works and problems that we have in understanding parts of the universe.”

“The biggest lesson I’ve learnt throughout my career and my life is to always remain true to my values and use that as a guiding force for all the decisions I make in my career and in my life, because I found that that’s the one thing I can always count on. If I adhere to my values then I can feel really good about myself as a person and therefore really good about other people too.”

The best advice that Susan received was from her father when she was a child. “I think he could see I was a bit of a perfectionist and always trying to do difficult things. He said to me to always tackle the easiest things first and work outwards and that’s always been on the back of my mind throughout my life, because I naturally tend to go the other way. But I think it’s a very practical piece of advice which I have tried to work in the direction of satisfying,” Susan said.

Susan is also involved in the Homeward Bound initiative, a program designed to support female STEMM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Medicine) workers.

“I was really excited about the combination of readership training for women scientists in against the very fragile background of Antarctica. These are two things that are very close to my heart, the programs of women in STEMM generally but also the health of our planet and what we can do to ensure that we have a future for ourselves, our children and future generations,” Susan said.

Published on May 30, 2018 on She Society

Laura Gangemi has designing in her blood, growing up around her grandmothers who were seamstresses, they used to create pieces together to go to family functions.

But just last year the Brisbane based designer launched Rudi Miro, a collection that contains pieces that will hope to transcend time and survive amongst throwaway fashion and short lived trends.

Laura came up with the idea after travelling, “I was finding that I was using a lot of the same things and it made me realise that I had to declutter my life, and I needed key timeless pieces in my wardrobe that could take me through different seasons.”

“It was just really crucial for me to stay minimalist, I then started realising that there were other women similar to me and so then decided to create the collection,” Laura said.

With fast fashion becoming a prominent issue that’s being continuously debated on, Laura believes that through education and support there can be a change.

“We need to address the fact that less is sometimes more and quality is better than quantity,” Laura said.

“I’m not saying that you’re not allowed to buy trend pieces or anything, but there’s nothing better than having all those timeless styles to go back to, and you’ll find that they’ll end up being your faithfuls, they’ll never let you down.”

Throughout starting her business Laura said that the biggest lesson that she’s learned is to always remain positive.

“There are days where it feels like everything is all too hard, and I’ve really learned to remind myself that failures are only lessons and that you can only get better each and everyday. It’s definitely been an emotional rollercoaster but you have to keep reminding yourself that you can do it,” Laura said.

Laura’s proudest moment comes down to actually taking the leap and starting Rudi Miro.

“It’s something that I’ve always wanted to do and there were many years where I was afraid, in all my years of working I’ve had this underlying feeling of wanting to start my own label and then timing struck right, it took a lot of guts to actually quit my job and actually give it a go.”

Laura believes in the forever wardrobe and that Rudi Miro is the perfect start in creating a timeless wardrobe.

“In a fast fashion world I think it’s crucial to come back to the roots of fashion and that timeless style, I’ve just always loved it. Growing up around my mother’s clothes I realised how something can have so much longevity.”

“From wearing clothes as a teenager which my mum had worn in the 70’s, all those things were adding up to me and it made me realise that there is such a thing as a forever wardrobe.”

Laura describes Rudi Miro as timeless, chic and effortless, and while still constantly designing she is also trying to target the overseas market especially considering her clothes are trans seasonal.

“More brand growth, exposure and educating women on the style of dressing,” Laura said.

Published on May 1, 2018 on She Society

After Vicki Jellie’s husband, Peter, died from oesophageal cancer in 2008, she decided to create a charity to build a much-needed cancer treatment centre in regional Victoria.

Thanks to her passion and determination, Peter’s Project, named after her husband, raised more than $5 million dollars, and in July 2016  the South West Regional Cancer Centre was opened in Warrnambool.

The centre allows cancer patients the option of treatment close to home instead of a stressful five-hour trip to the city.

For the first seven years after she established Peter’s Project, Vicki worked full-time and ran the charity from her kitchen table.

But, then as the pressure grew to reach the required $5 million mark, she gave up her paid job and worked in a voluntary capacity for the next year and a half.

This dedication led to Vicki being awarded the Local Hero Award at the Australia Day Awards ceremony earlier this year.

Speaking about the experience, Vicki said that she was humbled to receive the award.

“When you set out to do something for the community or achieve something, myself and most people do it because of the passion they’ve got, without a thought of any accolades or anything like that,” said Vicki.

“I’m a pretty private person so I found it quite hard to accept.”

“But in saying that, I accepted the award on behalf of my community because I had a great community behind me helping me to achieve the goal we wanted. It was a lovely acknowledgement that felt unnecessary.”

Vickie said the opening of the centre in 2016 was her “proudest moment”

“Since opening they have probably treated about 480 patients and that’s a lot in this region,” she said.

“We were told years ago that we would need to treat 200 patients a year, so it’s surpassed what we set out to do.”

The best piece of advice that Vicki has received was from a little saying she got from a primary school which she visited when they were raising funds for Peter’s Project.

“Part of their school motto was ‘nothing is impossible’ and I’ve taken that with me ever since I went to visit those children. And with Peter’s Project we’ve proven that nothing is impossible because we were up against the odds when we tried to get this cancer centre.

“From the start we were told it would never happen, so to be able to achieve it in a relatively short time, that’s been something that I’ve sort of lived by and you can relate that little saying to anything, whether it’s building a bus shelter or putting in a garden.”

It has been a big achievement in a short amount of time.

Peter’s Project continues to grow and is now  the Peter’s Project Foundation.

After the centre was built, $1.6 million, which the community donated, was left over and this was invested into the Peter’s Project Foundation which donates annual contributions to regional hospitals for cancer services.

“People still give money we don’t ask for, but people still donate because they know the money is going back to the community.” Vicki said.

For more information on Peter’s Project Foundation click here.

Published on April 26, 2018 on She Society

Self-care has become a major talking point, with the issue of making ourselves a priority an important aspect to our overall wellbeing. Self-care is extremely valuable to help avoid burnout and the feeling of being constantly overwhelmed. The best part is that little things can help and what’s even better is that they don’t have to cost a fortune. But in the end regardless of what you choose to do, just make sure that you want to do it and it makes you feel good in the long run.

Take a Bath

The best way to relax and to truly soak in the free time that you have. Adding in bath bombs or salts to spruce up your experience, take some wine in with you and read a book and just make the most of it. Even if it’s just for 20 minutes or until your kids start banging on the door, just close your eyes and relax. An extra tip is to add Epsom Salt into your bath which is perfect after the gym to help reduce muscle soreness.

Unplug and Switch Off

Either you’ve clocked off for the day and it’s time to fully focus on your home life or you’re stuck in an endless social media hole, it’s always a good idea to turn off your phone for a while. Not only does it help you hone in on the current moment it also allows you to avoid the constant negatives that social media brings, for example comparison, envy and disappointment. It doesn’t have to be for long but just make sure that you lose the habit of obsessively checking your phone.

Walk

While some of us may find this to be a chore, it really doesn’t have to be. There are plenty of ways to make it more enjoyable, take your dog for a walk, find a friend who lives nearby and go on a hike, travel to your favourite beach spot and go for a walk or take a trip into your local city centre and take a stroll. You’ll see a whole new perspective on where you live as you pretend to be a tourist for a short while and it will make you appreciate where you live even more than usual.

Journal

Journalling has become a major craze lately, with the emergence of different techniques, for example by bullet journalling, free writing or timed writing. Journalling is said to help with processing complicated thoughts and to help people with decisions, it also allows people to have that creative outlet that they may be missing throughout their daily lives. If something is bothering you, write it down, then throw it away or even burn it as a cathartic way of releasing the pain.

Make Time for Your Hobby

Whether that be watching your favourite TV shows or movies, reading or gardening, make sure you are doing something that brings you joy. Regardless of whether people see it as truly fulfilling or not it doesn’t matter, as long as it’s something that you want to do, then go do it. Don’t be ashamed and don’t be waylaid into doing something your just not interested in. But it’s probably for the best if you keep your Netflix binging to one or two episodes, while you definitely need self-care you also need to be self-aware.

Published on April 26, 2018 on She Society

The service Bookchoice has been called the ‘Netflix of Books’ and has just become available, with book lovers rejoicing over the new service.

Bookchoice is a membership based service that allows you to download bestselling and cult books as ebooks or audiobooks each month.

Membership is only $4.99, which allows you to access 8 new audiobooks and 8 new ebooks each month that have been handpicked by experts to ensure a breath of new and much-loved titles.

The May releases included prize-winning titles such as Resurrection Bay by Emma Viskic and Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, with June’s list featuring this year’s breakout hit The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris.

But there is a downside because if you’re on the hunt for a particular title or specific genre, you will be disappointed as Bookchoice chooses your reading list for you.

The service is unique in that once you download the ebook or audiobook, it’s yours to keep; being on your smartphone, tablet, ereader or computer forever.

Bookchoice Chief Commercial and Content Officer, Nathan Hull says, “we work hard to create a streamlined selection of some of the best ebooks and audiobooks around. We love all genres equally – we just want to help people fall back in love with reading.

“There’s no reason people can’t be clicking on a book just as easily as they’d click on Netflix or Facebook.”

Published on May 17, 2018 on She Society