24/03/2026
I would like to begin by acknowledging how sorry I am that I could not be there in person for this important International Women’s Day gathering with the Darebin Intercultural Centre Committee. It means a great deal to me to be part of this community, and I am grateful for the opportunity to still share these words through Agapi and thank you for sharing below in my absence.
International Women’s Day is a time to reflect on progress, recognise the work still ahead, and celebrate the strength, resilience, and leadership of women in all our diversity. Tonight, I stand with you in that spirit.
I stand with you as a Councillor for Darebin, but also as your neighbour. Someone born and raised here in a community that has shaped who I am. My grandparents migrated to Preston, building a life along Murray Road with strength, sacrifice, and hope. I was born at PANCH, and Darebin has always been home.
International Women’s Day reminds us that every woman’s story matters. I speak to you as a proud Macedonian woman.
I was raised speaking Macedonian in a culture rich in history, resilience, and deep connection to family. But I was also raised navigating what it means to live between cultures and what it feels like to be seen as different. I have experienced ethnic profiling throughout my life, and that reality still exists today.
On International Women’s Day, we acknowledge that identity shapes experience. My family’s story carries intergenerational trauma. My grandfather was a prisoner of war and endured torture. Those experiences echo through families, shaping how we see the world, how we protect one another, and how we heal.
Healing takes time.
And my generation, the daughters and granddaughters of migrants, are asking for acknowledgement, understanding, and the ability to safely and proudly stand in our cultural identity. As women, we carry much of this history. We carry language, tradition, memory, and often the emotional weight of our families.
But we also carry strength.
International Women’s Day is a moment to recognise that strength. The strength passed down through generations of women who came before us. Women who endured hardship so that we could have opportunity. Women who handed us the torch and trusted us to carry it forward.
And with that torch comes responsibility. To care for our families, our communities, and each other.
Through my work in mental health advocacy, I have seen just how much women carry.
Before entering local government, I spent many years working in the lived experience mental health space, advocating for people who often felt unheard, particularly women balancing their own mental health while caring for others.
That work is deeply personal to me.
I cared for my partner following his service in Iraq and Afghanistan, and after his death by su***de, I continued to advocate for greater recognition of mental health and the role of carers. That experience shaped my understanding of both love and loss, and of the invisible labour so many women carry every day. International Women’s Day calls on us to recognise that labour.
In Darebin, thousands of people are unpaid carers, and around 60 percent are women.
Many do not even identify as carers.
They are daughters caring for ageing parents, partners supporting loved ones, friends showing up, and mothers holding families together.
They do it out of love. Out of duty passed down through generations, especially in multicultural communities.
We do not see it as a burden. We see it as responsibility.
But International Women’s Day reminds us that responsibility should not come without recognition or support.
Gender equity in local government is not theoretical. It is about whether women have the support, safety, and opportunity to participate fully in community life.
Local government is where this becomes real. It is where decisions are made about services, childcare, community safety, libraries, parks, and programs that shape daily life.
If we do not recognise the role women play, particularly as carers, then we are not designing communities that truly support them.
My journey from mental health advocacy into politics has been driven by one belief. People with lived experience must have a voice in the decisions that affect their lives. That is the spirit of International Women’s Day.
And that includes women from culturally diverse backgrounds.
Women like us often navigate layers of gender, culture, expectation, and bias. We should not have to constantly prove our legitimacy in leadership spaces.
Multiculturalism is something we celebrate, but celebration is not the same as inclusion.
True inclusion means representation. It means decision making power. It means being at the table.
International Women’s Day challenges us to move beyond symbolism and toward real inclusion.
We also know that issues like family violence, economic barriers, and social isolation affect women across all communities.
Ending family violence requires communities and institutions to create environments where women feel safe, supported, and heard.
Supporting women’s economic participation is about independence, safety, and long term wellbeing.
And addressing loneliness is critical. Connection is fundamental to mental health and community resilience.
As a Councillor, my commitment is to ensure these realities are reflected in the decisions we make in Darebin.
To ensure that women in all their diversity are not just included, but empowered.
To ensure that young women can see themselves in leadership without questioning whether they belong.
And to ensure that wellbeing, being well and staying well, remains at the centre of how we build community.
Because when women are supported, communities are stronger.
Tonight, on International Women’s Day, I want to honour the women who came before us.
The women who survived.
The women who migrated.
The women who raised families in new lands.
The women who carried culture, language, and memory across generations.
They handed us the torch.
And now it is our responsibility to carry it forward with courage, compassion, and a commitment to make things better for those who come next.
That is the true meaning of International Women’s Day.
Whether through mental health advocacy, community work, or my role in local government, my focus remains the same.
To ensure that people who are often unheard are included in the decisions that shape our communities.
Thank you for the work you do.
Thank you for the strength you carry.
And thank you for continuing to show what leadership looks like every single day.
