Making Her Mark - Tjurabalan Women's Football Carnival
Garnduwa hosted the Making Her Mark Tjurabalan Women’s Football Carnival in Balgo in August aimed at empowering women and girls through football and health education.
The event was supported by the KAMS Social Emotional & Wellbeing Unit and Tjurabalan communities which saw women and girls from Balgo, Mulan and Billiluna come together to engage in community workshops including football drills and skills, capacity building workshops, and health and wellbeing education.
Star guest AFLW footballer Jasmin Stewart from the Fremantle Dockers showed her support at the event, which concluded with a football tournament, with Balgo’s Cliffside Dockers taking out the championship.
Garnduwa’s Leadership Program Manager Layla Yu says the event provided an opportunity to foster the involvement of women in sport, promote women’s leadership and connect women with female mentors, role models, and leadership support.
“Our aim is to encourage female empowerment and participation in sport, leadership and community engagement and recognise Aboriginal women for their commitment to developing sport and recreation in their community.”
“Garnduwa’s Making Her Mark Tjurabalan Women’s Football Carnival saw more than 200 community members from the Central Desert come together and provided an excellent opportunity for women to gather as a collective force, with the support of community stakeholders.”
“After the success of the 2019 Making Her Mark visit to the Central Desert, Garnduwa realised how much interest and support there was from the community to deliver sporting opportunities, such as the carnival.”
“It’s an opportunity for us to have grassroots conversations with people in community, specifically women, to talk about ways we can support and upskill communities in areas of their choice to one day be in a position to coordinate their own sport and recreation activities for their community.
The carnival is part of Garnduwa’s Making Her Mark program, which was inaugurated in 2019, and is a grassroots network of Kimberley Aboriginal women, aimed at promoting women’s leadership and foster the involvement of women in sport.
The event was coordinated by Garnduwa and supported by KAMS Social, Emotional and Wellbeing, Yura Yungi Medical Service, KAMS Population Health Unit, SOLIDfit, Smarter than Smoking, the Western Australian Football Commission with the support of the Tjurabalan communities.