Midland Women’s Health Care Place chairwoman Mary Papadopoulos,  Labor candidate for Swan Hills Jessica Shaw, Michelle Roberts MLA and Starting Over Support manager Debbie Mason, with Di Ryder and Health Care Place general manager Patsy Molloy in front.
Camera IconMidland Women’s Health Care Place chairwoman Mary Papadopoulos, Labor candidate for Swan Hills Jessica Shaw, Michelle Roberts MLA and Starting Over Support manager Debbie Mason, with Di Ryder and Health Care Place general manager Patsy Molloy in front. Credit: Supplied/Supplied, David Baylis         d466507

International Women’s Day celebrated throughout eastern suburbs

Lynn GriersonThe Advocate

Midland Women’s Health Care Place invited Whadjuk Noongar Elder Di Ryder and local politicians Michelle Roberts and Alyssa Hayden to join other women working in the community at the centre for afternoon tea.

Aunty Ryder spoke about her mother raising seven children in Gidgegannup and shared a story about her grandmother, a midwife and healer who rode around in a horse and cart delivering babies.

The local community worker organises Christmas hampers and a party for more than 200 families in the Midland area every year and is involved in Naidoc Week events.

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Starting Over Support manager Debbie Mason talked about the role of her organisation in helping families escaping domestic violence to re-establish their lives.

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The Bayswater group provides the essentials to furnish a new home with beds, couches, white goods and many other basic items.

Nearby in Boya, students from Greenmount Primary School performed country and Aboriginal dances to welcome guests to the official opening of the suburb’s new library and community centre.

Shire of Mundaring President David Lavell led the celebrations for the official opening of the Boya Community Centre which included a talk by acting Landgate chief executive Jodi Cant on women in leadership.

Mr Lavell said choosing International Women’s Day to welcome guests to the state-of-the-art building, which includes the relocated Katharine Susannah Prichard library, was appropriate recognition of the writer and political activist after whom the library is named.