Redefining Ageing 2024 - Coffs Coast

Redefining Ageing Coffs Coast 2024

Join us at our inaugural Perth Redefining Ageing event that is at the forefront of reshaping the narrative that surrounds women and ageing.

Theme - Never Too Late
As a mental health professional, Silver Sirens' founder, Faith Agugu has heard the barriers that hold us back first-hand.

“I never followed my calling”

“I've always wanted to pursue higher education, leave my career and start a business"

"I feel too old to learn a new sport”

“I’m unhappily married but leaving is way too scary.”

I've never been married but it looks like that ship has sailed"

“It's too late for me to find my birth parents.”

Miraculously, the third phase of life can be a remarkable and liberating opportunity to REINVENT!!!


If you're still unsure what that looks like for you, don't despair, you will find role models and mentors in our community and at the Redefining Ageing event.

You will find lifelong friends who were also looking for you. You will find the warmth, camaraderie, and sisterhood you crave

This movement is about empowering you to take agency as you age on your terms.​

SPEAKERS

Anne Beasly - Lawyer 

Anne knew she wanted to be a lawyer from her formative teenage years. She had the marks but as the eldest of five siblings (she has four brothers), her father pointed out that they could not afford to have Anne living in Melbourne, despite any scholarship she may have had. She switched to commercial studies, the usual shorthand typing and bookkeeping, as to quote her father, “If you do those you will always have something to fall back on."

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Anne completed her master's degree at age 71 and contemplated doing a Ph.D. After much consideration, she decided against that course. She continued to study papers from child psychologists who specialise in examining the effects of parental conflict on children from birth to age 18 years.

She mentored several law students while holding the role of Regional President of the Clarence River and Coffs Harbour Regional Law Society, a position she held for 8 years until she was able to coerce a young lawyer into taking over. That young lawyer went on to become the NSW Law Society President for 2023, a job she filled with confidence and skill. Ms Banks has recently been appointed as a Judicial Registrar in the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia. Other former clients have gone on to do law and other university degrees.

As Founding Director of the National Regenerative Agriculture Alliance based out of Southern Cross University, I am passionate about healing Australian farming landscapes and the thriving rural communities. As a holistic cattle trader and registered carbon farmer, I am committed to reducing greenhouse emissions and assisting farmers navigate the new opportunities around protecting our natural capital. As instigator of the first regenerative agricultural degree in the world and now the largest agricultural degree in Australia, I am passionate about teaching students how to read and work with their landscapes.

Building on the Farm Co-operatives and Collaboration Program, referred to as the Farming Together (www.farmingtogether.com.au) based out of Southern Cross University (www.scu.edu.au) our network of collaborative network is now vast. Being awarded the 2018 Rural Community Leader of the Year for Australia has allowed me to advance this critical collaboration. I was very proud for my team to win the Australian Financial Review Award (AFR) for Industry Engagement 2019 and the Business and Higher Education Round Table Award (BHERT) for Community Engagement 2019. I was thrilled to be a Finalist for the 2020 Australian of the Year Award.

As Director of Strategic Projects at Southern Cross University, I have a mandate to advance the capabilities of the Regenerative Agricultural Alliance and movement and assist farmers and land managers in navigating carbon farming and trading.

My company Moffat Falls Pty Ltd (www.moffatfalls.com.au) and associated Yaraandoo (www.yaraandoo.com.au) operate several tourism, health, and agricultural businesses, headed up by a dedicated team covering the New England and North Coast Regions of NSW.

Previous NSW ABC Rural Woman of the Year and Graduate of the Australian Rural Leadership Program, I have a deep affiliation and commitment to rural and regional Australia.

Lisa Nicols

Lisa Nichols had a dream when she was in Primary School that she wanted to own her own magazine. She achieved this in her late 50s but on the way her life took some twists and turns.

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She was struck by tragedy when her mother took her own life in 1988. Lisa was 25 at the time and forging a career in the newspaper industry. She made a promise to herself that she would learn more about mental health and do what she could to prevent other people from suicide. But her career kept her busy and then motherhood.

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Once her children grew up she finally kept her promise and became a mental health advocate working with the community of Woolgoolga introducing Fluro Friday and becoming an R U OK? Ambassador for the Coffs Coast.

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From this, she became an accidental entrepreneur and now has met her childhood dream of owning her own magazine.

Sabeeha Abodo

Sabeeha was kept at home as a child because she was deaf. Now she celebrates her disability in her new life in Australia running cooking classes for the community. Sabeeha's love of cooking comes from a childhood spent mostly at home.

In Iraq, she was not allowed to go to school and never had the opportunity to learn Kurdish Sign Language. This meant Sabeeha never could communicate with people outside her family. Instead, she spent her days cooking for her younger siblings, using the recipes she was taught by her mother.

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“You didn’t see people with disabilities in Iraq. They were kept at home,” she says.

“I had to learn to lip-read all my friends and family, I didn’t have any sign language ... there was no money or support from the government in Iraq, so I didn’t go to school."

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In 2017, as the war came closer to the family farm, she and four of her sisters were granted protection visas to come to Australia. The family are part of the ancient Yazidi minority and would have been killed if captured by fighters from the self-proclaimed Islamic State.

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After arriving in Australia in 2017, Sabeeha and her five sisters, who are all hard of hearing, began to learn English as well as Auslan. For Sabeeha, this was her first opportunity to communicate with people outside her family and she has soaked it all up.

“Now I attend TAFE, I am learning both English and Auslan. English is hard. I am finding that a bit more of a struggle, but Auslan and having access to interpreters has made a huge difference," she says.

“Just seeing that progression from ‘I’m deaf, so I can’t do it’ to ‘I’m deaf, so how can we do it?’ has just been amazing,” she says.

“It’s like I have been given keys to the world and there is no stopping me.

MORE SPEAKERS TO BE ANNOUNCED SOON

INCLUDED WITH YOUR TICKET

1. Welcome beverage & morning tea

2. Five inspirational speakers, a seasoned entertainer, and interactive activities

3. A lush gift bag filled with products from our sponsors