Launching the Women for Food and Fibre
Our Women for Food and Fibre (WfFF) initiative already had runs on the board when we officially launched in May 2025. Fittingly, we launched at the University of Southern Queensland’s Drought Forum in Toowoomba, to an audience invested in the future of rural and regional Australia.
Dr Marlyn McInnerney addressed the crowded room explaining the background to Women for Food and Fibre and the potential for this initiative going forward. We ran a 7-minute film clip created by Bec Brayley, one of the Charleville participants in Climate Women in Primary Production project, in consultation with Charleville cameraman Pete Murray.
The film is a great example of the storytelling skills the women practiced at the workshop, and it documents the projects and some of the stories the participants have published.
Following on from the obvious success of Girls Talking Ag (GTAg) in 2024, which included the filming workshop in Charleville, and the very productive Storytelling Workshop in Guyra in May 2025, it was exciting to launch the Women for Food and Fibre online platform at the UniSQ Centre for Rural Economies (CRE) Drought Forum.
Author Annabelle Brayley, a published author of many books, and Climate Women in Primary Production Co-ordinator, wrapped up the presentation with an invitation to everyone to get on board with WfFF in any way that works, and help to expand the ripple effect of this fantastic project.
This is something the SQNNSW Innovation Hub has been doing, supporting the WFFF climate smart projects, designed to amplify the stories and experiences of women implementing sustainable food and fibre projects – growing, harvesting, marketing. The Hub is also supporting the Indigenous Women Food and Fibre Entrepreneur (IWFFE), which runs workshops and provides mentoring to Indigenous women running food and fibre small businesses. The other components of WFFF include the 2025 women on farms project, Climate Women in Primary Production, and the WFFF online platform. The common theme is women implementing climate smart production, harvesting and marketing of sustainable food and fibre.