MORE than 300 Coffs Coast women breakfasted together at the Pacific Bay Resort on Tuesday, March 8, to celebrate International Women’s Day (IWD).

The breakfast is organised annually by the Coffs Coast Business Women’s Network, the Zonta Club of Coffs Harbour and Business Professional women (BPW) Coffs Harbour.

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This year’s global IWD theme was ‘Break the Bias’.

Guests were asked to contribute items to support Lismore flood victims and organisers were overwhelmed by their generosity.

The Coffs Coast Woman of the Year was awarded to Jade Naidu, with Jodie Wood as the runner up.

Ms Naidu is the owner of Woolgoolga Performing Arts Studio and promotes awareness to anti-bias principles
through the arts.

Her NAIDU Theatre Co. has offered three $500.00 scholarships to young performers from culturally diverse backgrounds who have stood out as incredibly talented and gifted performers in the arts.

Ms Naidu and her husband sold their home in order to purchase the property that houses her business as a trust for the community.

She talked on Tuesday morning about having to hold back and not be noticed as a child.

Ms Naidu said, “Breaking the biases in the arts means being able to stand in a room and use your own voice and not have to change to fit in or not be seen.”

She advocates for performing arts to foster inclusion amongst the community and embrace uniqueness.

She said, “Today is a win for the arts.”

Mali Tipping received the Zonta Young Woman in Public Affairs award and Southern Cross University IWD Scholarships were awarded to Taylor Slattery and Jessica McEvoy.

The guest speaker was Lorraine Gordon, who won the ABC’s 1994 NSW Rural Woman of the Year Award for developing the largest domestic hydro-electricity scheme in Australia.

Ms Gordon spoke about growing up in the city with a passion for the land, but she was not able to study agricultural science because she was female.

She inherited a run-down 3000-hectare farm in Ebor which she has since developed into a model property that includes eco-tourism.

The underlying themes of her talk were resilience, determination and passion and doing work that brings hope.

Ms Gordon told the audience, “Nothing comes without effort.”

She was very passionate about the need for women as political leaders and urged the audience to step up and have a political voice.

Ms Gordon said, “Women are nurturers by nature therefore they have the perfect disposition to solve global issues such as climate change.”

By Andrew VIVIAN