History was made at the Byron Council chambers last week when two First Nations women were sworn in as local councillors.
As a packed audience of friends, family, and community members watched on, Bundjalung women Delta Kay and Michelle Lowe took their oaths of office alongside seven other proud councillors.
Byron Council has never had a First Nation’s woman as an elected councillor before, and the election of Crs Kay and Lowe has been heralded as a breakthrough moment by many across the region.
‘First and foremost, I am Bundjalung,’ said Ms Kay, who has been a strong advocate and leader in the Shire for well over a decade.
‘I am a proud black woman, and I’m so proud to have my Bundjalung brothers and sisters here supporting us.
‘I really want to be that person to give voice to the voiceless. Aboriginal people in the Byron Shire are such a tiny percentage and we’re still struggling to be heard and to be seen, so I’m here for my brothers and sisters.’
Councillor Lowe, a local school teacher and mother, said she was proud to be standing alongside her ‘Arakwal sister’ and to be ‘part of a historic council that has two First Nations women’.
‘The most important and fundamental cause for me is the future of our children and their children, the future of the wild spaces that we are the custodians of, the future of the wild species that we share the planet and our Shire with,’ she said.
Cr Lowe also noted that it was the first time in the history of the Byron Shire that there was a majority of women on Council.
‘I hope that we can bring some of those peaceful, conciliatory, negotiations that many women, and obviously men, are partaking in as parents,’ Ms Lowe said.
Newly-elected Greens Mayor Sarah Ndiaye said she didn’t know what it would look like to have more women than men on Council because it had never happened before.
‘We’ve come from a society that has been patriarchal for thousands of years.
‘I was really lucky to watch Jan Barham in this role as mayor, as a young woman, to see what’s possible.
‘We are an incredible team.’
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