Daughters Of Country – International Women’s Day brings three generations of First Nations women to Kirribilli for a powerful conversation on culture and Country.
On the northern edge of the harbour, where ferries cut slow arcs through blue water and jacarandas lean towards the tide, the theatre doors will open to a different kind of gathering. Inside, the light softens, the city noise fades, and chairs fill gradually with women, families and neighbours. The occasion is Daughters Of Country – International Women’s Day, a conversation shaped not by spectacle but by presence.
Held on Sunday 8 March 2026 from 11am to 2pm at the Ensemble Theatre in Kirribilli, this International Women’s Day event brings together three generations of First Nations women whose lives are rooted in culture, education and Country. Presented by North Sydney Council in association with Ensemble Theatre, the gathering marks both a celebration and a beginning — the launch of Council’s Notable Women of North Sydney program for 2026.
Daughters Of Country – International Women’s Day And The Harbour Setting
The theatre at 78 McDougall Street sits close enough to the water that salt carries faintly on the breeze. Kirribilli on a Sunday morning has its own rhythm: café cups clink, dogs tug at leashes along the foreshore, and the skyline across the harbour gleams in early autumn light.
Against this backdrop, Daughters Of Country – International Women’s Day unfolds indoors, yet remains anchored to place. The conversation will centre on matrilineal connection and intergenerational knowledge — themes that echo beyond the stage and into the landscapes that hold them.
It is fitting that such a discussion takes place here, on Cammeraygal Country. The harbour itself feels like a witness: tidal, continuous, older than the city rising around it.
Three Generations In Conversation
At the heart of Daughters Of Country – International Women’s Day are three women whose lives intersect through culture and care.
Aunty Lois Birk is a senior wisdom keeper from Yaegl Country in Maclean on the north coast of New South Wales. For more than three decades she has lived on Gayamagal Country along Sydney’s northern beaches, raising her family and working as Aboriginal Coordinator at Royal Far West. After 35 years supporting the health and wellbeing of country children across regional Australia, she retired in October 2025, leaving a legacy of advocacy, mentorship and quiet leadership. Those who know her speak of her gift for gathering people — a quality that feels especially resonant in this setting.
Beside her will sit Aunty Jeanie Moran, a proud Barada Bana, Yuin and Cammeraygal saltwater woman. A mother of four and grandmother of ten, she carries deep cultural knowledge shaped by resilience, including her lived experience as a member of the Stolen Generations. Her Songlines stretch across multiple language groups in New South Wales and Central Queensland, anchoring her identity and her work as a grassroots Elder. In recent years, her collaboration with North Sydney Council has included cultural mentorship and contributions to exhibitions and community projects, ensuring stories continue to be shared in contemporary spaces.
Completing the circle is Maree Walford, a Gamilaraay/Yuwaalaraay woman from Lightning Ridge. An artist and educator, Maree’s practice is grounded in textiles and nature-based processes. Through her business, Dhawundi — meaning “from the land” in Gamilaraay — she explores home décor and cultural workshops inspired by Country. As a first-time mother, she embodies the next chapter in this lineage, bringing her experience in classrooms, galleries and community programs into dialogue with Elders.
Together, they form the living heart of Daughters Of Country – International Women’s Day: three generations speaking not only about resilience, but about continuity.
Culture, Education And Learning From Country
The themes guiding Daughters Of Country – International Women’s Day are deceptively simple: the power of matrilineal connection; the role of culture in education; what it means to learn from Country.
Yet each carries weight. For Aunty Lois, education has long been inseparable from cultural affirmation — ensuring Aboriginal children see themselves reflected and respected. For Aunty Jeanie, culture is not an abstract concept but a lived inheritance, practised through storytelling, healing and ceremony. For Maree, art becomes a bridge, translating knowledge into tactile experience through fibres, dyes and natural forms.
In conversation, these perspectives will intersect and diverge, shaped by age and experience. There is no panel table stacked with notes, no rigid agenda. Instead, the structure allows stories to unfold organically, each voice building on the last.
For the audience, the listening becomes an act of participation. International Women’s Day often arrives wrapped in slogans; here, its meaning is grounded in lived detail — in memories of Country, in classrooms and community halls, in the patient work of cultural preservation.
Marking International Women’s Day 2026
Daughters Of Country – International Women’s Day also signals the launch of North Sydney Council’s Notable Women of North Sydney program for 2026, recognising women whose contributions have shaped the local community. The alignment feels intentional. Recognition, in this context, extends beyond individual achievement to collective endurance.
The theatre setting lends intimacy. Unlike large-scale events that fill civic squares, this gathering invites closeness. Questions from the audience will likely move gently between personal and political, reflecting the layered realities of First Nations women’s lives.
As midday light shifts outside, the conversation will continue inside — measured, reflective, occasionally punctuated by laughter. There is space here for complexity and for hope.
An Ending That Feels Like A Beginning
When the event draws to a close, attendees will step back onto McDougall Street. The harbour will still be moving in its patient rhythm. Cafés will hum; ferries will come and go. Yet something subtle may linger — an expanded sense of connection, perhaps, or a deeper awareness of the land beneath the pavement.
Daughters Of Country – International Women’s Day does not promise spectacle. Instead, it offers a quiet recalibration: a reminder that knowledge travels through generations, that culture endures through sharing, and that listening itself can be a form of respect.
In the soft light of early March, with autumn just beginning to edge the leaves, Kirribilli becomes a place not only of scenery but of story — where daughters, mothers and grandmothers speak, and a community pauses long enough to hear them.
Event Details
Daughters Of Country – International Women’s Day
Date: Sunday 8 March 2026
Time: 11am – 2pm
Location: Ensemble Theatre, 78 McDougall St, Kirribilli NSW 2061
Cost: $15.00
Official Link: https://www.northsydney.nsw.gov.au/events/event/1362/daughters-of-country---international-womens-day