International Women's Day

As a business that is female-led and whose mission is to create a space to nurture themselves, we celebrate the essence of International Women’s Day daily.⁠

We believe, however, that having this day carved out for us is essential to reflect on the journeys of the resilient women who granted us our opportunities, and hero the ones who are pushing the boundaries even today.⁠ It’s a day to commemorate our foremothers, continuously express what it means to be a woman, and fuse the teachings of past and present for a future abundant in equal opportunity, celebration, and inner guidance.

We explore the lives of four women who reflect on moments in their lives–past, future and present. Thank you to Maggie May, Ida Almasi, Shannon Fricke and Hayley Rose for sharing your heart and soul with us. Thank you for making our community so special and for inspiring a path for future generations.

 

Photographer: Bobby Clark

Maggie May

Maggie May is a creative artist living in Melbourne who is passionate about making the world a better place by keeping us connected and thinking, making & doing. After sharing and teaching Macrame within her community, she then opened a creative space and gift shop with her husband and musician Josh Kelly. Think Thornbury was born from the knowing that the community needed a shop that was about locals, a space to support neighbours and one that gave everyone a place to visit when they needed that perfect gift.

With her baby boy and husband Josh close by, Maggie May surrounds herself with design, art, culture, community and all the good stuff that makes our lives more interesting and beautiful.

What opportunities have you been given from the women before you?
I have the opportunity to vote only because of the women who came before me who fought so hard for such a long time to be given that right. I am always grateful for this and as a result, take voting seriously and keep engaged with politics - well, as much as I have the patience for. The lack of diversity in our current LNP government means that marginalised and underrepresented groups suffer. Women are suffering. It can be hard to check in with politics when you don't see yourself there, but I always remind myself that people who don't take politics seriously are the people who are only privileged enough to do so. Those women who campaigned for the right to vote didn't see themselves there, but still fought hard to have their (our) voices heard.

How important is it for women to support each other and what does that mean to you?
It's important for women to support one another because when one of us succeeds, we all succeed. Sometimes the real-life picture of this can be challenging, particularly as women when the spaces in which we can succeed are already small. If a friend gets a job we wanted, or a colleague wins an award we wish we won, a family member gets pregnant when we're struggling with infertility; these situations can feel hard. It is okay and natural to feel pangs of jealousy, but it is super important to come back to the idea that other women's success is not our own failure, and instead should be celebrated as our own success as well. If you do succeed, remember to grow the spaces around you by making opportunities for other women to flourish as well.

What single event has had the biggest impact on who you are?
Opening my business, Think Thornbury. It was huge. It changed my life in a really profound but also hugely practical way. I gave myself the opportunity to make a living doing something that my community really needed and I have been able to be a force for good and support other people utilising my own skills. It's been the hardest and most stressful thing I could have possibly done, but it has also been the best. I have had to grow and change to be the business owner my community needs. I feel really proud of what Josh and I have built and that we have been able to support so many people by starting a business and growing it into what it is today.

How do you balance being a mother and professional? What have you sacrificed both personally and professionally?
I don't think about motherhood and professionalism as two separate things. On any given day I have a long list of jobs to achieve for my business, my family, my own self, my pets, and whatever else may come my way. On some days I feel like I strike a perfect balance, though honestly, there are many days in which I don't, and that's okay. Ultimately there is no such thing as a perfect balance, there is only an idea in our head of what our life should look like, and I constantly work towards that. Not every day will reflect that, but if we all can just pull back the pressure when we're feeling challenged and accept that life is crazy and unexpected and we're only human, we can find a way for it to all coexist. 

I haven't sacrificed anything to start a business or raise a family. Thinking in those terms creates a false narrative in your mind where your family and business are always competing with each other. They're not separate things that need to compete, so I'm not sacrificing one or the other. They need to coexist because they are both equally important to me. There will always be great opportunities in the future in regards to both my family and my business. For example, having a little baby who doesn't sleep might mean that I have less energy to make art at the moment. But that does not mean that this time has been sacrificed to the sleep gods. It just means that right now, at this moment in my life, I'm working a little bit less on my art because that energy is going into parenting in a specific way. One day he'll be a teenager or an adult and the parenting demands will be different.

So, it's all Maggie May. I am not a 'professional' and then a 'mother', I am me in everything that I do.

What impact do you want to leave on the world?
I would be really happy to continue working on my artistic practice and my business so that I help other people in my community feel brave, creative, connected, and inspired. Not just the makers, but my customers as well. As much as I would like to, I know that I'm not going to make a huge scientific contribution that reverses climate change, or correct the gender wage imbalance; but I do know that using the skills and position I have in my community, I can impact change for the women around me. I know that by championing small independent makers in my store, I am giving a platform to female-led businesses that can then grow and have future success. 

I also hope that I am able to raise a curious and kind child that grows into an intelligent and empathetic adult who is capable of leading in their own way. 

As a female, how do you push boundaries? Can you? Do you?
I see the surprise on people's faces when I tell them I own my own business, my husband is a professional musician, and we have a child. The idea of a woman working whilst raising a child still seems to blow people's minds. It's hard, but you can do it. When I was pregnant people constantly asked me "who is going to work in the shop after you have the baby?" The expectation was that I wouldn't be working after the baby was born. As an artist/business owner, maternity leave didn't exist for me. Remy was born and only a few days later he came straight into the shop with me and slept in a little nook behind the counter while I served customers. I think it was quite surprising for people to see Josh and I parenting while running our business so visibly. It really challenged people's ideas of what being a parent and business owner should look like.

Any time I have felt limited or like there was a boundary around what I could do, I looked at why it was like that and found a way to be brave and push past it. Being brave and learning on the job has been my whole experience of running a business and being a mother. There are so many times where I was presented with a challenge and just found a way to make it work. Build your confidence and give yourself a bit of credit. Don't be limited by preconceived boundaries or expectations. Be clear in your goals and plan out really realistically how you're going to achieve them. To push those boundaries, you have to be a little bit crazy though, but that's how I've made it work. 

 

 Shannon Fricke

Shannon Fricke is a conscious entrepreneur with over 30 years of experience as a leader in the fields of home, wellbeing and spirituality. She believes that small business is the most meaningful pathway to positive environmental and economic change and that empathy, awareness and personal empowerment are the ideal drivers for real and long-lasting social impact, offering a unique and creative platform to serve, support and inspire.

She is a co-owner of Newrybar Merchants, a collective of creative local artisans and curators of fine goods located in Byron Bay Hinterland, offering a unique retail experience. Shannon is the custodian and co-director of Graciosa Byron Bay- an 80-acre property offering boutique accommodation for short stays and spiritual retreat. Her most recent project is a spiritual healing goods supply store, On The Mesa Market, that can be found within Newrybar Merchants. A labour of love and service, this project shares the knowledge and healing practices Shannon has learnt from the world's wisdom keepers during her 10-year education into shamanic healing and energy medicine practices and her 30 years as a student of spiritual wellness. 

From writing four globally-published books in home and design, and TV presenting on platforms such as HOME, The Lifestyle Channel and The Living Room, Shannon’s passion has evolved to working with women at the crossroads of change. Through her programmes, retreats and one-on-one mentoring, she offers an inspiring and nurturing environment for women to realign with their truest creative voice while sharing the spiritual healing and wellness tools needed for vibrancy, focus and clarity for their lives.

What does IWD mean to you?
International Women’s Day is an opportunity for women (and men) to pause, reflect upon and ultimately to celebrate the immense contribution women make in all aspects of the human experience - socially, economically, spiritually - via the family, community, the workforce.  It also provides us with an opportunity to set intentions for how we would like this contribution to shift, change and evolve to better serve the needs of women as a group and society as a whole. Whilst great strides have been made around equality for women there is still much ground to cover. IWD is an opportunity to further open the conversation.

How important is it for women to support each other and what does that mean to you?
It’s vital that women feel supported by both other women and men. Certainly, when we are at the stage of trying to build self-belief, support is everything. Feeling supported helps us to build confidence, to refine our views, to be clear in what we intend for our lives and ultimately support helps us get back up again when we fall. I’m a big believer in the concept that we are all one, and so when we support each other we are ultimately supporting ourselves.

What is your favourite thing about being a woman?
The ability to see, to resolve, to nurture, to be intuitive, to support, to be strong, to guide. Women are incredibly powerful- more so than many realise. When women tap into this power and utilise the gift to give strength and love to the community - well, I think this is one of the most extraordinary things about being a woman.

What do you believe will be the biggest challenge for the generation of women behind you?
I feel so optimistic about the women coming through - the next generation. What I’m seeing in my community is a group of highly educated, clear-minded women with evolved communication skills and an ability to tap into their inner guidance system - their self-belief and to create their world from this platform.  As a group, they have been afforded great opportunities often hard-won by their foremothers. Their greatest challenge will be to maintain vigilance around protecting these opportunities.

What do you think is the most pressing issue for women in 2021?
Female representation in all aspects of decision making - government, business - socially, culturally, economically is vital. Financial freedom for women is paramount - it’s extraordinary we are still having a conversation around equality and equal pay for equal work in 2021. Women need to maintain vigilance around protecting the right to choose - the right to vote, the right to freedom. Building skills around self-confidence, self-reliance, self-care, self-esteem continues to be a pressing issue. We need to create and preserve a culture of leadership so the voice of women continues to be heard in meaningful ways and through far-reaching platforms.

What life lesson did you learn the hard way?
The giving away of my power so readily in the belief that others will honour my power equally to their own has been a hard lesson to learn. I learnt the hard way that others do not always operate from a position of equality and fairness. That some people take without intention to give. I somewhat naively believed that others always had my best interests (along with theirs) at heart - that my relationships were an ebb and flow kind of arrangement. I have learnt the hard way to be discerning in my relationships with others and to honour the great gains I have made in my own life.

Ida Almasi

 

Hayley Rose

Hayley has had a love for yoga for as long as she can remember. Growing up in Byron Bay, she developed a dedicated asana practise in her late teens and never looked back.

Following international travel and study, she now resides back in her hometown, where she teaches yoga regularly at Creature Yoga and runs women’s circles to connect with her feminine community. 

Her teaching style has been described as flowing and feminine with a hint of spice. A balance between traditional practice and individual style, mirroring her personality; playful, open-minded and yet supportive and calm. She loves the freedom and creativity of vinyasa while truly valuing the healing antidote to today's society that is yin yoga.

Hayley has also since launched her own yoga and wellness retreat, House of Thirteen, which was born from the desire to connect and support women in all their forms. To create an opportunity to share practice, art, stories, time and thoughts. House of Thirteen is a space where women can deepen their connection to self, nourish their feminine, and create a community of loving long-lasting relationships through yoga and the magic of shared meals.

Which women are you inspired by in your local community, and globe?
There’s just so many! One of the reasons we started House of Thirteen was to share the plethora of incredible and inspiring women we are surrounded by, with a wider community.

My mother inspires me. She holds herself in such grace through every experience, she’s an incredible role model. 

What is your favourite thing about being a woman?
Having a clitoris is pretty cool. Am I allowed to say that?

What words of wisdom did your mother/grandmothers/aunts share with you?
Marry a man who has a good relationship with his mother. (If I choose to marry a man at all!)

To ask for help when I need it and trust that the universe is unfolding exactly as it should.
My dear friend and business partner's aunt passed away recently and she left her with a piece of advice that I love. And that was to have the strength to stand unapologetically as a woman in this world.
Because we have nothing to be sorry for. 

If you could have dinner with any woman – living or passed, real or fictional, who would it be and why?
Probably my Nanna— my mum’s mum. She died about 15 years ago and I have so many questions about her life that I never got to ask her. She grew up in India, as a Jewish woman, and refused her arranged marriage to instead marry my Poppy which I think is super cool. 

What life lesson did you learn the hard way?
Comparing yourself to others, especially other women, does no one any good. In my experience, comparison leads to either vanity or bitterness. Neither are qualities I value. And both segregate us from other women, when really, we should be celebrating each other. For women are truly amazing and even more so when we accept and cherish ourselves and each other. 

When you are 80 years old, what will matter to you most?
That I lived a life that I can look back on and be proud of. That I was kind. That my practice continued to hold me through my life and that I shared some kind of beauty with the world. 

Why do we need more women in leadership roles? What strategies do you have for our fellow leaders?
We need more women at the table because we need more compassion in the world, more understanding and more diverse opinions and perspectives. The lack of women in leadership roles holds back not only women, but the rest of the world as well.