Women take step forward

Nine strong, beautiful and proud young Indigenous women from the Pilbara stood tall as they strove to make the final of Pilbara Girl last Friday. Walking the catwalk and putting into practice their newly developed skills, the participants from Port Hedland to Karratha wowed the judges at the heat for the renowned Indigenous women’s empowerment program, held at the Ibis Styles Hotel Karratha. Selected to compete for the title of Pilbara Girl 2020 at the final in Broome later this year were Orielle Drill, Tawani Ashton, Leila Pearson, Kasaunna Hunter-Aragu, Stephany Shaw and Amy-Lee Bobby. Finalist Tawani Ashton said the week of workshops and the catwalk event was a good experience. “I was very nervous and scared but after a while I kind of got used to it,” she said. “I have wanted to do this like my entire life. (I learnt) how to gain confidence within myself and how to overcome fears.” Finalist Leila Pearson said she had already gained more confidence within herself since starting the program. “You can look in the mirror and be like ‘That’s my body’, I should be proud of it and not let anyone shame you, judge you, just be you,” she said. Pilbara Girl founder and Goolarri Media chief operations officer Kira Fong said the girls did an amazing job despite not being able to walk in front of friends and family because of COVID-19. “It was obviously a very difficult environment for the girls and I guess for the team that were here to work on Pilbara Girl. Other aspects of the girls’ strength came out, they all had to be leaders and they all had to work effectively as a team which is one of the things that we teach them,” she said. “We are super proud of all the girls because it was a very difficult year for them and they actually took that step to come into the program in the first place. Whether we have no guests, we are going down there and going to support these girls and going to help them to make those changes in their lives, the positive changes they need to make.” Ms Fong said the next workshops involved communication, organisation, work readiness, public speaking and leadership. “It is a big week,” she said. Destinee Green, Tiah Hill and Jasmine Spratt also competed.