Brewarrina is a town of fewer than 2000 people in north-west NSW and is famous as the home of the oldest surviving human-made structure in the world, the Brewarrina fish traps.

Expected to be around 40 thousand years old, the resilient and innovative fish traps personify the town and the people it raises. One of those people is Barbie-Lee Kirby.

Meanwhile, in 2016, at the annual CareerTrackers gala dinner, a man by the name of Alan Joyce presented an award for Intern of the Year.

Before he read the winners name, he stood in front of the packed room and confidently announced: “ If a gay Irish man can be the CEO of QANTAS, then so can an Aboriginal woman.“ Moments later, Barbie emerged on stage to resounding applause.

And her excellence certainly didn’t end on that night.

Since then, Barbie has gone on to be an employee of Qantas, she’s a board member for the National Aboriginal Sporting Chance Academy (NASCA) and the Founder of We Pledge: an initiative that connects Aboriginal high school girls in Brewarrina with other Indigenous female professionals who are working in a range of fields across the corporate, government and non-profit sector.

Here’s Barbie Lee Kirby….

CREDITS:

Host: Marlee Silva

With thanks to Barbie-Lee Kirby

Producers:  Elissa Ratliff and Amelia Navascues

To find out more about We Pledge, head to https://wepledge.weebly.com/ 

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