Dear Friends,
As summer arrives and we close out 2025, we're reflecting on a year of deep connection, learning and building. From gatherings on Bunuba Country to international exchanges, this year has shown what becomes possible when First Nations women are resourced to lead.
We're thrilled to launch the Co-Design Camp video, created in partnership with Big hART and much more below.
We're thrilled to share the video from our inaugural Co-Design Camp on Bunuba Country. Created with Big hART through their Punkaliyarra process, this film captures what happened when more than 50 First Nations, and non-First Nations women and girls gathered in July to explore peacebuilding and how to support women's movements continent-wide.
Over four days on Country, participants yarned, created, swam in sacred springs and explored deep questions: What does peacebuilding mean to us? How do we build a national Institute to support women's movements? How do we record and revitalise knowledge to support social change?
Country held everyone. Women spoke of peace, of cups being filled, of ancient knowledges resurfacing. Young girls from Visual Dreaming's Butterfly Dreaming program joined Elders around the campfire. Networks strengthened. Tools for the collective medicine bag emerged.
In October, June Oscar AO, Institute Chair, and Jane Pedersen, Institute Co-Lead, attended the Lyon Dance Biennale, where Indigenous dance groups from around the world came together to explore colonisation, healing and collective wellbeing through movement.
The experience reinforced how powerful Indigenous performance practices are as forms of peacebuilding. Watching groups use body, voice and movement to tell stories about past, present and future—it was systems thinking brought to life.
Marrugeku, the intercultural dance company from Australia, demonstrated how cultural protocols around respect and reciprocity naturally create the conditions for peacebuilding. Their approach to holding space for diverse Indigenous groups offered insights that will inform how we continue developing our own peacebuilding methodology.
It was a reminder that the work of transformation happens in many forms—not just in policy spaces or research, but through art, ceremony, movement and cultural practice. All of it is connected.
The Women Deliver 2026 Conference will take place 27-30 April in Narrm (Melbourne). The theme is Change Calls Us Here. This is a historic moment—the first time Women Deliver will be regionally hosted in the Oceanic Pacific, and a chance for First Nations women to connect with global movements for gender justice.
We'll be releasing an Expression of Interest for sponsored positions for First Nations women, gender-diverse mob (aged 12+), and girls aged 12-17. Sponsored positions will include support required including conference registration, flights, accommodation and more.
Watch this space—the EOI will be coming soon.
Learn more about Women Deliver 2026 Conference
We've launched our Facebook page—follow us for updates, event announcements, and community stories.
You can also find us on LinkedIn and Instagram.
Visual Dreaming brings together Elders, community members and young people in programs that centre cultural strength and leadership. Their flagship youth programs—Butterfly Dreaming for young women and Maliyan Dreaming for young men—take participants on transformation journeys based on the life cycles of butterflies and eagles.
Small groups of young people work with Elders and First Nations mentors, building relationships across generations while developing leadership skills. As they progress through the program, they become mentors themselves for the next cohort coming through, creating an ongoing cycle of cultural transmission and leadership.
When Leanne brought young women from Butterfly Dreaming to the Co-Design Camp on Bunuba Country, something powerful happened. These young women stepped into a gathering of First Nations women leaders from across the continent. The transformation was visible—by the end of those four days, they were speaking up, sharing their stories, holding their own space.
"I've learnt how to be more confident and comfortable around these people," one young woman shared.
Another spoke about "…hearing their stories. Learning what they've done to come here and how much they've sacrificed for their kids."
This is the ripple effect of Visual Dreaming's work—young people walking into spaces knowing they belong, carrying cultural strength with them.
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