Making Meaning from the Margins

Last month, Australian author Kathy Lette took the stage in Margaret River to launch her new book ‘The Sisterhood Rules’. She was, as always, a breath of fresh air – witty, warm, and bold. But beneath the humour was a fierce intelligence and a clear-eyed reckoning with the state of feminism today.

She didn’t mince words. “We’re sliding backwards, on the road to Gilead,” she warned, and shared how in the United States, young women now face worse conditions than their mothers did, with abortion bans that have spread like wildfire, a growing gender pay gap, and domestic violence rates that should shame us all. Here in Australia, we’re hardly in a position to feel superior: a woman is killed by her intimate partner approximately every eight days.

But Kathy (in typical Kathy fashion) was not all doom and gloom on the matter. She pointed to the #MeToo movement, which has been a phenomenal indicator of change. And she urged us to join forces, to bring men into the conversation as allies, and to hold power to account wherever it hides.

As International Women’s Day lands, Kathy’s words feel especially resonant. Feminism is lived and fought for in every corner of the country, including the regions where the work often goes unnoticed.

So this year, we wanted to do something different. We asked women across regional Western Australia to nominate an inspiring female artist in their community – someone whose work deserves a wider audience, someone making a difference in their patch. Here are three women who were nominated, each making meaning from the margins, each proving that some of the most sophisticated creative thinking in Australia is happening far from the institutional centres that claim to define it.

Lynnette Neil: Peel

At 82, Lynnette Neil has been working with fabric and thread for over sixty years from her farm in Waroona, where her textile studio occupies a converted shearing shed. There’s a poetry to that detail, and also some humour: Lynn laughs that she has so much donated fabric she could fill another shed, and still she keeps taking it. “I always have room,” she says with a grin. It’s the spirit of a woman who’s never stopped making, never stopped moving forward.

Lynn’s practice draws from “the rhythms of the land,” exploring how texture and colour can express “quiet beauty, endurance, and transformation”. Through stitching, layering, and dyeing, she reflects on the passage of time and the deep connection between women’s hands and the fabric of community. Her work often channels the experiences of women from the wartime era, bringing historical female labour into conversation with contemporary textile practice, and always with sustainability at its heart.

Each piece carries stories of “work, love, and resilience,” shaped by rural life’s simplicity and honesty. Last year, she contributed to the ‘Closet of the Anthropocene’ showcase in Florence, Italy. This year, she’s off to Indonesia for Eco Fashion Week.

It’s the kind of 82-year-old energy that makes you reconsider what’s possible. And through it all, Lynn speaks with a quiet gratitude about living in regional WA. She feels privileged, she says, and you believe her. Because here is a woman who has built a life of meaning from the margins, and shows no sign of slowing down.

Beverly Brosnan: Mid West

Beverly Brosnan’s trajectory reads like a masterclass in how to build cultural capacity from scratch. Living in Meekatharra, she saw that there was a lack of places for people to gather, create, and connect beyond the workplace or the town’s three pubs. So in March 2025, she founded Meeka Creatives.

“It’s a large regional town of approximately 800 people and unfortunately it has very few active clubs and ways of meeting people and socialising,” Beverly explains. “And Meekatharra also has no art centre, despite there being some very talented Aboriginal artists who live here.”

As a farmer’s daughter from Darkan WA, a former secondary art teacher and arts manager with a 25-year career spanning the Sydney Youth Orchestra, Barking Gecko Theatre Company, Canberra’s Centenary celebrations and Canberra Glassworks, Beverly recognised the hunger for creative connection in the community. She approached the Shire of Meekatharra, who agreed to let her use the local bakery space for free once a month for these creative meet-ups.

The sessions needed to be accessible. “Many people don’t work and are on low incomes so it needed to be free,” she says. “They enjoy art and they’re looking for new opportunities and a space to take them away from other things affecting their lives. Some of them are just keen to meet new people and socialise.”

Bev has now also formalised her work through Mid Western Arts, and has been seeking funding for artist residencies and professional development. Her aim is to stimulate arts production across the Mid West, support local artists, and ensure communities can access diverse creative experiences.

“From conversations I’ve been having, I know it’s making a difference. There’s great people in Meekatharra and so much talent,” Beverly reflects. “We really need an art centre in Meekatharra and it doesn’t matter how basic it is to start with. We just need a place to be able to go and make work together and learn from each other.”

You sense that Beverly is driven by her love for Meekatharra, for its people, for what it already is and what it might become. She’s working with what she has; a borrowed bakery and some donated art supplies, and she’s actually changing lives.

Josephine Jay: Great Southern

Originally from the UK, Josephine Jay studied architecture at the Edinburgh School of Art, and eventually found her way to the southern coast of Australia in Albany – where she’s been for 17 years.

Now working as a filmmaker and visual designer, Josephine knows that regional stories require regional storytellers, and she delivers Western Australian narratives through both stage and screen. Through her latest documentary, she explores her own vision of creative practice and the ways it holds, connects and colours community.

Her upcoming film ‘In The Making,’ premiers at Albany Town Hall on August 8th with City of Albany’s support, and examines Albany and surrounds through its craftspeople and creatives. The project showcases artists like Mark and Donelle Hewson from Torbay Glass, scrimshaw artist Gary Tonkin, and paper-cut artist Sue Codee. With these artist stories, she has built a picture of the skilled hands working outside metropolitan attention.

What drives her, she’ll tell you, is integrity. “It’s fundamental to me to show integrity in my work and to have meaning in the things that I do. I think that’s part of the success and the energy of my projects, is that I go in with heart, with meaning.”

The 40-minute film will expand into a website of short films which will be the vehicle for ongoing documentation and have longevity, not just a one-off celebration.

People can follow insights into the film and associated artists on Facebook and Instagram. The website of her project is www.inthemakingwa.com.au (still in progress). More info on Josephine and her work can be found at her website: www.gneissdesign.com.au