At the start of the pandemic, Evie Wood’s son was just a few months old. He was growing fast and quickly outgrowing the mostly second-hand clothes she had bought for him.
She soon realised that there were probably other parents out there who could benefit from the clothes her son no longer needed, which were still in great condition. Wood posted a bundle of her son’s clothing on Facebook Marketplace and it was quickly snapped up.
At the same time, she also received a message from a social worker who said bundles like that would be really useful for the Aboriginal women she worked with who were soon expecting babies.
“She told me that these women risk experiencing racism in the hospital system if they appear ready to give birth without the material things that the white model deem as “necessities”,” Wood told Women’s Agenda.
“The bundle I had was already spoken for but I wanted to do something.”
Evie and her mum Jennifer, who has a history of removed children in her family, set out to put together a few more bundles for Aboriginal mothers in their local area, using the COVID supplement payments they were receiving at the time to cover the costs.
“We went to the shops and filled beach bags to the brim with everything that I would have wanted when I was about to give birth. Off our own backs, this exercise cost in excess of $300 each time,” Wood says.
Evie and Jennifer soon connected with a local businesswoman Pam Brook, who worked with them to see how they could expand their bundles to help more women. Together, they worked with local Aboriginal Health Services to refine the contents of the bundles, and that’s when a new idea struck.
“It became very clear very quickly that the real gem was the gift that the Aboriginal Health Services are as a culturally safe healthcare option for Aboriginal women. Our gift was just the cherry on top,” Wood shares. “With their collaboration (midwives, social workers and Aunties), we refined the gift to be what you see today,”
“Once our contents were finalised, Pam got to work, utilising her business-clout and connections to secure important partnerships like PureBaby, Baby Bunting, Hanes Group (Bonds and Sheridan), BabyLove, Medela, Ego Pharmaceuticals, Shoobridge Transport, Betterworld Arts, Brookfarm, Magabala Books and more.”
Coolamon Community’s gift to mothers
Evie and Jennifer are now the co-founders of the Coolamon Community, a project that delivers a “Coolamon Crib” of essentials to First Nations mums either before or just after they give birth.
Each package contains a bundle of baby clothes, toiletries for baby, toiletries for mum, bedding for baby, a safe sleep space, nappies, wipes, dummies, bottles, Aboriginal authored and illustrated baby books, an Aboriginal designed tote bag and a snuggle toy.
The gifts are delivered by trusted healthcare workers from Aboriginal Health Services, with the aim of connecting mothers to culturally-informed support.
Evie says that during the process of curating the gifts, the importance of Aboriginal women experiencing culturally safe healthcare was so much greater than they had first thought.
“When you have a baby, you look down at that tiny, wriggly being and realise that your own mother has loved you this much, this incredible amount, the whole time,” she explains. “In that realisation it hits you how destroying it would be for those Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women who have had their babies taken from them.”
“We know that when a woman receives culturally safe healthcare during her pregnancy, birth and early infancy, health and wellbeing outcomes are better for both mother and child. This is the key.”
As Evie explains, we often talk about the Stolen Generation as a specific period of time in Australia’s history, but figures show that children were removed before this period and are continuing to be removed today. In NSW, one in 10 babies are reported to authorities before they are even born and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are over 10 times more likely to be removed than non-Indigenous children.
“Of those removed, one in ten are taken before reaching two weeks of age,” she says.
“Often, babies are removed within the first four hours after birth, some even before the birthing process has completed, not even delivering their placenta before having their newborn, still a part of them, ripped from their arms.
“Currently, there is a concerning imbalance of funding, with over 80 per cent going to Out of Home Care and less than 20 per cent going to prevention. We see the Coolamon Community project as supplementing the prevention funding where government support is severely lacking.”
Coolamon Community is currently delivering an average of one Coolamon Crib per day across its footprint on the Northern Rivers of NSW, from Tweed down to Coffs Harbour and across to Casino.
Coolamon Community doesn’t set any criteria for the women who receive its gifts – that is left to the Aboriginal healthcare professionals who are best placed to care for mothers.
“We know that it is the Aboriginal healthcare professionals who are caring for mum who are in the best position to make these decisions and we trust them entirely to do so,” she says.
“If our gift will bring a benefit to that woman and her baby, then that woman should receive our gift. For some women that benefit may be the difference between having her baby removed and being able to stay with her baby. For other women it may be alleviating the financial burden of the current economic crisis by receiving a beautiful, high-quality gift of everything she needs to care for baby during the first few weeks of life. And then there are women who cover everything in between.”
Evie and Jennifer are currently working on expanding their services, but want to do so in a sustainable way and are also looking into establishing a social enterprise.
“We are here for the long-term, we know that this is how deep impact is created and this is what matters to Coolamon Community,” Evie says.
Image credit: @tajetteohalloran.
To mark NAIDOC Week 2024, Women’s Agenda has produced a special edition eMagazine in honour and celebration of incredible First Nations women trailblazing across different sectors in healthcare. Thanks to Charles Sturt University’s First Nations Pathways for its support bringing this eMagazine to life.