NSW woman’s simple idea scores big Woolworths deal

An indigenous woman from Central Western NSW has triumphed over adversity to create a booming business.

The Shine Awards, an awards ceremony dedicated to promoting women’s voices across Australian, has named small business owner Sharon Winsor as their overall winner for 2023.

A Ngemba Weilwan woman, Ms Winsor lives in Mudgee in Central Western New South Wales. This is where she manages Indigiearth, her business dedicated to selling ethically sourced bush foods and other products native to the country.

The idea for this business began when Ms Winsor found herself missing collecting food from the bush in her youth, and discovered her peers in the city had “a very limited knowledge” of Australian native foods.

“I try to buy back all of the ingredients from Aboriginal businesses, growers, wild harvesters, where I can,” she told news.com.au. “Trying to encourage communities to get involved with the native food industry, and also to protect communities from being ripped off in the industry.”

Beginning with 25 premium bush food products, Indigiearth now sells 200 items their website, some of which you can also find at Woolworths. Picture by Dean Marzolla

Before rebranding to Indigiearth in 2012, Ms Winsor went through the loss of her first child to stillbirth, and moved homes due to domestic violence – and said that overcoming these events was a great personal achievement of hers.

“There’s always one more year that he’s missing, another part of what I do,” she said of her lost son. “And I went on to have two more children, who are adults now as well. And so there’s always a part of you that’s missing.”

Ms Winsor noted that stillbirth rates in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women is double that of other Australian women.

Despite this, Ms Winsor established a business that now sells more than 200 products based from sustainably harvested Australian sources. Some of her products are available at Woolworths.

“There were people who didn’t think that Aboriginal people could be professional in business,” she said. “I really had to dig deep, personally, to keep pushing along, but I really believed in what I was doing, culturally, spiritually and emotionally.”

Ms Winsor said that she was enthusiastic to spread the word about her work and that of other women in her community, saying that her industry only has a 1.5 per cent Aboriginal ownership despite it making hundreds of millions of dollars.

“If there’s an opportunity to support women in business, then reach out to support women where you can,” she said. “Because we’re the ones that carry family, carry community and are out there being leaders in different industries.”

Ms Winsor said that it was important to use public platforms to boost positive stories about ingidenous people, and not just the negative ones. Picture by Dean Marzolla

The Shine Awards has been a seven year-running collaboration between The Weekly Times and Harvey Norman, designed to shine the spotlight on rural and regional women across the country.

Harvey Norman chief executive officer and judge Katie Page said that out of the 124 women nominated for this year’s awards, she found Ms Winsor’s story “extraordinary”.

“Overcoming huge adversity, she has created a brand that elevates Australian bush foods and creates economic opportunities for Indigenous communities in the process,” she said.

The Shine Awards recognise rural women who impact their community, and has seven categories in addition to the overall winner. Picture: Dean Marzolla

Winners in each category have received a $2500 voucher from Harvey Norman. As the winner, Ms Winsor will also be awarded $5000.

In addition to being the overall winner, Ms Winsor won the Grace Award at the event. The Shine Awards also had the following winners for each category:

Belief: Josie Clarke, the NSW-based founder of Ability Agriculture.

Courage: Lyndee Severin, a cattle farmer and tourism operator in Petermann, NT.

Dedication: Kathy Duff, a councillor and community champion in South Burnett, Queensland.

Passion: Claire Harrison, a fitness instructor and health and wellbeing advocate in Loddon Shire, Victoria.

Spirit: Amanda Loy, Cowgirl and founder of the Cowgirls Gathering event in Coleyville, Queensland.

Youth Award (Under 30): Annie Pumpa, a global beef genetics supply chain manager in Braidwood, NSW.