Edwina Robertson speaks out on drought
‘If what is currently happening went on for eight years, could you still afford to put food on the table? My guess would be very few people could. But unfortunately, this was the harsh reality for many of our farmers.’
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AS THE coronavirus continues to close businesses and impact livelihoods across Australia, wedding photographer and champion of the bush Edwina Robertson took to Facebook last week to share an important message about the drought and provide a fresh perspective on the coronavirus.
A sixth-generation child of the land from Deepwater, New South Wales, Edwina has been a photographer for eight years, niching in bush weddings to earn her nickname as ‘queen of the dust’.
Through her photography, Edwina has seen first-hand the devastation of drought on rural families and communities, inspiring her to travel all over outback Australia to document life on the land and raise thousands of dollars for drought support through her various campaigns.
Edwina’s first taste of championing the bush came in 2015 when she shared an image from a dusty Blackall wedding and told the story of a family facing their fourth year of drought, who had completely destocked a week before the wedding.
The photo received almost 5000 shares in just 24 hours after she promised to personally donate $3 to Tie Up the Black Dog, a rural mental health charity, for each share.
In 2017 she hit the road on her Wander of the West tour, a 100-day trip across Australia with no money, offering her skills behind the camera to rural families in exchange for food, fuel and accommodation, and documenting her journey online.
In 2018, Edwina took her advocacy a step further, creating a drought awareness campaign, One Bucket, to highlight the faces and stories behind drought statistics and raise funds for Rural Aid and Drought Angels.
As a wedding photographer, Edwina herself is out of a job for at least the next six months, as coronavirus restrictions have caused couples to pause their plans or go ahead without the big ceremony.
Despite this, Edwina spoke up last week to share an important message about the virus and how it relates to the drought.
“It was just an opinion, just something I wanted to share because it riled me up a little,” she said.
“It’s absolutely nothing to do with me personally, I don’t survive living off the land, but it’s just something I’m passionate about.”
THE MESSAGE
Shared about 7500 times, Edwina’s Facebook post has gone viral, reaching almost 900,000 people since it was posted last week.
Providing some perspective between the current economic and health crisis and the harsh reality Australian farmers face during the drought, her post drives home a message about the farmers feeding the nation.
Edwina’s post reads:
“I wholeheartedly feel like it’s so vital right now to just say this because this is a message that has been impossible to make the rest of our nation understand for so long.
“If you’ve currently lost your job because of an occurrence out of your control, can you survive a month, two or even six without government help?
“Let’s say hypothetically you knew an occurrence like this could happen once every 100 years, would you still be financially prepared to survive a year, two or even three years without income and no financial assistance?
“If what is currently happening went on for eight years and there was limited government assistance to supplement the income you were not making, could you still afford to put food on the table and not have the banks take everything you own? My guess would be very few people could.
“But, unfortunately, this was the harsh reality for many of our farmers who have only just come out of drought. The financial challenges many of us are going through now is similar to what many rural communities have faced for many years, but without immediate, adequate and no-strings-attached government financial assistance.
“After all this, I hope we never criticise the people who feed us for supposedly being ‘ill-prepared’ for natural disasters that affected them not for months, but for years.
“I hope we never dismiss our primary producers for needing help when the circumstances they face are completely out of their control, much like we currently face.
“May we be understanding, reasonable and compassionate and give adequate support to those who feed us when they are doing it tough.
“And may we all be so grateful for the food on our tables tonight that the people who have kept going despite adversity and struggles for years still get up every single day to ensure each one of us, right now, has enough to eat.”
BRIDGING THE GAP
Edwina hopes the message will help to change the perception of farmers and help people understand that drought, much like the coronavirus, is out of our control.
“No one can prepare for eight years of drought. I’m sorry I don’t care how good a business owner and manager you are, eight years is a bloody long time and not just financially but emotionally,” she said.
“It’s out of everyone’s control as much as the drought is too. No one can make it rain, no one can shut the coronavirus down.
“I think we just need a bit more compassion and understanding, and I hope out of all of this we band together a bit more and go, ‘It’s really tough. I know what it’s like to do it tough and I know how hard it can be and sometimes it isn’t a fault of our own, it isn’t because we’re terrible at managing businesses and whatnot, sometimes things are out of our control’.”
On her journey, Edwina has identified a disconnect between the country and the city and believes now is the time to bridge the gap.
“There is a gap between the messaging of what’s happening in the bush to city people, and that’s why I wrote what I did,” she said.
“There is a huge disconnect unfortunately, but in saying that I think this is the most amazing time to actually be proactive and educate people about where their food is coming from, because that’s pretty much all anyone is going and buying right now is food.”
Edwina is calling for people to champion the agricultural sector and work together proactively to highlight the faces behind the food feeding the nation through this crisis.
“It’s a really pivotal and crucial time while people are really contemplating what is essential to them,” she said.
“When you take all the fluffy stuff away, being fed is really important, and that’s what rural Australia and the agricultural industry does very well.”
By sharing daily operations and showing people how their food is made, Edwina hopes the agricultural community will be more supported and appreciated.
“It just comes down to basics and sharing what people do every day, because that’s where the message is being lost. People just go to the supermarket and they see the food on the shelves and they don’t have any appreciation for the process that food has been through to get there.
“It’s a very basic storyline, but we don’t appreciate and value it,” she said.
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