Shine Awards 2022: Overall winner Emily Riggs, Youth Award winners Claire Harris and Kate Strong

A fashion designer from a South Australian Merino property has received the top honour, while two linedancing legends are named Youth winners.

A fashion designer from a South Australian sheep farm who has overcome tragedy to become a champion of sustainable Australian wool has been named overall winner of the 2022 Shine Awards.

Emily Riggs faced a huge health battle as a child, and at the same time lost her mother to cancer. Rather than dimming her aspirations, the tragedy lit her passion for fashion.

Shine Awards overall winner Emily Riggs, founder of Iris & Wool. Picture: Matt Turner

Now a mum of two young children herself living on a family-run sheep property at Burra in South Australia’s Mid-North, Emily uses her design talent to create beautiful clothing that showcases Australia’s finest Merino fibre.

Not only does her work raise the profile of the wool industry and connect consumers with the source of their fibre, she gives a slice of her profits to breast cancer charity the McGrath Foundation.

She says “giving back is everything to me … it’s my driving force behind why I do what I do”.

That is the quality that tops the long list of reasons Iris & Wool founder and creative director Emily Riggs is the deserving overall winner of the 2022 Shine Awards.

Emily is also the Passion category winner.

Launched in 2017, The Weekly Times Shine Awards, supported by Harvey Norman, celebrates the contributions of Australia’s rural and regional women.

This year, 120 nominations were received for rural women in every state and territory.

Today, winners have been revealed in six categories: Belief, Courage, Dedication, Grace, Passion and Spirit.

2022 SHINE AWARDS CATEGORY WINNERS

BELIEF: Bianca Tarrant, Our Cow founder, Baryulgil, NSW

COURAGE: Tanya Holmes, Imperfectly Perfect Sugar Cookies founder, Bathurst, NSW

DEDICATION: Bloss Hickson, organic farmer, Rolleston, QLD

GRACE: Carly McKinnis and Tammie Meehan, Clinical Psychologist and teacher, Ararat, VIC

PASSION AND OVERALL: Emily Riggs, Iris and Wool founder, Burra, South Australia

SPIRIT: Naomi Moran, Koori Mail general manager and flood relief co-ordinator, Lismore, NSW

YOUTH AWARD: Claire Harris and Kate Strong, Hoedowns for Country Towns dancers, Maleny and Spring Creek, QLD

A Youth Award is also given to a short-listed nominee under the age of 30 who shows great potential to be a future leader in her field or endeavour.

This year’s Youth Award winners are two young women who are giving farming communities reason to kick up their heels on a linedancing trip of a lifetime.

Kate Strong and Claire Harris of Hoedowns for Country Towns are the 2022 Shine Awards Youth Award winners. Picture: Jackson Madders

Claire Harris and Kate Strong have clocked up nearly 50,000km on a nine-month boot-scootin’ trip across rural Australia.

Their “Hoedowns for Country Towns” adventure has seen them teach line dancing in some of the nation’s most remote communities, and raise more than $30,000 in total for seven rural charities – one in every state and territory.

“This whole trip gives us a reason to go to towns where farmers have had a tough couple of years,” says Kate, 24, who grew up on her family’s farm at Clifton in southeast Queensland.

Agriculture journalist Claire, 25, met Kate at a Toowoomba linedancing class in 2018 and they discovered a mutual love for boot scootin’ and supporting rural communities. They started their cross-country mission earlier this year.

Rural communities have jumped at the chance to learn how to dance while raising money for Aussie Helpers, Cottages for Country Care, children’s charity Variety, the Blue Tree Project, Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation, Rural Alive and Well and Sober in the Country.

“When you combine them together they are quite a force of helping rural people,” Claire says.

The community response to their trip has made the risk of leaving behind jobs, friends and family all worth it.

“Councils, groups and schools have reached out and said we love what you are doing,” Claire says.

“The fact that has happened is really exciting.

“We have been really privileged to be a part of so many amazing hoedowns.”

For their genuine passion for giving back to rural communities, and endless energy to do so in every state and territory, Claire and Kate are this year’s Youth Award winners.