Moving the Chairs at Women Deliver 2026
- Dr Sarah Ireland
- May 20
- 4 min read
Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Country, Vic. 19 May 2026
This year, Women Deliver was hosted in Oceanic Pacific for the first time, bringing more than 6,000 delegates to Narrm (Melbourne) on Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Country of the Kulin Nation.
The global conference gathered women, community leaders, health workers, activists, and policymakers from around the world to discuss gender equity and social change.
Among them was representation from our team!
Members of our team; Helen Guyupul Wunungumurra, Naomi Dhamarrandji, and myself. attended with generous support from the Wiyi Yani U Thangani Institute, whose sponsorship helped ensure First Nations women’s voices and lived experiences were included in this important global conversation.
Guyupul from the Molly Wardaguga Institute is one of the lead Yolŋu Djäkamirr mentors, widely respected for her deep ancestral knowledge, cultural leadership, and empathy. Naomi from the Djäkamirr Co-op is a Djäkamirr graduate who brings great skill, commitment, and passion to supporting women and families in her community.
Photo credit: Graduate Djäkamirr Naomi stands as one amoung many!! The most people Naomi has ever seen in one place.
One of the highlights of the week was our workshop, Indigenous Birth Sovereignty Lab: From Resistance to Policy Change, delivered in partnership with the inspiring First Nations Diné nurse-midwife Nicole Arthun from the Navajo Nation. Nicole is the founder of the Changing Woman Initiative and now leads Transcending Strategies, an Indigenous women-led strategy and systems transformation organisation in the United States.
Together, we explored how policy can both support and restrict the ability of First Nations women to experience culturally safe and sovereign birthing care.
Photo credit: Sarah Ireland. L-R Nicolle Arthun, Naomi and the Workshop Team
The workshop began with a simple but important decision — moving the conference chairs aside so participants could sit together on the floor and talk in a circle. While this initially raised concerns from venue staff and security, we were eventually able to negotiate and create the space we wanted.
It became an important reflection point and metaphor during the session. Many First Nations people continue to navigate systems and institutions built around Western expectations, often leaving little room for different cultural practices, approaches, or ways of gathering and learning.
Even when First Nations women succeed in creating space within these systems, it is often achieved not through structural reform, but through continual negotiation and quiet resistance to colonial norms. Much like our workshop room, where the chairs could only be moved aside on the condition that everything was returned to its original order afterwards.
The workshop discussion that followed focused on practical realities: what culturally safe care looks like, how policy affects community-led maternity models, and why Indigenous women must be involved in shaping decisions about birth and family wellbeing. We had a lot to share from our many years of overcoming obstacles in our journey to change Yolŋu maternity care systems.
A particularly proud moment for our team was seeing djäkamirr graduate Naomi attend her first major international conference — and her first trip outside Darwin! Naomi spoke publicly indentifying herself as Yolŋu woman and stating her role as a graduate djakamirr whoes work enables sovereign birth practices within her community.
Photo credit: Sarah Ireland. (L-R) Djäkamirr Graduate Naomi Dhamarrandji; Helen Guyupul Wunungumurra and Naomi Dhamarrandji at the Pre-conference Indigenous Gathering.
Her contribution reflected the importance of creating opportunities for young First Nations women to speak and bring their experiences into national and international spaces.
Outside the formal sessions, the conference also created opportunities for connection. Guyupul and Naomi spent time in the Healing Space hosted by the Wurundjeri Land Council and Mindful Mob healers, where relationships were formed with Māori women and other Indigenous delegates from across the world.
Photo credit: Sarah Ireland. Weaving and moments of connection at the Healing Centre
There were also meaningful moments of reconnection with women from Wadeye and Peppimenarti, where my own remote midwifery career began many years ago. Sitting, weaving, and sharing stories together brought back strong memories of the very special Yek Yeddar woman who generously guided and mentored me during those early years: Concepta Wulili Narjic. She is named with respect and permission from family.
She has now passed away, but her cultural knowledge and practical wisdom deeply shaped both my approach to midwifery and to be honest the birthing positions I later chose when giving birth to my own children!
It was a powerful reminder of how knowledge is carried through relationships, trust, and practice across generations of women.
Throughout the week, weaving kept returning as a quiet but powerful metaphor. Weaving relies on many threads working together under tension and balance. In many ways, community-led change works the same way: through relationships, tension, persistence, and collective effort.
Phtocredit: Sarah Ireland. Helen Guyupul Wungumurra weaves
Women Deliver 2026 reinforced the importance of ensuring First Nations women are not only included in conversations about maternity care and policy, but actively shaping them.
The week was a reminder that meaningful change happens when lived experience, cultural knowledge, and community leadership are taken seriously.
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