Women lead in enterprises    

GENDER

By THOMAS HUKAHU
WOMEN can lead, that is something we all know.
And something that is not talked about often is women can lead as entrepreneurs and business people too.
This was once again emphasised in the study tour that I was part of in April, a trip that took us to the Fleurieu Peninsula of South Australia, a favourite destination for those willing to come this far south of the continent Down Under.
This article follows on from the last one on the Exploring Women in Business and Entrepreneurship Study Tour where the participants were students from Cambodia and Papua New Guinea attending the Flinders University and University of Adelaide.

 Breakfast and to a farmers market
On Saturday, April 17, as usual, we, the male students, and our driver got ready for the day and travelled the few kilometres to where the females were and have breakfast at their place.
The routine was that the tour leader and her assistants were usually the ones taking care of the breakfast, and often assisted by students who were around that early.
For breakfast, we had boiled or fried eggs and bread, often toasted, as well as rice and noodles and canned tuna, for those who want that. I stuck with toast, eggs and coffee.
After breakfast, we would then board the bus and then head for our destination.
On April 17, we headed back up the main road that we took to get down here in Victor Harbor.
Our destination for that day was Willunga, a small town 38 kilometres back up the road, and 46 kilometres from Adelaide.
The ride itself during the day was beautiful. Unlike two nights ago, we could see the landscape that we passed through on the night of April 15.
The countryside was hilly and grassy interspersed with trees, eucalyptus or pine trees, or others.
We had to go across a range of hilly countryside to get to Willunga on the northern side.
The town was situated near a lot of farmland.
In that region some people raised sheep or cattle, and others kept vineyards. Still others kept orchards of oranges or mandarins or other fruits.
We were met by Jenni Mitton, the general manager of the Willunga Farmers Market.
She told us that the popular market was started by a woman. (It is South Australia’s first farmers market and was started in February 2002.)
We had the session with Mitton in the council office building.
“Most of the people who are serving at a stall at the market are the people who made the cake, or grew the apple or picked it, plus getting a bit of help often,” Mitton said.
“There are a lot of small family businesses that operate here and we’re really proud to be part of their story.
“I just did a quick calculation today and we’ve got 55 stalls (at the market), and 20 of those stalls today are owned and operated by women.”
She also said the aim of the concept was to get money from the buyers straight into the hands of the farmers, without any middle person.
We, the student participants, were also given $20 vouchers to spend at the market later on, on any item of our wish.
We had another session at the council building where we learned from a former police officer Glen Davis, who spoke on gender equity and the challenges ahead.
After the talk, we went to the market and looked around.
I was amazed by the many products that were on sale. They had sweet potatoes, bottled honey, cabbages, wine, grapes, apples and cakes and homemade biscuits as well.
Two musicians, a harpist and accordionist, were basking to the western side of the Willunga market. I took a video of the two playing.
With the vouchers that I had (four $5 vouchers) I bought myself some apples, grapes and homemade Anzac biscuits and later found a coffee stall where I bought a cappuccino. (I ate the fruits over the following week when I was back in my own place in the city.)

Meeting a mum who designed bags for toys
When we returned to the council office building, we had lunch and had an afternoon session with Kate O’Donoghue, a co-founder of Play Pouch.
She shared with us the history of her start-up, a venture she initiated with another friend of hers, also a mother with kids.
She said her family had no business experience, hence her entry into entrepreneurship and business was a real challenge.
They had to learn most things from scratch.
She said she and her business partner, another mum called Kate, tried to find a solution in helping their children properly put their toys away after their play sessions.
O’Donoghue said the first days in the business were anything but smooth sailing but they were resolved in their desire to stay in business and they pushed on.
She said they had designed a prototype of the first bag and sent it to a manufacturer overseas, who then sent back a very beautiful sample.
Then they sent the firm money to make the bags.
O’Donoghue said when the products arrived in about 50 boxes, she was filled with excitement as she moved them off the truck to the house that they used as their storage facility.
“I opened the (first) box only to discover that the products that were provided to us were not like the sample that had come,” she said.
“In fact, they were unsaleable. We borrowed money to start the business so we were devastated.”
But she said that did not stop them from continuing in their goal to sell their products.
“We knew that we had to find a way to push through because we were so committed to the concept,” O’Donoghue said.
“It took us two-three years to mend it,” meaning they had to fix up the material that was sent to them to make them into bags that were saleable.
She also told us of people in Australia not taking the two of them seriously at first because they were females and mothers and occupying themselves with tasks that females were not usually engaged in.

 A village built around sustainability
After the Willunga sessions we travelled down to Aldinga and entered the Aldinga Arts-Eco Village where we were met by Linda McCarthy, who is originally from the USA but has been a resident there for a long time.
McCarthy said the village was started as a concept where people were free to design their own houses but the overarching theme was to promote eco-friendly practices.
She gave the example of building houses that trapped heat during the day and warming their interior in winter.
“And they (the houses) have to be designed sustainably,” McCarthy said.
“So we have thermal mass, which means the sunlight comes through the windows and it goes down to the floor, which may be made of concrete with tiles on top, and that absorbs the sun’s radiation.
“At night the heat comes up from that to warm the house, and that is good in winter.”
She told us also of how the water in the village is trapped in contours which feed a pond system and that water is recycled and fed back to the houses to be used.
With McCarthy leading, we moved around the village and saw the houses, the many fruit trees they have, and even stood outside their farm and learned about how that was operated.
She took us into her own straw-house and emphasised that the design of the house traps solar energy, which is later released into the house when it is night time.
In that way, she doesn’t need to use electricity to power a heater to warm the interior of the house.
While moving back to where we started our tour of the village, we passed small children eating apples taken off their own trees just near the sealed road that runs through their village.
Someone in our group asked for an apple and the children gave him permission to pluck one off a small tree beside the sealed road that we were on.
After the visit at Aldinga, we headed back to Victor Harbor, our base for the tour.
It was another awesome day, learning from women entrepreneurs or those involved in sustainable eco-friendly practices.

• Next article: Learning from a female musician and winemaker