In this April conversation, we explored how we can work together, across differences, to build a movement for change on the urgent global issue of climate change and bring all our voices to a ‘Women’s Charter for Change’. To help us tease out this theme, we are excited to welcome two guest conversationalists: 

  • Helen Dalley-Fisher, celebrating 10 years as the Convenor of the Equality Rights Alliance (ERA)

  • Sienna Aguilar, a passionate gender equality advocate and researcher.

In conversation with WCC member and volunteer Nettie Hulme, and WCC Founder Dr Janet Salisbury.



Working together across difference to restore climate balance, April 2022 

Soul and soil are not separate. Neither are wind and spirit, nor water and tears. We are eroding and evolving, at once, like the red rock landscape before me. Our grief is our love. Our love will be our undoing as we quietly disengage from the collective madness of the patriarchal mind that says aggression is the way forward. 
Terry Tempest Williams, quoted in 'All we can save: Truth, courage and solutions for the climate crisis', edited by Ayana Johnson and Katherine Wilkinson. Read by Nettie in introduction of the session 

Meet our guests
Helen Dalley-Fisher
Helen started out as a solicitor, initially in private practice, before spending a decade in the community legal sector, where she practiced disability discrimination law, tenancy law, employment law and social security law.

Helen regularly represents ERA at the UN Commission on the Status of Women in New York and has just finished advising the Australian government on the impact of climate change on gender equality at CSW66. She regularly leads or contributes to the drafting of shadow reports on various human rights treaties and co-leads a joint project of the National Women’s Alliances on international engagement in the Australian women’s sector.

Sienna Aguilar
Sienna Aguilar (pronounced “Shenna”) (she/her) is a social ecologist and facilitator currently based on Gubbi Gubbi land. Born in the Philippines and having grown up on Ngunnawal and Ngambri land, Sienna has been privileged to learn from and connect with strong women leaders from many walks of life. This has fuelled her commitment to intergenerational dialogue, young women’s leadership, and amplifying diverse voices of lived experience. She has strong expertise in community engagement, applied social research, and complexity and systems thinking. Currently, Sienna is on the organising crew of an emerging network called The Shift to gender equality, which aims to better connect advocates across Australia (in our personal and professional capacities across policy, activism, creative arts, academia and more). By creating opportunities for social change groups to strengthen reflective practice and harness collective voices, Sienna facilitates brave spaces for intersectional feminist futures.