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About

How it all began

Our Founder's Story

Women of Colour Australia (WoCA) was founded by Brenda Gaddi (she/her/siya), a first-generation migrant/settler from Manila, Philippines. Brenda has been building women-focused communities and championing women’s voices for nearly two decades.

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Women of Colour Australia (WoCA) is a not-for-profit organisation and a registered charity established in August 2020. We are founded, led, and run by Women of Colour for Women of Colour. We exist to champion leadership, influence policy, and shift systems by centring lived experience.

Our Vision

An Australia where Women of Colour are resourced, represented, and respected to lead and transform systems.

Our Purpose

To advocate for, support, and build culturally safe leadership pathways so Women of Colour can thrive with influence and impact.

Our Values

Our values guide everything we do — how we lead, collaborate, and create change. They are the thread connecting our people, programs, and purpose.

Community

We build safe, supportive spaces grounded in shared humanity.
We create environments where Women of Colour can connect deeply, feel valued, and thrive. Our work centres lived experience and collective belonging, nurturing wellbeing, confidence, and authentic leadership.

Collaboration

We work with values-aligned people and organisations for collective impact.
Meaningful change is a shared endeavour. Through partnerships built on trust and respect, we amplify our collective power and co-create solutions that sustain long-term systemic impact.

Compassion

We lead with empathy, humility, and care.
We listen deeply and act with understanding, recognising the diverse experiences that shape our communities. Compassion, to us, means standing beside one another with integrity and generosity.

Courage

We speak truth to power and reimagine leadership through an intersectional lens.
We act boldly to challenge inequity and transform the spaces we inhabit. Our courage is found in using our voices, leading authentically, and imagining new possibilities for Women of Colour to rise together.

Commitment

We uphold transparency, accountability, and sustainability.
We honour our word through consistent, values-led action. Our commitment ensures that WoCA’s work remains ethical, community-powered, and built to create lasting change.

Strategic Vision 2026–2030

Building an equitable future by centring the leadership of Women of Colour.

Women of Colour Australia (WoCA) began in 2020 with a clear and urgent purpose — to centre the voices, leadership, and lived experiences of Women of Colour, including First Nations women, in shaping a fairer Australia.

What started as a small collective has grown into a national movement for change. Through research, leadership programs, and community partnerships, we’ve built spaces where Women of Colour can lead with confidence, influence, and care.

In our first five years, we’ve reached over a thousand Women of Colour through research and programs, co-designed culturally safe leadership pathways, and partnered with government, philanthropy, and community to prove a powerful truth:

When Women of Colour are trusted and resourced, we create lasting change.

As we look ahead to 2026–2030, this Strategic Vision charts our next chapter — one grounded in sustainability, expansion, and systems transformation.

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