One mum’s baby bundles become a life-changing charity

By KEIRA JENKINS

A pack of newborn clothes posted online and a conversation with a social worker were the beginnings of a charity focused on Indigenous mums and their babies.

Evie Wood was giving away the newborn clothes her baby had outgrown when a local social worker said the women she worked with could benefit from bundles like the one she had just advertised.

The clothes had already been snapped up, but the interaction got Ms Wood thinking.

Her community in northern NSW had been heavily affected by the Black Summer bushfires of 2019-20, and the COVID-19 pandemic was just beginning when she gave that bundle of clothes away.

Ms Wood wondered how many other parents might need support to get the essentials they needed for their babies.

A conversation about old baby clothes “led to a massive path of learning”, Evie Wood says. (AAP PHOTOS)

“I had a yarn with my mum and we’ve unfortunately got a rich history of removed children in my family,” the Byron Bay resident said.

“That conversation with the social worker led to a massive path of learning.”

Mother and daughter set out on a mission, using government COVID-19 payments Ms Wood was receiving to cover the costs of putting together some bundles for parents in need.

“We got the biggest beach bags we could find and stuffed them basically rock-hard, full of all the things I would have wanted when I was about to give birth,” she said.

Coolamon Community

Ms Wood eventually returned to her legal studies, but the idea hatched during her maternity leave never left.

When she met a local businesswoman, Pam Brook, their charity Coolamon Community really took off.

It takes its name from an Indigenous word for a carrying vessel, which is sometimes used to hold a baby.

The women started meeting Aboriginal health services to talk about what was needed most to support new mums.

Ms Wood soon realised the collaboration and partnership with Indigenous health organisations, which provide culturally safe care to mothers and babies, needed to continue.

Safe sleeping spaces

“It became evident that this wasn’t just about providing a beautiful essentials gift, which we do and it is gorgeous, but it really is about that link to health care that is life-changing,” she said.

Now mums and bubs across northern NSW to just beyond the Queensland border, as well as in remote pockets of the Northern Territory and Western Australia, receive the organisation’s coolamons.

They double as safe sleeping spaces for babies and are packed with items such as clothes, toiletries, bedding, nappies, wipes, books and toys.

Recent grant funding will allow Coolamon Community to expand to more communities, Evie Wood says. (AAP PHOTOS)

The organisation recently received a Snow Foundation fellowship, which provides grant funding and peer support for social entrepreneurs.

Ms Wood said the backing would help her organisation expand to more communities, particularly in remote areas.

It will also help to ensure Coolamon Community can make a difference in the long term, she said.

“We can’t just be like every other program … they come in, then whether there’s a change of government or the funding runs out and they disappear, leaving communities in the lurch,” Ms Wood said.