“Connection to country has been my saviour”

Sharon WINSOR

Sharon Winsor has hit rock bottom more than once in her life, but her connection to country and culture has seen her through. A Ngemba Wailwan woman whose mother was Aboriginal and father European Australian, Sharon grew up in the tiny settlement of Rocky Glen in western NSW. “My fondest childhood memories are of going on long walks with my brother, my cousins, my nan – gathering bush food, catching yabbies,” she says.

Those memories stayed with her through the tough times as a young woman in Sydney, studying and working for the Wesley Mission, marrying and then tragically suffering a stillbirth. “I was 21 and it was heartbreaking,” Sharon says. “It still is.” But it was around that time that she began to gather and experiment with native ingredients in her kitchen, and to dream of starting her own business.

Two beautiful, healthy children followed, Kirralaa (which means ‘star’) and Maliyan (‘wedge-tailed eagle’), now 20 and 18. Sharon worked to help support the family and, whenever there was a profit, it was ploughed into development of her now fledgling bush foods enterprise. But Sharon’s marriage deteriorated into arguments and violence, and after she left, there was ongoing harassment.

Out of that, however, came the decision to exchange city life for the hills and fertile fields of Mudgee, and to take her business to the next level. Today, Indigiearth is an award-winning and 100 per cent Aboriginal owned and operated company specialising in native foods and products.

“The business is more than a financial income for me,” says Sharon with pride. “It has been my continuous connection to culture. It has been my healing and my saviour.”

In an industry where only 1 per cent of companies are wholly owned and operated by Indigenous people, Sharon, at 43, is a true trailblazer. And she is determined to share her success and knowledge of native ingredients as widely as she can. Later this year, she will bring her passion back to the big smoke, curating a native food festival in Sydney.

“I don’t own this knowledge. I’m a caregiver of it,” she says. “It has survived more than 60,000 years because it’s been shared, so I need to pass it on.” Samantha Trenoweth