November 2019

Most of those interested in the EDNA Awards have probably realised that there were NO Awards in 2019. The changes in committee members over the last couple of years has not resulted in a sufficiently solid group of women to manage the Award process of registering eligible recipients, and all that entails, as well as organising the event for the presentation of the Awards. So, reluctantly, we cancelled.

The EDNAs have played a major part of the public acknowledgments of those who made a feminist difference since the 1990s and have given public recognition to 253 women. While some recipients were already well known feminists, a large proportion have been women from a wide range of activities, often local and not broadly recognised. As one Awardee said on the night, “The acknowledgement of my peers is of enormous importance to me”.

Since the 2018 EDNA event, we have lost several Committee members and were not able to recruit enough new members to be confident we could run the Awards in 2019. We did some preliminary investigation into other options for this year, but were not successful, so the 2019 EDNAs did not eventuate.

Those remaining, two of us veterans of all 21 events, have decided to put all decisions on the future of the EDNAs on hold till we have a clearer view of its future possibilities. There are some feelers out to see if there is a stable group prepared to take on the event, one who shares our values and objectives – we are still open to possibilities.

Serious offers welcome – please contact us via email at ednasawards [at] gmail.com.

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EDNA Awards 2108

Women Making a Difference

At this event we announced and celebrated the 2018 recipients of Edna Ryan Awards for 'making a feminist difference'.

Recipients were: Helen L'Orange, Marilyn Hatton, Lane Pitcher, Courtney Thompson, Anna Hush, Mary O'Sullivan, Ann Brennan (representing her mother Deborah Brennan), Margot Oliver, Pearlie McNeill and Leonie Maguire. [Awardee Lee Lewis was overseas]

More details here.