05/08/2026
WOMEN VETERANS SHOWING UP IN UNEXPECTED PLACES 💗🪖
Throughout the Ultimate Girls Weekend Queensland, I made a deliberate choice to represent the veteran organisations that are such an important part of my life and service.
On Friday, I wore my Women Veterans Network Australia shirt loud and proud. Saturday was dedicated to the Wodonga RSL Sub-Branch, and on Sunday I represented Legacy Club of Albury. Each shirt carried more than a logo. It represented connection, service, belonging and the many veterans and families whose stories deserve to be seen and heard.
The weekend was busy, and I did not have the opportunity to advocate as formally or as widely as I had hoped. However, meaningful advocacy does not always begin behind a microphone or at an official meeting. Sometimes it begins through an unexpected conversation, a shared story or another woman quietly saying, “I served too.”
I connected with a few women veterans and family of veterans, spoke with some wonderful presenters and began opening conversations about how women veterans could become more visible and involved within festivals, wellbeing events and community spaces such as this one. These environments can offer something incredibly valuable: a softer and less formal doorway into connection, peer support, purpose and belonging.
I also shared my developing vision with our event crew around creating future opportunities for women veteran volunteers to support festival departments, including the Healing and Wellbeing spaces. This is still a vision taking shape rather than an established DVA program, but I believe it holds enormous potential.
Many women veterans still struggle to recognise themselves within traditional veteran spaces. Some do not feel comfortable walking into an RSL, attending a formal meeting or asking directly for help. Yet they may feel safe attending a women’s festival, joining a workshop, volunteering beside another woman or beginning a conversation over a wine or a cup of tea.
That is where we can meet them.
By building partnerships between veteran networks, community organisations and women-centred events, we can create new pathways for women veterans to reconnect with purpose, contribute their skills and find their way into supportive communities without pressure or expectation.
For me, this weekend was not about standing behind a stall and waiting for women to approach. It was about being visible, starting conversations, listening carefully and planting seeds for what could come next.
I may not have completed all the advocacy I originally planned, but I returned with something just as valuable 💜 new connections, fresh possibilities and an even clearer understanding of where this work may lead.
This is what we are building: women supporting women veterans, creating pathways into community and ensuring that no woman who has served feels invisible or alone.
Keresten Williams
Area Coordinator — WVNA Albury–Wodonga
Legatee — Legacy Club of Albury
Member — Wodonga RSL Sub-Branch
