Why I Gave $15,600 for Climate and Economic Justice for Women and Girls in Indonesia

I just invested $15,600 through the Indigo Foundation into a grassroots development partnership that will directly support hundreds of women and girls across three Indonesian islands: Adonara, Lembata and Solor. It’s the first time Lyrebird Dreaming has stepped outside Australia to contribute to international development. But in truth, like climate and biodiversity, our vision has always been bigger than borders.

Local Purpose, Global Impact

Over the past three years, Lyrebird Dreaming has grown as a social enterprise grounded in Country. We exist to foster climate action, protect Australia's precious landscapes and biodiversity, and to empower First Nations Australia. All of our work focuses on one or all of these things. This will always be our foundation. But as an economist, internationalist and climate advocate, I also understand something else: the multiplier effect.

A dollar shared and invested in the right place can ripple out far beyond its origin. And when that dollar supports women and girls in communities already facing the sharp edge of the climate crisis, the ripple can become a wave.

About the Project

PEKKA NTT is a women-led organisation working with over 2,600 women heads of household in Eastern Indonesia - one of the regions most at risk from climate change. Together with the Indigo Foundation, it has been supporting organic food gardens, education bursaries for girls, and cultural knowledge sharing that equips the next generation to care for their environment and their future.

By sharing just $15,600 of our earnings in Australia this year, Lyrebird Dreaming is covering all of the costs for Year 2 of this three-year project. We're enabling:

• Organic farming initiatives that will build local food security

• Support for girls to stay in school and access higher education

• Opportunities that challenge discrimination and build leadership

• Intergenerational learning on traditional culture, food and ecological knowledge.

Local coordinator, Ina Dete, and her team have been driving change from the ground up - literally. They’ve created community gardens in dry, water-stressed landscapes. They've improved education outcomes and built resilience in places hit hard by rising seas and shrinking harvests. This is what real climate adaptation looks like: women with lived experience, leading solutions.

Why Lyrebird Dreaming Gave this Money

Because we can. And because we must.

Australia is one of the world's least generous nations when it comes to overseas aid. While we’re rightly proud of our charitable giving at home, Australia's official development assistance remains well below the global average as a percentage of national income. That matters - especially when our region is on the front lines of climate change.

We talk about regional security, but there's no security without solidarity. And let's be frank about it, the value of Australia’s official overseas aid each year is less than the equivalent of half a Freddo Frog each day for each Aussie adult!

Giving as Justice, Not Charity

This donation isn’t just about generosity - it’s about justice and responsibility. The emissions that drive sea level rises and climate disasters in Indonesia don’t stop at our borders. Much of the carbon heating our planet comes from fossil fuels mined, burned and exported from countries like Australia. We are the second-largest exporter of fossil fuel pollution globally!

That’s why climate finance is not just aid. It’s economic and climate justice.

A Call to Other Changemakers

If you’re running a business, or if you have some spare earnings to share, I invite you to consider what part of your profit might be reinvested into global equity - not just local impact. The rewards aren’t financial. They’re deeper: connection, purpose, and the knowledge that your work is part of something larger.

The Indigo Foundation proves every day what’s possible with modest resources and extraordinary heart and people. I’m proud Lyrebird Dreaming can walk with them and the women of PEKKA NTT.

Let’s think beyond the horizon. Let’s be good ancestors - here and everywhere.

Every dollar counts and the Indigo Foundation has plenty of other partnerships worth investing in. Here's a link to their donations page.