ANNA BROWN

Kylie Kwong celebrates the individuals helping to grow a stronger community. This month, we meet Equality Australia chief executive, Anna Brown OAM

- ALLEY PASCOE

As a child, Anna Brown vividly remembers sitting down with her twin sister to make placards for a street rally in support of better working conditions for nurses like their mum. The girls carried their homemade signs on the train from their home in suburban Melbourne to the demonstration at Parliament House. The signs in the crowd demanded action: “Nurses Don’t Grow on Trees,” “Save Nurses, Save Lives.”

“From a young age we were exposed to the idea of standing up for what’s right through our mum and dad, who worked as a scientist at the CSIRO,” explains Brown, who also remembers standing outside Melbourne Town Hall as a primary school student waiting to catch a glimpse of Nelson Mandela. “It was very special because he had just been released from prison and travelled to Australia,” she recalls. “He was such an iconic figure fighting against the injustice of apartheid [in South Africa] and standing up for his community.”