FAITH Agugu was concerned that, as a psychologist, she found, increasingly, women were presenting for therapy on age-related anxiety.
“Because my cultural layering on aging is very different – because we look forward to ageing, and the oldest person in the room is the most revered – aging is seen as something very positive in my culture,” Ms Agugu said.
“So, when I heard their despair around aging, I started to research this attitude, and what I learned was the attitude around men and aging was actually quite positive.
“You had your silver fox, and the dashing older man, but for women, it was very negative.
“It was around the home, loss of visibility, loss of relevance, and decay, and that made me really start to look around, because the women that I saw, over 50, were actually thriving.
“So, I knew that this narrative around decay for women wasn’t true.”
Ms Agugu started Silver Sirens, which has developed into a national organisation, and is a regular guest on the Today show and has featured on Mamamia podcasts.
“I was born in Nigeria, grew up in London, and I’ve been in Australia for 35 years,” she said.
“I’ve been here a long time, but the examples, the cultural attitudes and examples I had around ageing, were always very positive.
“I started by having events, and bringing together women that were thriving in this state of life, as examples for other women who have negative views around ageing.”
Coffs Harbour is the first Silver Sirens chapter outside a capital city, and 30 local women gathered at the CWA Hall in Coffs Harbour last Saturday, 31 October, to hear Ms Agugu and other presenters explore ‘Life in Transition’, four diverse sessions for women navigating change and reflecting on next chapters of life.
“I do events all around the country, and what I love about Coffs is the community, where the committee here are very, very strong, very committed, very focussed,” Ms Agugu said.
“But what I love, most of all, was the women that are attracted to Silver Sirens here.
“They’re a real example of what I think Silver Sirens is.”
She said the women were unafraid of being themselves and speaking their truth in an open way.
“In that room, everyone was pretty much the same – there was nobody that was kind of holding back. There was no one-up-man-ship.
“Everyone’s just open and honest and vulnerable and that’s really the hardest part of being a Siren.
“I remember from the very first event, when I realised that if I was going to pretend to be something that I wasn’t, it was going to be the wrong way to start.
“I think that’s what I saw on Saturday, an example of being very open, very authentic and really making it a safe space for us to just come and share what’s going on for us.”
More information about Coffs Harbour – Silver Sirens can be found on their Facebook page.
By Andrew VIVIAN
You can help your local paper.
Make a small once-off, or (if you can) a regular donation.
We are an independent family owned business and our newspapers are free to collect and our news stories are free online.
Help support us into the future.
