Community Impact Award

Over 11 demanding years, Mieke balanced work, four children and university study, completing her double degree in social science and law with First Class Honours in 2022. Receiving the 2026 Alumni Community Impact Award has given her reason to reflect on just how far she has come. 

“I guess it’s a full circle moment for me winning this award because the first time I walked into Southern Cross University, I questioned whether I belonged,” Mieke said. 

“To now be a lawyer, it does bring status. You enter a room and people do listen to what you have to say. I really want to use that voice in the best possible way.” 

Long before she found that voice, Mieke was learning what it meant to stand up for something. 

She grew up around Coffs Harbour and describes herself as a “beach baby from day dot”. It was common for Mieke to wake and discover her father was chained to a tree, protesting inside a pipe or staging a hunger strike. Around the family dinner table, she heard about forest protests and environmental battles being fought in court. It was the lawyers working through the legal system who captured her imagination. 

“I was secretly quite intrigued by these lawyers. I was imagining them as people in superhero capes in the courtroom, defending this place on the earth that I felt so passionate about. 

“I felt inspired to be that person rather than on the front line like my dad or grandma.” 

Law would come later, but Mieke was finding other ways to advocate for others. 

She became a mother at 19 and had four children by the age of 25. After studying natural medicine, she trained as a birth support doula and supported around 50 births over 15 years. She also campaigned for a midwifery clinic at the local hospital in Coffs Harbour. 

Mieke’s first experience studying law brought an unexpected link back to the environmental activism of her childhood. 

During a workshop at Southern Cross University’s Gold Coast campus, a lecturer recognised her surname and asked if she was related to her father. It turned out they shared an unusual connection from a forest protest years earlier, when a red beret and a case of mistaken identity had resulted in Mieke’s father being arrested. 

Suddenly, the world of law felt a little more familiar. 

“I immediately felt there is a place for me in this formal world of law. 

While studying environmental law, Mieke was also taking a social science unit in Indigenous World Views through Gnibi College. 

“That unit was life changing for me. It really was the pivot.” 

The pairing unsettled some of her assumptions about environmental law and introduced her to different ways of understanding the relationship between people, culture and Country. Mieke then began several years of study of the local Aboriginal language of where she grew up. 

“Language is the doorway into culture. Learning how to speak that language opened up my perspectives and that's probably the greatest gift I've ever received in this life.” 

Supporting a family also required Mieke to balance her ideals with practical considerations. She built her career in property and commercial law, gaining an inside understanding of the legal frameworks governing land ownership while continuing to explore how they might better recognise ecological values and Indigenous perspectives. 

Mieke’s environmental commitment also remains grounded in her daily life. 

Each morning, Mieke rises before dawn, walks her dog and paddles out to surf. From the water, she hears the clapping sticks of a First Nations friend who lights a fire on the beach, the sound carrying across the bay as smoke drifts over the cove. Whales, dolphins and a close community of surfers complete a ritual Mieke describes as deeply nourishing. 

The ocean has also held her through periods of profound grief. 

“I’ve sat out in the deep ocean with these big waves rolling through, and I’ve felt like it matched the depth of my own grief. 

“I’ve had moments where I’ve just cried and felt so held by the ocean. It’s a magical, healing place for me, and I love it deeply.” 

There is another part of Mieke’s community work that comes from an intensely personal place. 

She is a survivor of domestic violence. For years, speaking publicly about her experience felt difficult and carried concerns for her safety.  

“It erodes your confidence, skews your perspective and makes it difficult to see that there are ways out.” 

Increasingly, Mieke wants to use her own experience to help other women see a future beyond violence.

Her professional relationships have already created opportunities to do that. 

When local real estate agents invited Mieke to nominate the beneficiary of a charity property auction, she selected the SHIFT Project in Byron Bay. The community-funded organisation supports women affected by circumstances including domestic violence and homelessness, helping them rebuild their confidence and independence. 

Sitting beside representatives from the project as they received the donated funds, Mieke recognised how her standing as a lawyer could connect people with a cause that mattered to her. She now wants other women living through violence to see that another life is possible. 

“My position as a lawyer in the community enabled me to pair these two wonderful things together. That was really fulfilling.” 

“I want to be able to inspire someone else who is going through that and say, ‘There’s life after this. You can get through it, and you can become whatever you’re driven to become.” 

For Mieke, these different parts of her life come together in how she chooses to use her education, experience and voice. 

Receiving the Community Impact Award has also given her a rare moment to look back. 

“To have come out the other side and for all of those seeds that were planted so long ago to be blossoming now, and to have this wonderful career, is really satisfying. 

“And to now have that acknowledgement from Southern Cross University: you made it, you did it and you’re doing good work out there.”