For the past 24 years, through BASP, Brigid has offered housing, food, legal help and community to refugees and asylum seekers, as well as advocating for systemic change to address injustices and improve conditions for people seeking asylum. In nominating her for the Woman of Courage Award, Noelene Simmons, a Marist Sister and former president of Australian Catholic Religious Against Trafficking in Humans, wrote: “Brigid’s passion to see the human dignity and rights of all people respected has compelled her to stand beside those who experience incredible hardship and vulnerability, especially refugees and asylum seekers.”
UNANIMA International is non-government organisation with special consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council, ECOSOC. Previous recipients of the Woman of Courage Award include Helena Maleno, founder of Caminando Fronteras (Walking Borders), former Irish President Mary McAleese, and Meera Karunananthan, a Sri Lankan-born campaigner for the human right to water.
“We can’t claim we didn’t know what was happening. We do know. And it’s up to us to do something about it.”
In her acceptance speech, Brigid quoted Australian historian Manning Clark, saying she embraced the idea of being a “life-englarger” and seeking bold, inclusive, and humane ways of acting to challenge the systems that harm people.
She warned against being complacent in the face of injustice: “We can’t claim we didn’t know what was happening. We do know. And it’s up to us to do something about it,” she said. Hope, she added, is also important. It is like a cactus: “It’s not a resting place, not a cushion… it should make you want to jump up and do something.”