Australia day honours: Date debate leaves Birth Beat CEO Edwina Sharrock 'conflicted' over OAM win

In an interview on Monday, the local health leader told the Leader celebrating the national day on the date the First Fleet arrived in Sydney is divisive.

"Tomorrow actually is quite a challenging day for our Indigenous Australians and our First Australians," she said.

"I think it's important that I acknowledge that we need to work harder on bridging that divide between Indigenous and non-Indigenous health."

READ MORE:

Since the 1930s many Indigenous Australians have treated the day as one of mourning, often labelling it "Invasion Day", after it became a national day of celebration in the 1920s.

Mrs Sharrock said there is still an enormous gap in life expectancy and other health outcomes, between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.

"What we know in terms of Indigenous health in Australia the outcomes are still so poor, there's still such a division, I think we still have so much work to bridge that divide," she said.

"So the fact that this award is going to be celebrated on Australia day is conflicting to me personally and to my values."

The CEO of Birth Beat will today receive an OAM "for service to community health", 7 years after founding the company.

She said the idea behind the Tamworth-based small business was simple.

When she became a mum with daughter Polly she was shocked.

The former midwife and nurse - now a board member for the Hunter New England and Central Coast Public Health Network - nonetheless found motherhood complicated and difficult.

"Even though I was a midwife, even though I worked at the hospital, that there was so much that my partner and I didn't know. It creates fear and anxiety," she said.

Have your say, send a letter to the editor.

It was the trigger for a seven-year ongoing campaign to give new parents more and better information on the process, through what is now a nation-wide online business

"Our focus has been around removing the fear and empowering new parents not only to look after their physical health but their mental health as well, when they're preparing to become a parent," she said.

In 2019 she was awarded Telstra NSW Small Business Woman of the Year.

She will be celebrating the award over champagne and chicken sandwiches with her parents.

"This whole award is a bit weird to me. I'm just doing what I love doing," she said.

Former Nationals Senator John "Sandy" Macdonald, Calala public servant Sarah Wylie and Narrabri RSL President Gary Mason were among eight residents of the New England and North West region to win an award in the Australia Day honours list.

Want more local news? Subscribe to the Leader to read it here first