“I am not a weird hippy activist!”: Advocacy and ‘accidental’ activism in the Australian countryside

In this paper we explore a series of interviews across three related research projects from 2018-2022 with women in rural and remote Australia, who agitate for better support and services in their communities, against environmental impacts, and about changes to land clearing legislation. An aspect reconstituting rural women’s activism is the use of online and digital spaces; however there is a significant gap in research considering rural women’s digital activism in Australia. We explore, then, participants’ uses of online advocacy in conjunction with their offline actions and digital access issues. We also examine their rejection or identification with the ‘activist’ label. We address the importance of approaching rural activism and advocacy from a perspective that addresses gendered and power relationships, and time-space complexities including how activism and/or advocacy develop in place.