Noelene Martin Fair Trade Memorial Lecture

Saturday 1 June  2019 7.30pm

Noelene Martin was a passionate Fair Trade advocate. In the early 1980s she sold World Development Tea in woven baskets when the family was living in Coolamon, NSW. When they moved to England in 1985 she became a volunteer rep with Traidcraft, travelling around North Shropshire and beyond speaking about Fair Trade and selling products. On returning to Australia in 1988 Noelene found very little Fair Trade activity but tried to stimulate interest in Taree and later Penrith. With an increasing number of fair traders she led the establishment in 2012 of the annual Fair Trade Fair at Springwood in the Blue Mountains. Noelene’s promotion of Fair Trade grew out of her deep Christian Faith. Following her sudden death on 29th August, 2014 the obvious reading at her funeral service was The Final Judgement at Matthew 25:31-46 where people are welcomed or rejected on the way they treat the hungry, thirsty, naked, sick or imprisoned. Noelene saw Fair Trade as a practical way of helping people in distant places.