Delivering her first baby in a non-English speaking country via emergency caesarean with no anaesthesia was a harrowing, traumatic experience for Tracey Cave, but it served as a critical catalyst for what was to come 23 years later.
The Perth mother of four is the chief executive of 2019-founded social enterprise Sister Project, based in Ellenbrook, which assists hundreds of women in overcoming language and culture barriers when they move to Australia.
Living and working in Japan as an Aussie two decades ago is what gave her lived experience of the unique challenges confronted by migrant women in Perth, and ultimately landed her on the prestigious list of finalists in the 2026 West Australian of the Year awards.
“When it was time to give birth, I had no one around me that could speak English, and it resulted in, well, I almost passed away, basically,” Ms Cave said of her overseas birthing ordeal.
“I had an emergency caesarean with no pain relief. Myself and my daughter almost died on the operating table, and she was in ICU for a month, and I still didn’t have anyone who could communicate, so I was so powerless, so dependent on others to know what was going on.”
Her daughter was being treated at a hospital an hour from her own, and was kept on a machine for a month which she remembers as a “pretty horrible time”.
“But you know, those times are when you draw the most resilience, you find you can dig deeper, and you have this inner strength that you can call on the next time you need it.”
She channels her resilience and empathy into supporting Perth women with free services in everything from helping them flee domestic violence to getting emergency accommodation, a job, legal support, learning English or even just making friends.
While each resource is no more or less crucial than the other, they sadly have been equally ignored by State funding rounds in the project’s seven years of operation.
Ms Cave sold everything she owned so she could focus on Sister Project, including the car and caravan she and her kids travelled the country in before moving to WA from NSW in 2015.
She is one of 10 volunteers that keeps the organisation open, alongside an especially generous landlord.
“Our landlord gave us probably a year and a half when we first started, maybe a bit longer, of free rent . . . but we are still at this stage not able to pay our monthly rent, and he allows us to operate here because he can see that the work we’re doing is making a huge impact,” Ms Cave said.
“We are not funded by the government, by anyone. We are all volunteers, all of us.”
Sister Project became more financially viable about two years ago when it evolved into a social enterprise which allows for making money through things like its catering and media groups, and by hiring rooms out to other organisations.
Ms Cave is hopeful her nomination will be symbolic in offsetting an “anti-migrant” feeling amongst some sectors of the WA public.
“I think this is a divisive tool used by for political reasons and there are individual repercussions of that divisive tool, and I want to counterbalance that with the understanding that we have more in common than we have different,” she said.
“Let’s work together to remove those barriers and challenges, because at the end of the day, we are all better off. The economy is better off, our communities better off, individual families are better off, the schools, hospitals, we’re all better off if we work together for the same goals.”
Tracey Cave is a finalist in the Alcoa of Australia Community award category of the 2026 Western Australian of the Year awards. Winners will be announced on Thursday May 28.
Women’s Domestic Violence Helpline: 1800 007 339
Crisis Care: 1800 199 008
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