Norma Higgins is a passionate cook and mango grower who decided to create an opportunity for local farmers and set up a weekly market in Katherine. The market has increased tourism and profits for local growers whose produce was mostly being shipped south. It has delivered tangible self-sustaining economic activity, employment, vocational education and training outcomes. Norma has also been involved in the Katherine Horticultural Association since its inception, is actively involved with the Primary Industries Training Advisory Council and is a founding member of her local group of NT Women in Agriculture.
Her love of cooking led her and other Katherine women to form the Katherine Region Food Processing Group and obtain a grant to set up a commercial, community kitchen for locals to make their products. In 2008, Norma Higgins won the NT Rural Woman of the Year Award which recognises the vital contribution women make to rural Australia.