Global Violence Reflects Local Tragedy
The Personal is Political 

Liz Murphy

(From the Geelong RECLAIM THE NIGHT Rally and March, Friday 26th October 2001)

I would gratefully like to acknowledge the Wathaurong people of Geelong - upon whose land we are now standing.

I am honoured to have been asked to speak to you tonight and I am humbled to be in the company of the women who have organised this evenings 'Reclaim the Night' March. With little more than their own courage and continued passion and dedication to the cause of the safety of women, they have once again managed to pull off this feat, with neither the aid of any local services or any form of financial support. I thank you for your continued care and your sisterhood.

It is about 10 years ago that I first marched in Geelong to highlight the injustices faced by women affected by sexual and domestic violence. When I look back over the last ten years and my work with homeless families, with women, young people and children survivors of domestic and sexual assault I do not have the sense that our town, our country, our society is moving closer toward one of co-operation, care and respect for each other. 

I do not get the sense that women now feel a greater knowledge of their own power, their right to exist as equals, to be treated with respect and to be entitled to safety regardless of the clothes they wear, the lifestyle they choose, the shape of their bodies, or the places they may walk. In my work with young women and men in schools there are still strong assumptions that boys should control their girlfriends, that if a boy jealously guards her and decides who she can and can't see, this must mean he loves her. That he has a right to get violent when he sees her talking to other boys. That a girl that wears a short skirt or is drunk deserves to be raped. 

I do not get the sense that women generally feel that they are safe in their own homes, that their needs in the family will be valued as highly as their brothers, their fathers, their husbands.

I do not get the sense that the Services that work to support women and children have created a groundswell of power to ensure that the issues of violence can no longer be ignored by the community: or that the collective wisdom, of the many years of work in the field, is being heeded by our judges, our politicians and our police forces. I do not get the sense that they are unable, any longer, to plead ignorance of the disgustingly abusive behaviour of these institutions to our sisters, our mothers, our daughters, our grandmothers and our babies. 

This week the Barwon South Western Regional Women's Health Plan Research on domestic violence has been released and notes that the main barriers for women disclosing violence and seeking assistance are that they fear the attitudes of the community and they have a lack of knowledge of services. Shame, financial constraints and fear of retribution were also barriers (The Service System's Response to Domestic Violence: Quill, 2001) 

Whilst 92% of Services were able to identify that there were gaps in the systems for supporting victims of violence, the glaring exceptions to this acknowledgment, were the police, schools and private counselling services who felt that there was already enough support for victims. The ignorance continues.

These are not the reasons of a community of women that feels well supported and understood, that trusts or understands the systems and services that are currently in place to address male violence and assist them to safety. 

I do know that the incidence of violence perpetrated against women and children still occurs at an alarmingly high rate. Figures released last year indicate that 60%of women murdered in Australia each year are killed by intimate partners (DV in regional Australia (June 2000). I do know that even when such murders occur the Legal system does not provide an effective form of justice for the families left behind. Phil Cleary, after the murder of his sister by her ex partner, spoke eloquently this week about the way "many courts in this country continue to act barbarically when they sit in judgement on violent men who murder the women who flee them. As long as the media run headlines such as "Love pulls the trigger" or "He did it out of love", and judges recite homilies such as "jealousy is the rage of man, and adultery is the highest invasion of property" (R v Mawridge) to account for these acts of revenge, they will remain implicated in the culture of violence against women". 

He goes on to say that "until the legal profession, the media and the bloke down the pub confront their assumptions, that women and children are simply the property of husbands and fathers, any changes to unjust laws will simply cover up the injustice and continue to demean those ordinary men who would never dream that the break up of a relationship might be an excuse for killing a woman, or that men kill out of love."(www.philcleary.com.au/politics.htm) 

I don't think I can talk tonight about violence against women and children in our community without also talking about the atrocities that have been and continue to be perpetrated in our global community. Whilst the tragic events of September 11th were both shocking and horrifically sad, they do not mark the beginning of a new period of world war. They are merely the continuation of ongoing abuses of power including rape, destruction, humiliation, domination and repression that have been occurring in various parts of the world.

Many of you stood together here at Johnsons Park last year and heard the experiences of women suffering under the Taliban regime in Afghanistan and about those women and children used as weapons of war in both East Timor and Bosnia. All of these cruel acts of aggression and violence highlight a mentality, a belief system, a way of living that honours domination, aggression, force and power over others. It is this patriarchal way of relating between countries, political parties, businesses and institutions, that shapes the very values, cultures and behaviours of our own communities, work places, schools, police forces, courts and, ultimately, our families.

The wisdom and beauty of philosophies such as feminism are that they reflect the values of all of the great peaceful traditions and systems that honour respect, co-operation, humility and collective support. The recognition that all relationships, be they at a global level, in the political arena or in the family home, can be based on a genuine respect for, and acknowledgment of, the other person's right to equal and humane treatment. Such a simple idea - to treat each human being as having the same rights as yourself, that violence, aggression, domination, and lack of respect in any circumstances is unacceptable. Imagine for a moment how such a simple philosophy may have altered the course of events that have led to the drowning of refugees in Indonesia, the bombings in Afghanistan and the experiences of many local women and children who have suffered at the hands of violent partners, fathers, family friends and other community members in positions of power.

Each time that we meet here for the 'Reclaim the Night" rally and March, we are courageously honouring those values and beliefs that speak out for peaceful relationships in our world and in our homes. We are challenging the dominant belief systems that encourage us to relate to each other as competitors, stronger versus weaker, winners versus losers, male versus female. We are asking that the wars that occur in our own homes be taken as seriously as those committed on the world stage. 

We are asking that not only the laws in our courts but the very fabric of our society is consistent with and respectful of the protection of women and children, through the recognition of their rights as equal human beings.

We are asking that a new way of relating to each other on a personal, a political and a global level be informed by the values of peace, respect and humane inter-connectedness.

I would like to invite every woman and every child here tonight to think about an injustice that has affected you personally, and to think also about a way you can publicly address that injustice. 

• For every child silenced by the threat of an older person - not to tell or else.
  
• For every wife imprisoned in her own home, 
  
• For every woman murdered for trying to take back her freedom
  
• For every child forced to take the stand in court and be shamelessly and cruelly cross examined by a lawyer, 
  
• For every young woman who has died from anorexic starvation because she thought her value was purely that of a physical or sexual object
  
• For every victim/survivor of sexual assault who was not believed, 
  
• For every Grandmother who has silently held the secret shame of violence within her own home and family

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Barwon-South Western Regional Women's Health

last changed: 3 August 2005