Geelong community to rally against gendered violence again

PREPARATIONS are underway for a second Geelong rally against gendered violence as the death toll continues to rise.

It comes as Destroy the Joint’s ‘Counting Dead Women’ register, which counts every known death due to violence against women in Australia, has risen to 31 women since the start of the year.

Organised nationally by Indigenous-led, not-for-profit organisation What Were You Wearing? and run locally by a group of volunteers, the first demonstration, held in April, saw approximately 5,000 people gather in Geelong’s CBD to call for the federal government to declare gendered violence a national emergency.

The local ‘No More’ Geelong team are now seeking expressions of interest from others in the community who might like to assist the group with their next rally and the events that follow.

“Anyone can be involved,” lead organiser Rachel Bishop said.

“If you have the passion, if you have the want to see change like we have the want to see change, then we would love to have you with us.”

She said the group were hoping to include more speakers at the next demonstration, along with better resources for people who may need assistance at the time.

“You can get together and have these rallies and have everybody speak about their experience and it can be really heavy, but I think it would be great to have speakers from those support services, for example, to be able to talk about practical solutions…that are available for people.”

Bishop also confirmed the group is here to stay.

“We’re nearly six months into this year and we’ve lost enough women as is. We can’t afford to have another 10 years of this, especially at the escalated rate – every year it’s increasing.

“The main thing is that the conversation doesn’t end here.

“The discussion will keep going for as long as we need it to, to be able to see change.”

Reflecting on the first demonstration, the Wathaurong Aboriginal Co-operative’s Julie Saylor-Briggs, who spoke at the rally, said it was great to see such a loud crowd gather together in Geelong and to be able to “call out” violence against women.

“What gets me is that this unprecedented violence and aggression, the speed at which it must be happening in the homes, behind closed doors – to actually get a woman or a girl to the ground or to remove her to commit violent acts or to kill her, it’s all happening in minutes.

“It’s not happening like a movie rolls it out. There’s no montage, there’s no soundtrack, there’s nothing pretty about this.

“A women or girl is going to spend the last three or four minutes of her life fighting, terrified, calling out for her family.”

Rally co-organiser Rachel Sumich-Antonik said the volunteer group would continue to build their ranks and called on men to step up and “do something”.

“The women of the country made [the first, nation-wide rally] happen,” she said.

“Yes, there were some supportive men, but we need all the men, everyone who identifies as a male, to do something now.

“Whether that’s calling out a mate, writing to the Prime Minister, telling him to apologise, telling him to read those demands [detailed at the first rally] again.”

If you’re interested in supporting the Geelong volunteer group, email [email protected]