Residents remember White Ribbon Day
BY MICHAEL FORNO
At the Redfern Community Centre on November 25th residents and police gathered to mark White Ribbon Day.
Commemorated worldwide as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, the Redfern community stood in solidarity against domestic violence.
Bronwyn Penrith spoke on behalf of the Mudgin-Gal organisation. Mudgin-Gal, which means ‘women’s place’, is an Aboriginal organisation based in Redfern and is run by Aboriginal women, for Aboriginal women.
Ms Penrith knows firsthand how devastating domestic violence can be for victims and their families.
“It was this time last year, and I’ve probably mentioned it to you all before, that I lost a relative to domestic violence and it was a raw time for me and my family, a very raw time indeed.
“So it’s great to have a focus day, but we need to remember this every day of the year, and every day of our lives. Today is also the beginning of 16 days of activism against gendered violence,” she said.
CEO of the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council, Nathan Moran, was one of the men invited to speak at the event.
“It’s a great honour to be here to support the White Ribbon event and in particular our aboriginal women, who we can proudly say as a community have done some amazing work,” he said.
Travis Robertson is a young man who was born and raised in the Redfern and Waterloo area, he attended the event and is a strong supporter of the White Ribbon movement.
“White Ribbon is a global movement that aims to end men’s violence against women. The movement has been active in Australia for 15 years now, and today is the second White Ribbon event held here at Redfern Community Centre,” he said.
Mr Robertson was joined at the event by his mother Christine.
“We’re here today for a really important issue, violence and in particular violence against women; in our community, in Australia and all over the world,” she said.
Ms Penrith believes that Aboriginal people have been unfairly represented in the media in regards to domestic violence.
“I have seen a fair bit of stuff in the media saying ‘why aren’t aboriginal people owning up to violence’ and so on, but of course if you’ve been around this area and this movement for the last few years then you would know that we are all trying to do a lot, and we are all trying to do a lot on very little,” she said.
White Ribbon Day encourages anyone – with a focus on men – to take a pledge, promising to act in preventing violence against women.
Almost 200,000 oaths have been taken nationally.
