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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-05-04 Daily Xml
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Domestic and Family Violence Vigil

Ms WORTLEY (Torrens) (15:16): My question is to the Minister for Women and the Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence. Can the minister explain the importance of tonight's Domestic and Family Violence Vigil 2022?

The Hon. K.A. HILDYARD (Reynell—Minister for Child Protection, Minister for Women and the Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence, Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing) (15:16): I wholeheartedly thank the member for this question and also for her tireless advocacy around the prevention and eradication of domestic violence. Today is the day that sadly we again commemorate, honour and pay our respect as a community to those we have lost to domestic and family violence. Tonight at 5.30, South Australians will meet to remember the women killed in acts of domestic violence: women who should still be with us today, who should be with their families, who should have been safe in their homes in a community that is free from the scourge of domestic violence.

The annual vigil brings our community together and provides us with a chance, together, to acknowledge our grief and to acknowledge our relentless anger that far too often we seem to hear news of South Australian women dying at the hands of a partner or former partner, or to hear seemingly endless stories of harm that has been caused by the experience of domestic violence. Tonight, we remember women, we honour them, and together we will commit to doing whatever we possibly can to ensure that there is not one more.

The vigil is usually held in the city, often at Elder Park. However, tonight it will be held at Christies Beach, and together at Christies Beach at dusk we will remember the mothers, the sisters, the daughters, the aunts, the friends and the grandmothers that South Australians can no longer hold in their arms as a result of domestic violence—families who have been affected by tragedy that could and should have been prevented, families whose lives will never again be the same.

I hope that tonight this gathering will bring some comfort to families or at least some knowing, that together as a community we stand with them, together with them we remember their loved ones and share in their desire to never let them be forgotten. Tonight is also about making sure that any woman lost to domestic violence is never just a statistic.

As we have grappled with the pandemic for the last two years, Embolden have convened these vigils virtually. However, as I said, tonight at Christies Beach we will meet together at the Place of Courage. The Place of Courage was envisaged and developed by an incredible woman, Helen Oxenham OAM, who convenes the organisation Spirit of Woman.

Many decades ago Helen Oxenham, together with her friends, worked to set up the very first women's shelter here in South Australia, at the back of her husband's shop on Beach Road. She has worked incredibly hard with community members, with Rotary, with the City of Onkaparinga, with all involved in domestic violence prevention here in South Australia, to erect what I understand is the very first domestic violence memorial in Australia.

That memorial is an incredibly important place for our community, and I was honoured to MC the opening of that memorial at the end of last year. That memorial enables us as a community to gather, to remember and to reflect on those we have lost. Importantly, it enables us to engender the conversations that we simply must continue to have until we do not hear of any more tragedies related to domestic violence.

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