This Friday November 25 is 'White Ribbon Day’, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.

Male staff members from CQU Mackay will mark the day with a morning tea at the Queensland Centre for Domestic and Family Violence Research (CDFVR) commencing at 10am.

Staff members will meet to speak out against violence towards women in an effort to bring attention to the growing number of women who find themselves the victims of domestic violence.

Special guest speaker at the morning tea will be Mr Greg Sutherland, Executive Director with the Mackay Region Area Consultative Committee. Greg is involved with White Ribbon Day and is featured in this year’s poster, along with 9 other prominent members of the Mackay/Whitsunday community who willingly speak out against violence towards women.

The morning tea will commence with a presentation by Lyndon Reilly, Indigenous Researcher with the CDFVR, who will address the group and speak about his area of research involving the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities. According to Lyndon, “domestic and family violence is of great concern to the community, especially Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities".

“The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Women Task Force on Violence Report provides evidence that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women are 45 times more likely to be affected by domestic violence compared to women as a whole in Australia,” said Lyndon.

“Moreover, the extent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women being the victims of homicide is 10 times higher than all Australian women”.

These and other startling figures will be presented to the group on Friday morning.

White Ribbon Day was created by a handful of Canadian men in 1991 on the second anniversary of one man's massacre of 14 women in Montreal. They began the White Ribbon campaign to urge men to speak out against violence against women.

Lyndon Reilly felt it was important that he, as a male who works in the area of domestic and family violence, should take the opportunity to speak out and spread the message that violence against women should not be tolerated.

According to Lyndon, “White Ribbon Day provides a platform for all men, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait men, to publicly promote the message that there is No Excuse For Abuse”.

Photo above: Lyndon Reilly, Indigenous Researcher with the Queensland Centre for Domestic and Family Violence Research, will speak out against violence toward women at the ‘White Ribbon Day’ morning tea this Friday at 10am.

Photo left: The White Ribbon Day poster featuring Mr Greg Sutherland and 9 other prominent men from the Mackay/Whitsunday region who speak out against violence against women.