Last Friday, on the 6th anniversary of International White Ribbon Day, a group of men gathered at the Queensland Centre for Domestic and Family Violence Research (CDFVR) to speak out against violence against women.

Indigenous Research Worker with CDFVR, Lyndon Reilly, and Post Doctoral Research Fellow, Dr Sanjay Sharma, convened the gathering of men from Central Queensland University (CQU) Mackay and the local community, and encouraged audience members to spontaneously contribute their support in renouncing violence against women.

Lyndon challenged all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men to step forward and lead their communities toward reclaiming respectful and safe relationships with women.

Dr Shane Hopkinson, Sub-Dean of Arts, Health & Sciences at CQU Mackay, reminded the audience that all men have a personal stake in ending violence against women. He encouraged men to acknowledge and resist the broad social factors, including the social norms and power inequalities that normalise men’s abuse of women at personal, situational and social levels.

Sanjay spoke of a global construction of ‘manliness’ that celebrated a “mentality of domination, masculinity and aggression”. He implored men to grow into a ‘human personality’ of love, care and respect.

Father Henry Kennel concluded the event with a prayer to remember the suffering of the many women and children victimised by domestic and family violence and to support all men to find the courage to end violence against women.

The White Ribbon campaign was introduced by a small number of men in Canada on the second anniversary of the massacre of 14 female students at the University of Montreal, as a platform for men to publicly condemn violence against women.

This international campaign for the elimination of violence against women has since been embraced by men from countries on every continent and is supported by UNIFEM (United Nations Development Fund for Women) and Amnesty International.

More information and messages from the CDFVR’s male staff members, Clinton Rawsthorne, Dr Sanjay Sharma and Lyndon Reilly can be located at CDFVR’s website: www.noviolence.com.au.

Photo above: left to right (back row): John Mallett, Shane Hopkinson, Karel Shibasaki, Albert Lingwoodock, Lyndon Reilly, Sanjay Sharma, (front row): Greg Sutherland, Henry Kennell and Bel Lui.