Monday, February 6, 2012

PUBLIC FORUM: Exploring sexual violence and institutionalisation in the ACT

The Women’s Centre for Health Matters Inc. is a community based organisation that uses social research, advocacy, community development and health promotion to empower women to enhance their health and wellbeing.

PUBLIC FORUM: Exploring sexual violence and institutionalisation in the ACT

Monday 20th of February
2pm – 4pm
National Library of Australia, Conference room (4th Floor)

From the moment of colonisation there has been institutionalisation in Australia, when thousands of women, men and children arrived as convicts. Since this time women have experienced institutionalisation in diverse settings including prisons, juvenile detention centres, aged care, psychiatric units, detoxification or rehabilitation centres, children’s homes and refugee detention centres. Women have experienced these institutions differently to men because of gendered life circumstances.
Sexual violence affects almost 1 in 5 Australian women, and women who have been institutionalised are more likely to have experienced sexual violence either prior to institutionalisation or while institutionalised.
Join us to hear from a variety of speakers who will explore the relationship between sexual violence and institutionalisation. Women speakers will draw on both personal experiences and broader perspectives to approach the topic from the view of women living with mental health issues, women in prison, women with disability and women Forgotten Australians. We will also hear from local Greens leader Meredith Hunter MLA and a curator of the NLA Forgotten Australians Oral History Project.

This public forum is part of Summer of Respect, the ACT Women’s Services Network’s summer-long anti-sexual violence campaign. It hopes to raise awareness about how the issues of sexual violence and institutionalisation affect women in our community, and how we can support women who have experienced this trauma and stop sexual violence from happening in the future.

Please RSVP to admin@wchm.org.au for catering purposes or for more information contact Laura Pound from the Women’s Centre for Health Matters on 6290 2166 or l.pound@wchm.org.au.

This event is supported by:
ACT Women and Mental Health Working Group