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Ochre Ribbon Week 2020

Activism Events

11.02.2020

The Equality Institute acknowledges the traditional custodians of country across Australia, and we pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging. Sovereignty was never ceded - this was, and always will be, Aboriginal land.

11.02.2020

Black background banner with the words

Ochre Ribbon Week runs each week from the 12th - 19th February. The Ochre Ribbon Campaign is an initiative supported by the National Family Violence Prevention Legal Services Forum and its member organisations across Australia.

It’s a campaign aimed at raising awareness of the devastating impacts of family violence in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and calls for action to end the violence.

Violence against women is a public health problem, rooted in gender inequality, that affects the lives of millions of women and girls around the world. At the same time, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women experience more severe and disproportionate rates of violence with often more complex impacts. Three in five women Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by a male intimate partner. This is unacceptable.

To prevent violence against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and their children, we must address the ongoing impacts of colonisation and racism. We must also recognise that this violence is perpetrated by men of all cultural backgrounds. Ending this violence must be a national priority in which every person has a role to play.

We would also like to acknowledge that we are a non-Indigenous organisation, we cannot speak for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. We acknowledge the work that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations and people have done, and continue to do, and we would like to champion their work first and foremost.

How you can get involved:

  • Wear an orange ribbon to stand in solidarity with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and their children.
  • Follow the National Family Violence Prevention Legal Services Forum on Facebook and Twitter.
  • Show your support on social media by using the hashtags #OchreRibbon2020 and #DontSilenceTheViolence
  • Donate to Djirra and other family violence prevention services (find a list here) supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and their children.
  • Educate yourself. In 2018, Our Watch released Changing the Picture: Preventing Violence Against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Women. This report is not exhaustive and does not contain all the answers, but it’s a great place to start to learn more about why violence is occurring, what is needed to change it, and how, as a society, we can all work together to stop this violence from happening in the first place.
  • Be a better ally to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders - learn more about what this could look like here and here.

*Sources: Our Watch and National FVPLS