Hi All,
Thursday 14 November, I was invited to speak at the Sydney Peace Prize Award Ceremony in Sydney. The prize was awarded to the #MeToo movement represented internationally by Tarana Burke and in Australia by Tracey Spicer. As a strong supporter of Djirra, Tracey decided to donate her share of the prize to Djirra and to invite me to speak at he event.
I told the audience that for Aboriginal women #MeToo is not enough. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women like others experience sexual harassment at work and on the streets, and the casual “every day” misogyny. But Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women need much more than #MeToo. We are not just women, we are women who suffer the impacts of the colonisation of our stolen land. We are denied the right to speak our language; forbidden to practice our culture. Our babies and children are taken away from us at alarming rates.
I urged the audience to hear and accept that for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, #MeToo is powerful, but it is not enough. It’s #MeToo, but it must also be #UsToo.
You can read my speech here.
Djirra also had the opportunity to host a small round table on 18 November with Tarana Burke so she could hear directly from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women about their experiences - see below.
We are now getting ready for the 16 Days of Activism campaign against Violence Against Women. This year we will campaign around ' Our Voice, Our Visibility' to promote the voice of all Aboriginal women and our self-determination. Stay tuned for Djirra's updates on social media from Monday 25 November to Tuesday 10 December #OurVoiceOurVisibility.
Enjoy your read,
Antoinette |
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Monday 18 November, Djirra invited Aboriginal women to meet and converse with founder of the #MeToo Movement Tarana Burke at an exclusive event at Melbourne Museum.
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Elders Possum Skin Cloak Video
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We promised it in the last newsletter, here it is! The beautiful video of the beautiful Elders Possum Skin Cloak Project.
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We all welcome:
- Torie McWilliams - Murray as Early Intervention Program Support worker in Abbotsford;
- Fran Demetriou as Legal Services Reporting Monitoring and Evaluation Advisor in Northcote;
- Rebecca Hayes as a Paralegal Support Worker in Bairnsdale;
- Tori Stuchbery as a Lawyer in Warrnambool. Tori is backfilling Janelle’s parental leave vacancy;
- Hamza and Lorna who are on short term contracts to assist the Corporate Services Team with Compliance, HR and Operations.
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This year Djirra’s End of Year Function is on Thursday 5th December, 12pm – 4pm, at Estelle, 243 High Street Northcote (click here for the map).
Reminder: We will be pre-ordering our meal for the day.
A folder has been set up in the Staff Essentials folder called ‘END OF YEAR FUNCTION’. Please select the spreadsheet entitled ‘Menu Options – Staff Christmas Party’ and submit your selection for the Entrée, Main and Dessert by COB: Tuesday 26th November 2019.
Don't forget to save the spreadsheet to record your choices!
Yum!
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Community Engagement updates
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Click on the image to download a pdf version.
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150th Sisters Day Out
On Tuesday 29 October, the team held the 150th Sisters Day Out. An opportunity for us to reflect on 12 years of Sisters Days Out. You can read the media release we issued here.
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Counselling update - a message from Steph ICYMI in KWP's update
Hi everyone!
My name is Steph and I have been seconded to Djirra for two days a week (Mondays and Fridays) until July 2020 as the Counsellor for Family Violence.
Some of you might have seen me hanging about in the new very fancy office downstairs. You might be wondering why we have not been seeing clients? As you might know, having the Counselling Program at Djirra is a new concept. And starting a new program can be a bit like feeling your way around a room in the dark! We often don’t even know what we don’t know and there can be a lot of bumping into walls! This does not just happen at Djirra.
My other work is at Jesuit Social Services and I have worked in a lot of other organisations; and starting new programs is always challenging (and fun!). I have indeed been having fun! My colleague from Jesuit Social Services, Aimee, has also been seconded for one day per week until July 2020 to help embed the MARAM (Multi-Agency Risk Assessment and Management Framework for family violence) at Djirra. You may see Aimee hanging about too!
Aimee and I have been having lots of discussions with lots of people at Djirra; in particular Wanda, Wendy and Jaynaya. We have been developing processes, forms and ways of being and doing and trying to make them as culturally safe as we can. Sometimes after a lot of yarning, we have to delete and start again! This has taken a few months now and you might be thinking “why can’t you just start the counselling!”... Because we are trying to get the foundations of the counselling program right – not just so that Djirra can continue the Counselling Program long after July 2020 when Aimee and I go back to Jesuit Social Services, but most importantly, for the women we see in the counselling program, to make sure they have all the information they need to make self-determined decisions.
I hope that helps explain why Aimee and I are here and what we are trying to do. Please always feel free to come and have a chat – about anything I have spoken about here... or come and have a chat about anything at all (I am particularly interested in good book suggestions, good binge-watching TV suggestions and I will partake in any snack suggestions!)
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Marram-Ngala Ganbu at Broadmeadows Court
Ruth and Eulia have commenced providing a duty lawyer service for Aboriginal victim/survivors of family violence at Marram-Ngala Ganbu (Koori Family Hearing Day) at Broadmeadows Court.
Marram-Ngala Ganbu has been a successful court initiative which offers a culturally responsive approach to the hearing of Child Protection matters for Aboriginal families. Marram-Ngala Ganbu currently operates at Broadmeadows Court each Tuesday and is soon to be rolled out in Shepparton where Djirra will also have a presence. Marram-Ngala Ganbu duty work was previously undertaken by Kehndra who is now providing a weekly duty service at Geelong Children’s Court. If you would like to hear more about the program, please feel free to contact our staff on the ground.
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‘Working with Police’ training
Anya, Marlena, Martika and Charlotte attended ‘Working with Police’ training facilitated by Women’s Legal. This training provided useful strategies to empower clients whilst working with Victoria Police. We learned the chain of command and how to push for better client outcomes by drawing on the Police Code of Practice. Part of the day included a session with a police prosecutor who spoke candidly about the issues that CLC lawyers often face when working with police. This honesty was both refreshing and informative. Overall, the training provided us with enhanced skills to work with police for the benefit of the women we are assisting. Charlotte
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Client good news story
Djirra has been assisting a client for many years across multiple offices, and during that time she has relocated to four different regions, including interstate, to escape her former partner’s violence. It was a painful and challenging process for the client to provide instructions about the multiple sexual assaults she has experienced, but her perseverance, with the support of our Mildura team recently resulted in a successful VOCAT claim.
This week Natalie and Tanayah were thrilled to be able to send their client off with details for a Gold Coast holiday that was awarded for her and her three daughters to attend the theme parks for the week. The client has been very appreciative of the support she has received from Djirra and now comes in to the Mildura office for biscuits, iced coffee and a yarn when she’s in town. She’s happy that she’s able to now be a source of joy for her daughters, nieces and nephews.
Natalie is particularly appreciative of the great work that was undertaken by PLSWs in providing support and had this to say about her experience working with the client:
“We deal with many, many heartbreaking aspects of working with women all day every day, so it was nice to share in this client’s excitement. It’s also lovely to see and know her at the other end of her family violence journey. Our clients are so often stuck in the middle of such massive campaigns of control and violence, that seeing her so free makes the heartbreaking aspects of our work very much worth it. Definitely a highlight for me this year at Djirra.” Natalie
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 The monitoring and evaluation journey continues in AFVLS!
Over the last 6 months we have been working on ways to tailor and improve CLASS and our reporting to funders. Working with CLASS data guru Kieran Prendergast we were able to:
- Map all of our funding indicators and reporting requirements to CLASS
- Build a suite of reports for funders which will massively cut down the amount of time spent on pulling data from CLASS!
- Tailor and change fields in CLASS to increase efficiency in entering data and also to better reflect Djirra’s work
According to Kieran, “Djirra now has the most tailored CLASS system out of all the CLCs!”
Editor's Note: I couldn't find an image to illustrate this topic so I chose to put the pic of a puppy instead, you're welcome.
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 Feasibility Study for Women’s Residential Program
The Koori Justice Unit (KJU) sought Expressions of Interest from a small group of specialised Aboriginal service providers to undertake a study to explore the feasibility of a residential program like Wulgunggo Ngalu Learning Place to provide cultural and gender specific supports for Aboriginal women involved in the corrections system.
It was just announced that Djirra was successful in securing the project! We need to understand what type of residential program community members would prefer to best address the needs of women in contact with the justice system. The project will include facilitation and delivery of workshops, as well as dedicated specific focus groups with Aboriginal women on community-based orders, in custody both remand and sentenced prisoners and in transitional, therapeutic and residential housing programs and Aboriginal male residential programs.
Djirra will be lead partner on this project, alongside the Centre for Innovative Justice (CIJ) who will bring in the expertise required to co-design, develop and deliver the technical level of research that is required. We look forward to working with CIJ on this exciting project, which we view as an important opportunity for Djirra to further self-determination in justice.
Editor's Note: Well, this one is just for good balance, again you're welcome.
By the way, for next month, please spam me with pics of your pets so I don't have to google them ;-)
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Emma's Fundraiser for Djirra
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We talked about Emma's fundraiser in one of our previous newsletter. Emma ran a marathon for the first time this year and decided to take the opportunity to raise funds for Djirra. She collected $1,685 - which is above her target which was $1,500.
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Job opportunities at Djirra
Do not hesitate to circulate to your networks!
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- Managing Lawyer (full time, fixed term)
- Senior Lawyer / Lawyer (full time, permanent) – Northcote
- Senior Lawyer (full time, fixed term contract) – Mildura
- Senior Lawyer / Lawyer (full time, permanent) – Morwell
- Senior Lawyer / Lawyer (full time, permanent) – Ballarat
- Lawyer – based at Northcote – outreach to Morwell (fixed term – initial 3 month contract)
Job opportunities are advertised here: http://bit.ly/DjirraJobs, and on Djirra's social media especially Twitter and LinkedIn, please share with your networks.
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