What started as a grassroots idea from an Australian music community has since grown with hundreds of Australian musicians pledging their support for an awareness campaign against violence against women.
The initiative has been supported by White Ribbon Australia and all the industry workers, merchandise companies and the artists have kindly donated their time to the campaign. Though when you look at the figures, it’s only fair that such an initiative was born as:
- On average one woman is killed every week as a result of partner violence
- Domestic and family violence is the main cause of homelessness for women and children
- Violence against women is estimated to cost $14.4 billion to the Australian economy per annum
- Intimate partner violence is the leading contributor to death, disability and ill health in Australian women aged 15-44
- One in five women experience harassment within the workplace
Motivated by the figures to make change, musicians such as The Grates (pictured), Courtney Barnett, Airling, Urthboy, Boy & Bear, Reece Mastin, Troy Cassar-Daley, Pete Murray, Violent Soho, Katie Noonan, The Choirboys and more have all signed on to offer up their support.
“As an industry with a huge fan base of young males, we are in a unique position to be able to start conversations about what is a real epidemic in our society,” said Pete Murray.
“This isn’t a disease that’s hard to find a cure for—it’s simply about increasing awareness and saying that we refuse to live in a society that tolerates the kind of statistics that Australians have been horrified by over the last few months.”
The musicians will be using their platform in the public eye to share the word by wearing the t-shirts supporting the campaign at their gigs throughout April. The first step to changing the figures is to break the silence around the violence against women, something the campaign is achieving.
“We are excited to have the support of the music industry via this creative initiative. It is so important to break the silence that surrounds men’s violence against women. Hearing musicians lend their voices to the campaign helps to expand the reach of our prevention work aimed at changing the attitudes and behaviours that lead to such violence,” Libby Davies, CEO of White Ribbon Australia says.
[Photo by Stephen Booth]