Community & Business
20 February, 2022
Malanda Red Bench about changing the ending
A RED Bench established in Malanda is raising awareness about domestic violence and providing for a place to sit and converse about what can be done to reduce the incidences of violence in the home.
In 2019, the Red Rose Foundation launched an initiative to make the invisible wrongs that occur in our communities more visible through the Red Bench Project – a national, not-for-profit charity which aims to raise community awareness by building permanent reminders that for some people, their home is the most dangerous place they can be.
Police offi cers across Queensland responded to 113,779 domestic violence acts from July 2020 to April 2021 and in our back yard, 576 Domestic Violence Protection Orders were made in the 2019-20 year in the Atherton and Mareeba Magistrates Courts alone.
It is the foundation's aim to have at least one Red Bench in every local government area in Queensland, providing a way for townships to come together and “take a stand by taking a seat” and finding a way to “change the ending”.
In November last year, a Red Bench was established at Jack May Park in Malanda through a community collaboration between Tablelands Regional Council, ECHO Malanda, the Malanda Men's Shed and project initiator, Gemma Bimrose. Journalist and author of “See What You Made Me Do: Power, Control and Domestic Abuse”, Jess Hill, believes that as a community, we are asking the wrong question.
“We are asking ‘Why didn't the victim leave’, when we should be asking ‘why did the perpetrator do it’,” she said. It is often hard to understand why the woman stays, but as Ms Hill points out, “she is 'taken prisoner gradually, by courtship”.
“Before she feels trapped by fear and control, it is love that first binds her to her abuser, and it's love that makes her forgive him when he says he won't abuse her again," she said.
Cairns Regional Domestic Violence Service CEO Sandra Keogh said: “Even in tight-knit communities with a strong sense of safety, nowhere is immune.”
The Red Rose Foundation is especially concerned about the high number of domestic violence related homicide and suicide deaths occurring each year, acknowledging that many cases displayed predictive elements that should have made them largely preventable.
While many cases of domestic violence were never reported, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare's statistics reported one in six women and one in 16 men experienced physical or sexual violence by a current or previous partner during 2019.
But domestic violence is not only physical – it includes emotional and psychological abuse, economic abuse and threatening and coercive behaviours.
During the same period, one in four women and one in six men experienced emotional abuse from their partner. If you need to speak to anyone about domestic violence, some useful contact numbers are 1800RESPECT - 1800 737 732 or DVConnect - 1800 811 811 or call 1300 909 250 if you are in the Atherton and Ravenshoe areas, or 4092 3290 for the Mareeba area.
