Ballarat women are calling on the community to join together on the first anniversary of the global Women’s March movement on Sunday at Lake Wendouree near the Adventure Playground.
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In January 2017, Women’s Marches were attended all over the world in a push against discrimination of women and girls everywhere.
Organisers of the Ballarat event from the Reclaim the Night Ballarat group said the event is one of hundreds happening all over the world.
“Many women have to travel to Melbourne for these types of gatherings so we are aiming for local representation of a global movement and being able to represent that in Ballarat,” Siobhan Fearon said.
The Ballarat Women’s March event welcomes all members of the community and aims to send a message that Ballarat will not stand for gender-based discrimination.
”Ballarat not-for-profit organisations and people at the grassroots can come together at these events,” Kate Poynter said.
The event comes in the wake of worldwide movements against discrimination such as the #metoo and #timesup campaigns that have seen women speaking about the everyday sexism and oppression they face.
Reclaim the Night Ballarat members said the event on Sunday will support the movement of women speaking out and taking a stand.
“Around the time Reclaim happened, the #metoo movement took off and since then we have seen more people willing to participate and people want to get on board,” Ms Farrah said.
“This is not a protest, it’s a show of solidarity. We will be taking the picture of everyone holding hands at the lake to add to the Women’s March digital campaign,” Ms Poynter said.
“There are women in Ballarat and there is sex-based oppression happening wherever woman are.”
CEO of Women’s Health Grampians Marianne Hendron said her organisation supports the message of the Women’s March and it provides an opportunity to tackle many issues women face.
“It’s all about being respectful and not dragging anyone down by their gender, race, sexuality or what it may be,” she said.
Ms Hendron said the ideals of the Women’s March are closely related to the aims of Women’s Health Grampians.
“We have higher rates of family violence than in many other parts of the state for example and we have done work to highlight the connection between gender inequality and violence against women,” she said.
“By creating these connections and showing solidarity and highlighting these issues, we can hopefully indicate a strong need for change and continue to push for change.”
All those unable to attend the event at the lake can participate by posting a photo online with the hashtags #unbroken #westandtogether #lookbackmarchforward #meetoo #timesup #ballarat #RTNballarat #womansmarch.
