The Untold Stories

Working in this sector is challenging on many different levels but what I struggle with the most is the idea of job satisfaction. It doesn’t seem right to focus on ‘job satisfaction’ when the very work we do is the direct result of women experiencing oppression, discrimination and violence. However, for reasons of sanity there has to be a way of persevering in what often feels like a fog of hopelessness.

 

I find an effective way for me to navigate my way through this is to hold onto hope. Hope can simply be about persevering with actions that feel right. We may not succeed in changing things, but we can choose to act from the clarity that what we are doing in any given moment is ‘right action’ and I find my thoughts are anchored to the idea that my work is driven by the thought that, “I couldn’t not do it.”

 

I have had to learn that I cannot always expect positive results and happy endings. Sometimes work can feel almost worthless which can be a difficult burden to carry inside one’s self. But when I concentrate not on the results but on the value and the rightness and the truth of the work itself I am able to disentangle myself from expectation and struggle. I try to focus on what right action feels like and the clarity and energy they can bring to my sense of self.

 

Yet it can be incredibly challenging to hold onto hope when rage burns ever so close to the surface. Rage which is all too familiar and is driven by the terrible injustices we bear witness to every day; injustices which are responsible for the continued suffering of women. However, I do not want my activities to be driven by these powerful and destructive emotions as they have a habit of then seeping into everything else that I say and do. So I focus on acting rightly and holding onto hope.

 

The Dalai Lama once said “Do not despair,” your work will bear fruit in 700 years or so.” I’m hoping that women will not have to wait that long for gender equality and a world without violence.

 

The energy of my perseverance is trickle fed by my position of holding onto hope and not measuring my success and my work by the signs of immediate success and results. I try and find ways to find a space for the reality that our work may not bear fruit immediately but perhaps in another time and space.

 

One of the most challenging aspects of working in the sector is the continual stereotyping of the‘face’ of homelessness. Mainstream media outlets, both print and TV, continue to represent those experiencing homelessness typically as men with substance misuse issues or couch surfing youth. Yet, the Australian Institute of Health & Welfare, Specialist Homelessness Services Collection quarterly results consistently show that the largest group in Australia who experience homelessness are women and children escaping domestic and family violence. Homelessness is a breach of a person’s human rights, no matter who they are; however violence against women is a significant issue which remains silenced when homelessness is reported in the Australian media.

 

It often feels like the focus in Australia is on ‘houselessness’ rather than ‘homelessness’. A house typically has four walls, a kitchen, bathroom, bedroom and is a place to keep your personal belongings. A home on the other hand is much more than this. It is a safe place where people can feel comfort and security in a relaxed environment which empowers them to fulfil their life goals, be connected to family and community and experience holistic wellbeing. By my definition women and children can have an adequate roof over their heads but still be homeless because violence disrupts and violates the sense of physical and emotional safety and belonging that is associated with the home.

 

National and State policy and program responses to violence, poverty and homelessness desperately need to be synchronised if Australia is ever going to meet its goal of halving homelessness by 2020. Government investment in housing infrastructure is to be applauded however we also need to make houses into homes by ensuring they are safe for the women and children who live in them.

 

Violence against women is a human rights violation that devastates the lives of women and children and places them at risk of poverty and homelessness.

 

What we need is direct government investment and action on implementing the full recommendations of Time for Action: The National Council’s Plan for Australia to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children. The Australian Government is signatory to International Human Rights Instruments such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Violence Against Women (DEVAW) and are yet to be fully implemented in our country. Nothing less than full implementation is what is required.

 

I would also like to see the continued building of a robust culture of human rights education and the further development of a shared vocabulary that finds expression, not only in rules and institutions, but in values, relationships and processes. I want a culture of human rights to exist where rights are embedded – owned, understood and realised – in everyday life. This requires legislative, institutional and organisational change and vigilance as well as attitudinal and behavioural change. A human rights discourse is, by nature, a discourse of hope. It concentrates not only on what is wrong but also articulates a vision of what is right, of where Australia along with the rest of the global community can be heading. I would like the vision of human rights, of women’s rights, to become a reality.