Clementine Ford addresses the crowd at Reclaim the Night 2012. PHOTO: Supplied
This Saturday marks the 35th anniversary of Reclaim the Night, an event held each year to protest against harassment and violence against women.
The event, which has been running in Melbourne since 1979, gained prominence in the public eye after the tragic murder of Jill Meagher in 2012.
Event organiser Natalie Pestana was moved to hold the rally in the wake of what she describes as “victim-blaming” in the media coverage of the Meagher case.
Ms Pestana said she didn’t want to “step on the toes” of anyone else holding a Reclaim The Night rally, however she could only find an old Facebook group from 2011.
So she and her colleagues banded together to organise a “little” march in Sydney Rd. This swelled to around 5000 people after an overwhelming public response.
“So what was supposed to be a satellite event became ‘the’ event,” she said.
Ms Pestana hopes this coming weekend’s march will raise awareness about issues such as victim blaming, and help change perceptions around this in the wider public.
“People need to start thinking about the issues and to start putting in the hard work to change a culture in which we’ve got a massive gender inequality,” she said.
“Violence against women doesn’t exist in the vacuum; it’s the product of misogyny, inequality and patriarchy.”
Ms Pestana’s comments come in the wake of a recent poll of 17,500 Australians that found around one in five people believe that a woman is partially responsible for being raped if she is intoxicated.
The same poll showed that one in six people surveyed agreed that when women say “no” they actually mean “yes”.
Ms Pestana said the recent murder of Mayang Presetyo, and some media’s handling of the issue, has highlighted the need for events such as Reclaim the Night to include trans people and sex workers.
“Those two groups of people have been very much marginalised, and if you look at the history of Reclaim the Night, those two group have been very much excluded,” she said.
Reclaim the Night Melbourne welcomes all women and persons identifying as women to march up front in the ‘Women’s Space’.
Following this group, they invite men, along with women who’d like to march with them, “to join them in solidarity”.
Sam Lilit of Oakleigh is a year 11 student and trans-feminist who became involved with Reclaim the Night Melbourne, as they have a trustworthy reputation, with the inclusive policy of the ‘Women’s Space’.
Lilit will speak at the rally about how “sexism is a learned trait” and “how our culture actively teaches it from a very young age”.
Lilit used the example of how in primary school, if a boy pulls a girls hair “it’s because he likes you”.
“As if that’s ever justification for violence,” Lilit said. “So we need to start at those basic levels of not teaching those gender stereotypes to children.”
Ruwani is a volunteer who became involved in Reclaim The Night after hearing the recent story about a woman who was gang-raped in South Yarra.
She said in the past she has hesitated to call herself a feminist, as often they can be accused of “men bashing”, adding she “believes in equality across the whole board”.
“I just see at this point there’s a greater need to advocate for women,” Ruwani said.
Ms Pestana hopes the event will be a “springboard” for people to go off and do their own research.
“We’re past the point of politeness. It’s really important we start making changes, because all the marches in the world won’t make change,” she said.
“We want you to go home a think about how on a day-to-day level how misogyny and patriarchy affect our lives.”
Reclaim the Night will be held from 6.30pm on Saturday October 18, starting at Brunswick Town Hall. The event is run simultaneously with other rallies around the country.
