hollowedskin:

mangoestho:

yilabil-wawura:

You can donate to Hey Sis [here]

Australia’s only sexual assault network specifically for Aboriginal women has run out of money.

Hey Sis, We’ve Got Your Back is a groundbreaking program that has been working to combat sexual violence against Indigenous women.

The program receives no government funding.

Up until now it has relied on private donations but the money has finally run out.

The first Indigenous woman elected to the New South Wales Parliament, Linda Burney, said it was astounding that the organisation was not getting the support it needed.

“The ‘Hey Sis’ program is absolutely what you need in Aboriginal communities, it’s Aboriginal-owned, Aboriginal-run, run by women who have walked in the shoes of the women that they’re working with,” she said.

Dixie Link Gordon and Ashlee Donahue are the co-creators of Hey Sis and both are survivors of domestic violence themselves.

These women suffer in silence because there’s nothing else for them. They don’t have a way out. She’ll probably go to hospital more times than not, that’s why the statistics are so high.
Melissa Wellington
The program works by identifying the trusted aunty figures, who are the go-to people for women in their communities suffering sexual assault and violence.

“In every town and every community, there’s an aunty that everyone will run to,” Ms Donahue said.

“There’s one family or one person where they say on a Saturday our lounge room will be full of young people and that’s who I run to, Aunty Beryl over there, you know.”

Hey Sis provides a support network for these aunties and offers them training and mentoring.

In two years, they held 10 forums in communities around NSW and built up a network of 200 aunties.

The program costs $250,000 a year to run.

BOOST
indigenous women are at the highest risk of violence of literally anyone else in this whole country I cannot believe there is only one support group and it has no funding.

Please if you have the money, give a little to Hey Sis. This is so important that indigenous women have a safe space and support since anti-indiginous racism is so predominant and is heavy on the victim blaming.