Michelle Glasgow, at the third annual Rose Vigil in Wollongong, reads the names of the women killed by their partners or family members in 2024. Photo: Zoe Cartwright.
On Monday (25 November), a crowd gathered in MacCabe Park, Wollongong, to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.
Michelle Glasgow’s voice broke as she read the names of the 66 women who have been murdered by their overwhelmingly male partners or family members this year.
Michelle, the general manager of Women Illawarra, said the vigil only became more difficult each year as the list of names grew ever longer.
Some of the women were in their early 20s, just at the beginning of their lives; others were in their 80s, when you would hope anyone would be safe from a violent death.
The sombre crowd marked the name of each dead woman with quiet acknowledgment and a single rose.
Those in attendance were overwhelmingly women.
Women young and old, from all walks of life.
Rebecca, last name withheld, sat in silence through the vigil, with sparkling eye makeup and a flower in her hair.
“I’m a survivor, and I thank God I got through it,” she said softly.
“I’m sorry, I’m not a big talker. It’s something that affects you for the rest of your life.”
Next to her sat three friends, older women.
Gillian Hopkins spoke for the group in a direct, no-nonsense manner.
“It’s in solidarity with all women who are at risk in a patriarchal society,” she said.
“We have grieved women dying for many, many years and it has got to stop, and it won’t stop until we all join hands.”
It’s hard not to feel disheartened that such a vigil needs to be held at all; more disheartening was the visible absence of men.
A smattering of men, including representatives from Healthier Illawarra Men, stood in solidarity. Several laid flowers.
More walked past; one man wandered over from the Builders Club, where he had finished eating lunch with some friends.
“I wondered what was going on,” he said to organisers.
When he was told, and invited to stay, he looked visibly uncomfortable and said he had better go.
It’s tough to feel optimistic about the future for women in Australia when half of the population, the half that is overwhelmingly responsible for this surge of brutality, finds it all too awkward to acknowledge.
This year has seen the highest number of dead women since women’s advocacy group Destroy the Joint began counting in 2012.
Illawarra activist Sally Stevenson said the continuing acceleration and intensification of attacks against women in Australia was not surprising.
“These rates were predicted when COVID hit,” she said.
“What’s disappointing for us, apart from the loss of these women and the effect of that loss on their children, families and communities, is that this could have been prevented.
“These deaths have a ripple effect that continues across a lifetime. It’s saddening, it’s sickening, and it’s preventable.
“Part of the vigil today is about calling for action across our community, within our systems, within our government, to address this emergency.
“It’s a whole-of-community problem, it requires a whole-of-community response.”
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