Women, Survival, Violence & the Law

Sat 7 May 2022

Jess Hill + Amani Haydar + Ellis Gunn + Andie Fox

Maiwar Green Marquee, State Library

Country of Focus / Main Festival

#Performances

#About the event

Duration: 60 minutes

Across Australia – and, indeed, the world – there is a reckoning on the abuse of women, the power of men and the institutions that serve to protect perpertrators. In their work, these authors investigate the arenas in which these battles are fought: the home, the judiciary, the media and beyond.

Panel: Amani Haydar, Jess Hill, Ellis Gunn
Chair: Andie Fox

Event Sponsors

#Artists

Jess Hill

Jess Hill is a Walkley award-winning journalist who specialises in reporting on coercive control and gendered violence. Prior to this, she was a Middle East correspondent, and worked as both a producer and reporter for various current affairs programs across the ABC. In 2019, she published her first book, See What You Made Me Do, about the phenomenon of domestic abuse in Australia. It was awarded the 2020 Stella Prize, has been shortlisted for several others, including the Walkley Book Award and the Prime Minister's Literary Award, and has been adapted into a television series for SBS. Recently, Jess has also produced an audio documentary series on coercive control called 'The Trap', and a Quarterly Essay on #MeToo in Australia, 'The Reckoning'.

Amani Haydar

Amani Haydar is an award-winning artist, writer and advocate for women's health and safety based in Western Sydney. Her memoir The Mother Wound (Pan Macmillan) released 2021, explores the personal and political dimensions of abuse and inter-generational trauma and been shortlisted for the 2022 Victorian Premier's Literary Award. In 2021, Amani received the UTS Law Alumni Award and, in 2020, she was named NSW Local Woman of The Year for Bankstown in recognition of her advocacy against gender-based violence. Using visual art and writing to tell stories and activate empathy, Amani's work has been featured in several exhibitions and publications including the 2018 Archibald Prize, Sweatshop Women Volume Two, SBS Voices and ABC News Online.

Ellis Gunn

Ellis Gunn is originally from Scotland where she published three poetry collections, one of which was shortlisted for the Saltire First Book of the Year Award. Since moving to Australia in 2010, she has won or been shortlisted for many literary awards including the Adelaide Festival Unpublished Manuscript Award. Her latest book Rattled (Allen & Unwin) describes a year of her life when she was pursued by a stalker and links the experience to a societal misogyny that more than half the population are dealing with on a daily basis.

Andie Fox

Andie Fox writes about motherhood and economics through a feminist lens. She is currently writing about parenting teenagers in The Guardian, while she finishes her book. Fox is a contributing author in several anthologies, including Jane Caro's Unbreakable: Women Share Stories of Resilience and Hope, as well as The Good Mother Myth and Mothers at the Margins.