Liam McNally
Renowned Aboriginal community controlled organisation Djirra has celebrated NAIDOC Week by launching a new service in Melton.
Djirra in the West officially launched on Tuesday, July 4, marking a turning point for the organisation as it expands its delivery of holistic and culturally safe family violence services to Aboriginal women across the western region.
A crowd of about 300 people gathered in the new facility on Gisborne-Melton Road for a Welcome to Country by Wurundjeri elder Aunty Joy Murphy, speeches by Djirra chief executive of 20 years Kuku Yalanji woman Antoinette Braybrook, Treaty and First Peoples Minister Gabrielle Williams, and Sydenham MP Natalie Hutchins, and music by singer and activist, Mutti Mutti man Kutcha Edwards.
Ms Braybrook began her speech by acknowledging First Nations women.
“[Those] who are here, and those who cannot be here, because they are not permitted to leave the house because they have to account for every minute of their day, because they are behind bars for being homeless or having no money, behind bars for fighting back for that of their own safety and that of their children,” she said.
Djirra in the West is a full-circle moment for Ms Braybrook, bringing the service she has spearheaded for two decades to the area in which she was raised.
Ms Braybrook said that despite the challenges and “hostile encounters” she faced as being a part of the “first Aboriginal family in Melton”, it’s where she belongs.
“The west is in my blood. Djirra is in my blood. So, expanding across this way has always been a longstanding vision of ours,” she said.
Ms Braybrook said as well as having a fast growing Aboriginal population, Melton has the highest rate of family violence incidents in Melbourne’s north-west, and the most common offence people are charged with in Melton is breaching an intervention order.
“We know the demand is here, there’s no question that Djirra must be here,” she said.
“We need our government and supporters to jump on board and back us. Aboriginal women deserve your attention. Aboriginal women deserve a place where women’s business can be celebrated… A service for their safety, one without judgement, and one that validates and acknowledges their aboriginality.”
Details: djirra.org.au/djirra-is-coming-to-melton-djirra-in-the-west/
