Hey sisters, our March KWP workshop calendar is ready!

We have some exciting new workshops including:

✨ Main Character Energy with Bianca Hunt (Online)
✨ A 3 week series Staying Strong & Healthy Community with Dianne from Lovett & Co (Abbotsford)
✨ Cleansing Sticks with Elisha Mangal (Mildura)
✨ Feather Flowers with Aunty Kathy Nicholls (Melton)
✨ Blak Theatre Workshop with Laila Thaker (Melton)
✨ Weaving Workshop with Aunty Patsy (Mildura)
✨ Hair Braiding with Hope from Heavenly Hands (Melton)
✨ Healing Mats with Narnz (Online)
✨ KWP Art Circle Bracelet Making (Online)
✨ Our monthly Virtual Sista Yarns on 24th (Online)
✨ We also have a Sisters Day Out in Swan Hill on the 17th and Wodonga on the 24th

Swipe for more details >>>

To register please contact KWP on 1800 105 303 (and press 3) or email kwp@djirra.org.au

Stay deadly you mob!

Today, Djirra celebrates two important milestones.

Exactly eight years ago, we became Djirra.

Yesterday, the Children, Youth & Families Amendment (Stability) Bill 2025 passed through parliament, a significant victory for Aboriginal women and children in Victoria.

This reform has only been possible, because Aboriginal women courageously shared their stories of pain and injustice, stories of their children being taken.

Djirra, and others, shared Aboriginal women’s truths with the Yoorrook Justice Commission, which recommended removing rigid timeframes and restoring discretion to the Children’s Court to extend Family Reunification Orders. This reform will allow all mothers more time to escape violence, heal and achieve reunification with their children.

Our CEO @Antoinette_Braybrook AM said, “The passing of this Bill is a critical first step toward addressing the shameful over-representation of Aboriginal children in out-of-home care. This reform will be a game changer and will mean Aboriginal women can grow their children safe and together, thriving in culture and identity.”

While this reform is a step forward, Djirra continues to call on the Victorian government to invest in our Child Protection Notification Referral System which would see Aboriginal women referred immediately to Djirra for specialist, wraparound support as soon as child protection become involved.

Aboriginal women must have an advocate to navigate this racist and punitive system.

We ask that you keep this momentum going and back us in on our continued advocacy.

📢 Amplify our voice
📣 Follow our advocacy calls
🔁 Share our messages

Next Tuesday, the Children, Youth & Families (Stability) Bill 2025 (Vic) will again be debated in parliament.

We call on the government to act urgently and pass this Bill.

Aboriginal women and children deserve to be safe and together.

Our CEO @Antoinette_Braybrook AM says,

“The over-representation of Aboriginal children in out-of-home care is not a failure of the system.

It is the system operating exactly as it was designed to operate.

The child protection system continues to expand while Aboriginal women are left grieving the permanent loss of their children, a separation driven by government and backed by legislation.”

Read our full statement on the Djirra website at djirra.org.au

Our CEO @Antoinette_Braybrook AM, spoke without compromise at yesterday’s National Family Safety Summit in Perth. She called out the systemic violence and racism that Aboriginal women experience when seeking safety:

“Seek safety and you are likely to lose your children. Seek safety and you are likely to be criminalised and misidentified as the primary aggressor. This is not prevention. This is punishment. This is racial targeting.”

Aboriginal women must have an advocate to navigate racist and punitive systems.

Governments must stop investing in systems that are designed to target the most vulnerable and disadvantaged and must start investing in proven solutions. An urgent increase in funding to Djirra, for our specialist frontline work and early intervention prevention programs, is a good place to start.

Antoinette`s message was clear: Aboriginal women deserve safety and justice. Join us in advocating for change now. Share this post to back our calls.

#OchreRibbonWeek #DontSilenceTheViolence #AboriginalWomensLivesMatter #FamilySafetySummit

Another two Aboriginal women were killed during Ochre Ribbon Week.

Djirra CEO @Antoinette_Braybrook AM said, “How many more women must die before we are heard? These deaths are preventable. We won’t stop holding governments to account. Government must stop diverting funding away from our specialist services and start investing in women.”

We have made recommendation after recommendation to Federal and State Inquiries, given evidence at Royal Commissions and the Yoorrook Justice Commission, yet our life saving frontline work and early intervention programs remain chronically underfunded.

Our submissions to these Inquiries speak women’s truths about the gendered nature of violence and the systemic racism we as Aboriginal women are constantly confronted with. We demand change. We demand investment into our life changing and lifesaving services NOW.

Over two decades of working with and for Aboriginal women, we have only seen things get worse. It is unaccepted that still today, Aboriginal women in Victoria are 45 times more likely to experience family violence than other women and over 10 times more likely to have police use force against them than other women.

The evidence is clear. Women are being racially targeted and murdered at alarming rates.

Where is the political will to change this devastating realty?
Where is the investment?
Where is the accountability?

WE DEMAND ACTION NOW.

#OchreRibbonWeek #DontSilenceTheViolence #AboriginalWomensLivesMatter