Community organisation award category
The Community Organisation Award category recognises a project by a community organisation or group that shows best practice in the prevention of domestic and family violence within their local community.
2008 Winner: Normanton Stingers Rugby League Football Club
For: Domestic Violence - It's Not Our Game
Players from the Normanton Stingers Rugby League Football Club have agreed to act as role models for the community in Normanton and surrounding areas by refusing to participate in domestic and family violence. Players who do perpetrate violence are penalised with exclusion from games and, ultimately, the team.
The Normanton Stingers promote the message: ‘Domestic Violence – it’s not our game’ which is displayed on players’ jerseys, supporter t-shirts, wrist bands, car stickers and banners displayed at football grounds.
By promoting this message at home and away games, and on television, the Stingers have challenged acceptance of domestic and family violence in the region. The reach of the campaign has also extended into the Northern Territory thanks to the support of Imparja Television.
The population in Normanton is 1,600, with 60% identifying as Indigenous, and it is estimated that at least a third of the town’s residents attend home games.
By publicising the ‘Domestic Violence – it’s not our game’ message to a broad audience across the region, the campaign recognises that domestic and family violence affects far more people than just the victims and perpetrators in and around Normanton.
2008 Winner: Miles Regional Arts Council
For: the Stage Play - Rural Domestic Violence
"Farmer will Swap Combine Harvester For Wife" written by Hugh O’Brien, was chosen as a winner by the Miles Regional Arts Council during the Dogwood National Play Writing Competition.
The play shines a spotlight on the unique problem of rural domestic and family violence in an innovative way, helping to raising awareness of domestic and family violence by skilfully combining comedy, drama, a local setting and likeable characters to convey its message that domestic and family violence is never acceptable.
It also outlines a possible course of action for the victim enduring domestic and family violence, the perpetrator and the people who come into contact with them.
One of the issues the play addresses is the key question of why women who are abused by their partner stay in the relationship. In the play, the perpetrator is directed to seek help through Mensline. Every person attending the play received a program which carried the contact phone numbers for dvconnect Womensline and Mensline.
People who would not normally attend a counselling session, a lecture or watch a DVD about domestic and family violence unexpectedly found themselves confronted with the subject through the play.
The play serves two purposes: to women who are suffering in silence, it shows that they are not alone and help is available; it also challenges the behaviours of perpetrators, as well as providing advice on where to seek help.
Six sold-out performances were held at the Leichhardt Centre in Miles in September 2007. These performances exposed the timely message of the play to a combined audience of around 1,200 people.