Links to blogs posts, newspaper articles and books.
Don’t look away | Read more Children bereaved by domestic homicide deserve support and advocacy, not silence and stigma. As a society, let’s engage rather than look away.
Losing a parent to domestic homicide – and everything that’s wrong with this headline | Read more The words we use to describe how children are impacted by domestic homicide are important – and it’s time to be honest.
When ‘home’ is taken away | Read more The concept of ‘home’ fundamentally shifts after a child loses a parent to domestic homicide and it can be challenging to rebuild a sense of belonging.
A stable place in a time of turmoil | Read more Schools can be the only stable and predictable environment in the lives of children affected by the tragedy of fatal family violence – but they need resourcing.
“That weird kid without parents” | Read more Losing a parent through domestic homicide can change a child’s self-understanding in isolating ways. Support must respond to identity-based distress and foster belonging.
A child’s right to be heard | Read more After a parent is killed due to family violence, children aren’t given enough opportunity to express their opinions on decisions that directly affect their lives.
The power of stories to rebel against a taboo | Read more Claiming control over your own story is a crucial step towards healing and social transformation after losing a parent due to domestic homicide.
A little rhino beetle tells a story | Read more The artwork in this series has its own story – using an Australian rhino beetle to illustrate metamorphosis and recovery.
Top
Revealed: The true toll of female suicides with domestic abuse at their core | Read article The Guardian, 16 Feb 2026Research suggests that official statistics on the fatal impacts of family violence are still underestimations.
Years after their mothers were killed, these child survivors finally found each other | Read articleThe Age, 25 Mar 2025Written by Cassandra Morgan, who received the CFECFW Media Award 2025 for this piece.
The documentary Killjoy captures the personal and the political of family violence and gender activism | Read article The Conversation, 10 Sep 2024Professor in History, Sharon Crozier-De Rosa, comments on the relevance of the KillJoy documentary in a society that often silences young victims of fatal family violence.
Kathryn Joy was raised by the man who killed their mother. Now they want answers | Read articleThe Guardian, 8 Sep 2024Children and young people are often not recognised of victims after fatal family homicide. Based on the KillJoy documentary, this article serves to challenge that unjust narrative.
Courtney’s mum was murdered in a domestic violence homicide. She’s one of at least 1,000 kids who’ve lost parents this way | Read articleABC News, 18 Jun 2024This article contributes to raise awareness of the long-lasting impacts of fatal family violence on children and young people’s lives.
The children left behind by domestic homicide | Read more 30 Nov 2019When children lose a parent to domestic homicide, committed overwhelmingly by a male perpetrator, the system treats them as just collateral damage. That needs to, and can,change.
Children who have lost a parent to family violence need to be listened to | Read article The Conversation, 6 Aug 2018Practitioners have a unique opportunity to raise children and young people’s voices and protect their right to be heard after fatal family violence.
What Ally Needs Now
This book was created with people who have lived experience of losing a loved one to intimate partner violence, as well as researchers and professionals who work to improve support for them and their families.
Digital copies of this book are now available for immediate download.
More info and acknowledgements
‘I am from a family of strong women.’
Amani Haydar suffered the unimaginable when she lost her mother in a brutal act of domestic violence perpetrated by her father. Five months pregnant at the time, her own perception of how she wanted to mother (and how she had been mothered) was shaped by this devastating murder.
After her mother’s death, Amani began reassessing everything she knew of her parents’ relationship. They had been unhappy for so long – should she have known that it would end like this? A lawyer by profession, she also saw the holes in the justice system for addressing and combating emotional abuse and coercive control.
Amani also had to reckon with the weight of familial and cultural context. Her parents were brought together in an arranged marriage, her mother thirteen years her father’s junior. Her grandmother was brutally killed in the 2006 war in Lebanon, adding complex layers of intergenerational trauma.
Writing with grace and beauty, Amani has drawn from this a story of female resilience and the role of motherhood in the home and in the world. In The Mother Wound, she uses her own strength to help other survivors find their voices.
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