When: December 5th, 2024 – Hybrid
Panelists
Facilitated by Dr Mandy Charman, Senior Manager – OPEN
Warning: This recording contains heavy themes and descriptions of domestic homicide and violence.
This conversational panel provided a powerful platform to spotlight the unique challenges faced by children, young people and adults impacted by domestic homicide, emphasising the urgent need for systemic change and trauma-informed care. This event, facilitated by Mandy Charman from the Centre’s Outcomes, Practice and Evidence Network (OPEN), provided the opportunity to hear from the panellists who all have lived experience of losing their mother at the hands of their father or mother’s intimate partner. They shared their personal stories, research findings and actionable solutions aimed at creating meaningful change for this important and overlooked issue.
The event continued the advocacy work previously presented in Can I Ask That? A conversation with the children of women killed by men in last year’s 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence and the work of Melbourne Universities Research Project – Children and Young People Bereaved by Domestic Homicide.
The panel discussion brought much-needed attention to the profound and urgent needs of children and young people who have lost a parent to domestic homicide. Panelists shared powerful insights into the isolation and misunderstanding often faced by these young people, who are left to navigate complex emotions without adequate specialised support.
The conversation underscored the immense psychological toll of experiencing such trauma and called for systemic change to ensure their experiences and needs are no longer overlooked. By advocating for greater recognition and tailored support, the event highlighted the critical importance of bringing these issues to the forefront of policy and reform. The panelists and the work of the Melbourne University Research Project call for the establishment of a national database to track the number of children and young people affected by domestic homicide. This data is crucial for understanding the scope of the issue and for informing policy decisions that can lead to better resource allocation.
The panelists provided key recommendations to support systematic change. They called for:
The ‘You should Ask that’ event was a step towards highlighting the critical needs of children, young people and adults impacted by domestic homicide. The stories shared by the panellists served as a powerful reminder of the urgency of this issue. The event highlighted that we should not only listen to their voices but also create a framework of support that addresses their unique challenges.
Taking on the recommendations and being disruptors in systems that are not meeting the needs of the children and young people that have been impacted by this experience, will encourage this conversation to be transformed into action.
Kathryn Joy (they/them)
Kathryn is a community organiser, activist and advocate in social movement spaces, with particular engagement in children’s rights, LGBTQIA+ justice, prison abolition and transformative justice. They work as a family homicide researcher at The University of Melbourne, and in 2024, ‘KillJoy’, a documentary about their childhood and life as a victim-survivor of domestic homicide, was released on Stan.
Rebecca Burdon (she/her)
Rebecca is a lived experience familial homicide advisor and advocate. In August 2017 her mother was shot and killed by her partner, who then suicided. Rebecca is a lawyer in her own private practice, having had a prior career as a mental health social worker. Rebecca is a Non-Executive Director on NFP Board of Directors in the social services area. She is advocating for increased awareness about the lack of specialist services available for child survivors and wants to see the creation of specialist support and peer networking services.
Beverley Attard (she/her)
Beverley was 11 years when she witnessed her father murder her Mother at their family home. Beverley is a Social Worker at Western Health and advocate for domestic homicide survivors. Her aim is to allow those who have lived this experience a place to be heard and visible when often their experiences are silenced.
Ashton Kline
Ashton, together with his brother Grant, suffered an horrendous childhood at the hands of their violent and controlling father, which culminated in the death of their mother at his hands. Then only 15, Ashton and six-year-old Grant were placed in foster care, Today, Ashton is an ambassador for the Alannah Madeline foundation, a Senior Lecturer in Nursing with James Cook University and advocate for domestic homicide survivors.
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