Making change, making history, making noise!

Grace Tame, 2021 Australian of the Year, and Brittany Higgins, advocate for survivors of sexual assault, were the guests at the Australian Press Club in Canberra. It’s 1 hr 17 mins – riveting. Worth the time to watch here on Youtube.

Article by Michelle Arrow in The Conversation: Making change, making history, making noise: Higgins and Tame at the National Press Club
“As an historian of the Australian women’s movement, the past two years have been extraordinary to witness. Not only are we living through a once-in-a-century pandemic, which has had profoundly gendered effects, we have also experienced a feminist insurgency that has placed the issue of women’s safety, and men’s abuses of power, at the centre of our national conversation. While many activists, journalists and advocates contributed to this insurgency, it exploded largely thanks to two young women: 2021 Australian of the Year Grace Tame and former parliamentary staffer Brittany Higgins. Both just 26, both survivors of sexual assault, both abused by men – and institutions – they ought to have been able to trust. Both rejected the expectation they should be shamed into silence about their experiences. In doing so, they have helped to rewrite enduring cultural scripts about sexual abuse and sexual assault. Tame and Higgins both made passionate pleas for structural change, for measurable action to prevent sexual abuse and assault. Their joint address at the National Press Club today was a valedictory speech, a way to mark their extraordinary year in the public eye. But it was also a call to action, a warning against complacency in an election year”. (Click on the link for the full article)