Southern Women's Action Network

Date: Sunday, 17 September 2023

Location: Mt Martha House

Discussion on our experiences supporting the Yes campaign for the Referendum on an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to Parliament.

Date: Sunday, 16 July 2023

Location: Mt Martha House

Homelessness with Belinda Rodman and Kara Van Der Heyde 

Belinda and Kara work at the Southern Peninsula Community Support Centre. They are at the coal face of the housing crisis on the Mornington Peninsula. Every day the numbers of people seeking support are increasing. Hear about the programs they are running to support our community and how you can support their work.

Since the SWAN Voice Forum with outstanding guest speaker Teela Reid will be just 4 days after our meeting (See full details under “Events”), we will not have an Indigenous speaker this time.

CLICK HERE for more information about the speakers

Date: Sunday, 21 May 2023

Location: Mt Martha House

Jean Ker Walsh and discussion on how SWAN might move forward.

A chance to buy “When Women Meet” if you haven’t already  as well as to chat with friends and make new friends.

Date: Sunday, 19 March 2023

Location: Mt Martha House

Speaker Jean Ker-Walsh, then the launch at 12 noon of “When Women Meet”, a book currently being finalised which brings the history SWAN up to date and reflects on the impact of SWAN over more than 26 years,  followed by lunch to celebrate this important occasion. 

Jean Ker-Walsh is a strategic and media communications professional and co-Chair of Grandmother for Refugees (G4R). Jean has extensive experience in facilitating groups that are engaged in community based social action. Her presentation will focus on the recent history of G4R and the strategic approach that is being taken by the organisation and its members to advocate to change Australia’s inhumane refugee policies.

 In giving her address, Jean will help us to begin to dream about SWAN’s future, and to explore how SWAN can be further developed to ensure that it continues to involve and inspire women in the current context. This discussion will provide some initial ‘food for thought’ that will be pursued further at our May meeting. We anticipate that allowing time for members to reflect on SWAN’s history as recorded in ‘When Women Meet’ will also help to stimulate the May discussion.

Date: Sunday, 20 November 2022

Location: Mt Martha House

Exploring Issues in the Aged Care Sector.  Dr Sarah Russell, Aged Care expert and advocate

Her various opinion pieces can be found here and make very interesting reading.

http://www.agedcarematters.net.au/list-of-opinion-pieces/

Date: Sunday, 18 September 2022

Location: Mt Martha House

Dr Diana Johns will address this meeting on “The criminalisation of children (how it happens and why it needs to stop)”. 

Full details of venue and time, etc at Flyer-SEP-2022-Diana-Johns.pdf  

Dr Diana Johns is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Melbourne. Her work focuses on the effects of criminalisation, the impacts of imprisonment, and the possibilities of restorative and relational justice practices. Diana has expertise in youth justice, crime prevention, post-prison reintegration, and collaborative research with African-Australian communities. Her first book, Being and Becoming an Ex-Prisoner (Routledge, 2017), draws on her PhD research. She is co-author of two new books, Place, Race and Politics: The anatomy of a law and order crisis (Weber et al., Emerald, 2021) and Co-production and Criminal Justice (Johns et al., Routledge, 2022). 

You can read more about her here.  https://findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au/profile/420479-diana-johns 

 Photo by Vicki Bell Photography, for the School of Social & Political Sciences, University of Melbourne 

Date: Sunday, 17 July 2022

Location: Zoom Link has been sent to members with emails. Please contact swanwomen@outlook.com if you need the link and do not have it.

Stephanie Ross from the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria will address SWAN on negotiations for a Treaty or Treaties which are expected to be implemented in 2023 and other initiatives of this Assembly.

Flyer-NAIDOC-2022.pdf

Date: Sunday, 15 May 2022

Location: Mt Martha House

Speakers from Bayside Refugee Advocacy and Support Association

Date: Sunday, 20 March 2022

Location: Mt Martha House

International Women’s Day and 25th Birthday celebration

Speaker Joanna Hayter AO

Joanna Hayter, was made an Officer in the Order of Australia in January 2018, for ‘Distinguished service to women in the areas of gender equality and individual rights through leadership and policy development roles, and to the promotion of global health, peace and security.’

In 2013, Joanna was named as one of Australia’s 100 Women of Influence.

 In 2016, she was inducted into the Victorian Honour Roll for Women.

 Joanna was the CEO of International Women’s Development Agency from 2010-2017.

Her career in international development and peace and security ranges across 4 continents and 31 countries including long term residencies in Myanmar, Vietnam and Japan and nearly a decade across African nations.

 Today, Joanna is the Women’s Rights Convenor with Macquarie University’s Global Leadership Program.

She is also running her own garden design and landscaping business and lives in a rural town on the Mornington Peninsula.

Date: Sunday, 14 November 2021

Location: Mt Eliza Community Hall, 90 – 100 Canadian Bay Rd, Mt Eliza unless Covid restrictions change