Southern Women's Action Network

Date: Sunday, 19 September 2021

Location: Zoom

Speaker Coralie Alison, Director of Collective Shout

Link will be sent to all those we have email addresses for.  If you would like to be added, please call Erica 0404 811 422.

Date: Sunday, 11 July 2021

Location: Mt Eliza Community Hall Covid restrictions permitting

Speaker Aunty Helen Belle Bnads

If you are not already on our email list, please contact swanwomen@outlook.com for details.  

Date: Sunday, 23 May 2021

Location: Mt Eliza Community Centre, 90 – 100 Canadian Bay Road, Mt Eliza if Covid restrictions allow

Date: Sunday, 14 March 2021

Location: Zoom

International Women’s Day

Our speaker/s will be Pia Cerveri and  Jodi Peskett        

 

Pia Cerveri is a social worker who has worked in Australia and the United Kingdom and specialised in working with children and their families, youth justice and with women in the Victorian prison system. Pia is a longtime Australian Services Union member and is committed to achieving gender equity via many means, including through the collective power of the union movement. Pia was, until recently, the co-lead of the Women’s and Equality team at Victorian Trades Hall Council. 

Jodi Peskett is the former co-lead of the Women’s and Equality team at Victorian Trades Hall Council, a job she shared with Pia Cerveri. In her time in that role she coordinated a number of campaigns including the Stop Gendered Violence at Work campaign. Jodi has a Masters degree in Gender and Development and has worked in gender equality campaigning at home, in the Asia Pacific and internationally. Jodi is a proud unionist and feminist. She is committed to achieving justice and fairness for workers including gender equality, through the collective power of the union movement.

This meeting will be on Zoom due to Social Distancing requirements.   The link will be emailed to members close to the date.  If you wish to be added to the list, please contact Erica on 0404 811 422.

Date: Sunday, 8 November 2020

Location: Zoom

Teela Reid will be our speaker for the postponed NAIDOC week meeting.   This meeting will be on 8th November as Teela is not available on 15th and the committee felt it was worth moving the meeting for this opportunity.

Teela Reid is a proud Wiradjuri and Wailwan woman, a former teacher now criminal defence lawyer and most recently an award-winning junior fiction writer.  Teela is a passionate advocate for enshrining a First Nations Voice to Parliament in the Constitution and a Makarrata commission to enable Treaty and Truth-telling.

She was a working group leader on section 51 (xxvi), the Race Power, in the constitutional dialogue process that underpinned the Uluru Statement From The Heart; an invitation issued to the Australian people on 26th May 2017. 

Teela also appeared on ABC programs The Drum, 7.30 and Q&A, and has an active presence on Twitter (@teelareid) and is the co-creator of the Instagram page blackfulla_bookclub, a platform that honours First Nations Ancestors as the original storytellers.

Photo credit: John Janson-Moore

Date: Sunday, 20 September 2020

Location: Zoom

This meeting will be via Zoom.  Start at 10 am.  After the AGM and notices, we will have a couple of short addresses from members and then a chance to share news.

AGM details in the September newsletter.

Date: Sunday, 5 July 2020

Location: Mt Martha House, 466 Esplanade, Mt Martha

We had hoped to have Teela Reid as our speaker but NAIDOC week has been postponed and Covid-19 restrictions mean that the meeting must be cancelled.   We are hopefull Teela may be able to speak to our November meeting if  this can go ahead.

Date: Sunday, 17 May 2020

Location: Mt Martha House, 466 Esplanade, Mt Martha

Meeting Cancelled due to Covid-19

Date: Sunday, 8 March 2020

Location: Mt Martha House, 466 Esplanade, Mt Martha

 Commencing 9.30am with International Women’s Day special guest speaker, Shen Narayanasamy.   

Celebrations extended to 3 pm for those who would like to stay.

SWAN is delighted to welcome Shen as our speaker for IWD 2020. 

Shen is the Human Rights Campaign Director at GetUp! and one of Australia’s powerful influencers of political discourse around humanitarian issues.  She founded the “No Business In Abuse” campaign targeting corporate involvement in mandatory offshore detention of asylum seekers, and led #LetThemStay, which prevented the deportation to Nauru of hundreds of asylum seekers.  Her recent work was in Canberra on the Medevac Bill effort.

Shen’s background prior to GetUp! is in human rights law, economic justice and land rights.  She was the Economic Justice Advocacy Coordinator with Oxfam, and formerly a lawyer at Norton Rose Fulbright.  Shen may be a familiar face to our members as she has also appeared on the ABC’s political programs The Drum and Q&A.

 BOOKINGS ESSENTIAL – numbers limited – call/text  Erica Churchill  0404-811-422

Entry: $10 at door – membership registration / entry donation for members.  Morning Tea is provided.

Since International Women’s Day falls on the date of our meeting, we will extend the celebrations until 3 pm for those who would like to stay for all or part of this.

• Lunch at approx. 12 noon will be BRING A PLATE TO SHARE – finger/fork food –Oven and microwave are available. A great chance to meet some of the members you do not already know and perhaps reflect on what Shen has said.

• Approx 1 pm We will play the Podcasts of the 3 Boyer lectures by Rachael Perkins (25 minutes each)

                     01 The End of Silence: The genesis of the Uluru statement

                         Rachel Perkins reminds us of the significance of the Uluru Statement from the Heart and why it’s the most important message Indigenous people have sent to their fellow Australians in over four decades.

                     02 The End of Silence: With the consent of the natives

                           From colonial times to the present, Indigenous people have wanted a say about the laws and policies that affect them. Rachel Perkins discusses what needs to be done to guarantee that the Indigenous voice is heard.

                      03 The End of Silence: Makarrata

                            In Rachel Perkins final Boyer lecture she details the dual proposal for a Makarrata Commission and a process of truth telling about our nation.

• Approx 2.30 group discussion of the podcasts

SWAN  sincerely thanks SECRET GARDEN of Mornington for their contribution of beautiful flowers.

Date: Sunday, 17 November 2019

Location: Mt Martha House, 466 Esplanade, Mt Martha

Guest Speaker Pamela Curr,

Pamela retired in October 2016 after twelve years full time work at Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (Melbourne) advocating for people in detention and community. Clearly Refugee policy is unfinished business in Australia and retirement certainly doesn’t mean one finishes being an activist.

Since workplace retirement Pamela volunteers with the tireless and remarkable Sister Brigid Arthur of the Brigidine Asylum Seeker Project. Pamela is also a member of Refugee Advocacy Network and Liberty Refugee Policy Group and is one of the regular MITA Detention visitors.

Pamela would like to re-visit SWAN to discuss the current dire situation for asylum seekers and explore some practical ways to help. She says “We have not yet turned the politicians away from their cruel policies but numerous groups of decent people have shown much kindness and compassion to people in need and continue to argue and advocate for humanitarian change.”

Please come from 9.30 to chat and have a cuppa.   All women welcome.    $10 membership at the door or $10 donation to our social justice causes if you are already a member.