VOICES OF INSIGHT
The Voices of Insight are de-identified descriptions of people’s lived experience of domestic, family and sexualised violence and other adversities. They have been developed through the Insight Exchange interview process designed to affirm agency, uphold dignity and support safety. The insights reveal the ways in which the person has resisted and responded to the violence used against them. The descriptions reveal some of the context in which the violence has occurred, how people, services and systems responded and how these responses were helpful, unhelpful or harmful.
Our thanks to every person who contributed insights for the benefit of many. We acknowledge that despite our best efforts to listen to lived experiences of violence and abuse, we can never fully understand all that a person’s experiences mean to them now or through their life. We understand that lived and living experiences can never be fully represented in language or any other form.
We invite you to read and share forward these Voices of Insight (below) to inform social, service and system responses to domestic, family and sexualised violence.
Darshani - 'So, the simplest and most powerful way of being in this world is being kind.'
Kate - 'Public places did not provide any immunity to me. Mason had no hesitation in denigrating me in front of anyone listening to him.'
Veronica - 'Mark and my parents undermined my parenting decisions, and they prevented me from being focused on my kids.'
Phoebe - 'Ex came with me, but it was to monitor me, not to support me'.
Charlotte - “My experiences highlight, the perpetrator could be your mother, it could be your boyfriend and then it also could be your boss or colleague and all at the same time.”
Sarah-Jane - He didn’t tell me he had multiple credit cards or that he was with different banks, and stuff like that.
Anika - "I'm not a child anymore, and you don't hold any power over me."
Matilda – ‘I live with that fear in the back of my mind all the time.’
Melinda - 'Violence is like a spider's web.'
Dorothy - 'The system failed me over and over again, but I have not failed my children... I’ve got this.'
Melissa - 'His biggest threat was, "I will take the children."'
Joey - 'But just because he was there, I wanted to shed my skin after that night.'
Marion - 'He said to my friend “I don't like you visiting because you make her far too independent.”'
Casey - 'We have a choice in life to refuse to be violent. As a proud Wiradjuri man, I make this choice every day.'
Olivia - ‘I kept getting a screwed up feeling in my stomach whenever we were together.'
Nicole - 'The financial counsellor said to me, “how did this happen to a smart woman like you?”
Lee - 'Wayne turned my head upside down and inside out.'
Zoe - ‘The sexualised violence I experienced as a teen does not define me – I refuse it that.’
Alexander - 'The blame and shame do not belong to me, it belongs to the men in my life who were violent and abusive.'
Lainie - 'I withdrew from the world to be safe.'
Francis - 'I was committed to doing and acting in ways that were the reverse or opposite of Ian’s and my father’s behaviours.'
Jules - 'I don’t want people to necessarily tell me what to do because I am resourceful. Just listen to me.'
Gemma - 'I didn't want other people to see what was really going on.'
Janine - ‘I wasn’t going to get away unless I pretended I was gone.’
Angela - 'I had to go along with it and be the good Catholic girl.'
Laura - ‘I slept with my metal nail file when I realised I was vulnerable.’
Bec -'My earliest recollection of violence is from when I was six.'
Maya - '"He's bound to be upset."'
Sally - '"You're ok... He never hit you."'
Sophie - 'I didn't know what financial abuse was.'
Sam - "'She would have been wriggling in his lap.'"
Sandra - '"You've got to realise you have duties here."'
Brianna -'"I will go after your family."'
Rose - 'I feel like there's an agenda behind everything he does.'
VOICES OF INSIGHT COLLECTION
The Voices of Insight Collection is a series of original artworks inspired by the Insight Exchange Voices of Insight. It is designed to illuminate visual metaphors and symbols used by Insight Exchange participants as part of how they describe their lived experiences of domestic and family violence to inform social, service and systemic responses.