04/06/2024
Last week Lotus Becoming attended the 2024 National Family Violence Conference in Wellington.
It was so wonderful to see the amount of people working towards Aotearoa living free from domestic violence, with this conference very much being about getting to the source - the perpetrators of DV, while still holding victims at it's heart.
We know first hand that DV does not discriminate (along with hearing the many, many stories from victims in our years), and this was once again made very clear at the conference.
From Judges, lawyers, doctors, teachers, men of the cloth, policemen, politicians, CEO's of large companies to the 'stigma' of popular perception. No culture, race, status or position is free from it.
It is well known that DV is about Power and Control, until listening to Dorthy Stucky Halley and Steven M.S. Halley from Family Peace Initiative and their 30 years working with the perpetrators, do we now know the different motives behind the power and control and the risks associated with those motives.
There is no, nor has their ever been "Why doesn't she just leave?" easy way out.
As wonderful as it was to see the 400 'sold out' numbers who are working in this industry there, it was still sad to hear (from personal experiences - not surprising) of those in the system, at the front line who are happy to keep their blindfolds on, on how they can improve their ways in helping victims better.
It is a world away from getting any better, but closer in the realisation of assisting it better to start to change it.
Thank-you NNFVS for the invitation to be there ๐