https://elliemitchell.cargo.site Ellie Mitchell Tue, 31 Aug 2021 02:03:58 +0000 https://elliemitchell.cargo.site en https://elliemitchell.cargo.site/Ellie-Mitchell Tue, 25 May 2021 11:00:02 +0000 Ellie Mitchell https://elliemitchell.cargo.site/Ellie-Mitchell Ellie is former journalist, strategic content creator and digital storyteller based in Naarm - colonially known as Melbourne - in Australia. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Her work spans written, audio and visual media. Get in touch with Ellie here. <img width="2024" height="1351" width_o="2024" height_o="1351" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/3ff6d459761cc0cda3942ec00a66e48f683ccb4e751098b810dacdb3bfd031c2/Ellie-1.jpg" data-mid="110237221" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/3ff6d459761cc0cda3942ec00a66e48f683ccb4e751098b810dacdb3bfd031c2/Ellie-1.jpg" /> https://elliemitchell.cargo.site/Contact Mon, 31 May 2021 11:35:27 +0000 Ellie Mitchell https://elliemitchell.cargo.site/Contact <img width="800" height="533" width_o="800" height_o="533" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/02890bab01285c259fbe44f256a863bff7311a12719f9b9bdb09c25b23a3858e/Ellie-3.JPG" data-mid="110237171" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/800/i/02890bab01285c259fbe44f256a863bff7311a12719f9b9bdb09c25b23a3858e/Ellie-3.JPG" /> ︎ mitchell.ellie16@gmail.com︎ @heapsellie︎ Ellie Mitchell I live and work on the unceded lands of the Kulin Nation. I acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land, the Boon Wurrung and Woiwurrung peoples, and pay respect to their Elders, past and present. I affirm their continued connection to the lands and water, and I commit myself to ongoing self-education to fuel informed, respectful action. https://elliemitchell.cargo.site/Writing Tue, 01 Jun 2021 13:19:11 +0000 Ellie Mitchell https://elliemitchell.cargo.site/Writing <img width="1200" height="675" width_o="1200" height_o="675" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ab71a437bf416b13daecac0a6806bd7a0dcce5a0bc6b23fbb7d1ed7305469f86/r0_240_4703_2884_w1200_h678_fmax.jpeg" data-mid="190396523" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/ab71a437bf416b13daecac0a6806bd7a0dcce5a0bc6b23fbb7d1ed7305469f86/r0_240_4703_2884_w1200_h678_fmax.jpeg" /> Chelsea Millicent. Photo by Adam Trafford. ︎ Widespread change on family violence starts with an attitude shiftPublished 15 April 2023 at The Courier Also from my time at Australian Community Media: ︎ ‘Breaks your heart’: Toxic blackwater sees mass fish deaths on the Murray River Published 21 December 2022 at The Canberra Times ︎ Take a look at some of art’s most reviled and respected rebels this winter&nbsp; Published 21 May 2023 at The Courier︎Ballarat knitter in adventurous project luxury fashion firstPublished 20 September 2022 at The Courier ︎ Fleeing disaster: How climate change will decide where we livePublished 3 November 2022 at The Canberra Times ︎ Buzz off! Why you are getting bitten by mozzies when your partner isn’tPublished 21 December 2022 at The Canberra Times ︎ Moloney Architects rebuilds bushfire-destroyed Victorian homestead with remnants from the pastPublished 27 January 2022 at The Australian Design Review ︎ Heide House returns to its modernist roots in new exhibitionPublished 5 January 2022 at The Australian Design Review <img width="800" height="533" width_o="800" height_o="533" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/7c5d38302dde02f2459820ac335ee13152d292685bff910649c107a7af1cb31d/Australian-Museum.jpg" data-mid="127909000" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/800/i/7c5d38302dde02f2459820ac335ee13152d292685bff910649c107a7af1cb31d/Australian-Museum.jpg" /> Photo by Anna Kucera at the Australian Museum.︎ Early birds find museum welcomes those on autism spectrumPublished 14 December 2021 at The Age Also from my time at The Age: ︎&nbsp;Puzzles take off after the world went to piecesPublished 25 December 2021 ︎&nbsp;Will my coronavirus vaccine booster make me feel bad?Published 2 December 2021&nbsp; ︎&nbsp;Susan’s Monday marriage will be one of many weekday weddings in 2022 Published 26 November 2021&nbsp;︎ Stargazers set eyes on the sky for tonight’s blood moon Published 19 November 2021 ︎ “A massive slap in the face” — Australia’s Parental Leave schemePublished 25 October 2021 as part of RMIT Graduate Diploma of Journalism 2021 coursework via Shorthand <img width="1536" height="921" width_o="1536" height_o="921" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b85b666fc3d46e5b1c8ad0bba262e99ee755170cf2edb3620992588598d88b89/Marie-1.jpg" data-mid="110335997" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/b85b666fc3d46e5b1c8ad0bba262e99ee755170cf2edb3620992588598d88b89/Marie-1.jpg" />Image: Supplied ︎ Marie Lakey and the “magic” of being a neurodiverse person Published 4 June 2021 as part of RMIT Graduate Diploma of Journalism 2021 coursework https://elliemitchell.cargo.site/Audio Tue, 01 Jun 2021 13:17:00 +0000 Ellie Mitchell https://elliemitchell.cargo.site/Audio ︎Listen hereAustralia promises 15,000 places for Afghans in humanitarian and family visa programRadio news package - SBS News (2022) This radio news package was featured on the SBS News in Depth podcast. ︎Listen hereAid finally arrives in Tonga but COVID concerns colour the missionRadio news package - SBS News (2022) This radio news package was featured on the SBS News in Depth podcast. ︎Listen hereSmall businesses face the worst amid ongoing pandemic-related uncertaintyRadio news package - SBS News (2022) This radio news package was featured on the SBS News in Depth podcast. ︎Listen hereGovernment agrees to next steps for Indigenous voice to parliamentRadio news package - SBS News (2022) This radio news package was featured on the SBS News in Depth podcast. ︎Listen here Delay to Mungo reburials prompted by divided community viewsRadio news package - SBS News (2021) This radio news package was featured on the SBS News in Depth podcast. RRR 102.7FM&nbsp;Midday news bulletin - RRR City Journal (2021) Journalist Sex Work and COVIDPodcast episode - the Kicker podcast (2021) Producer The Dinosaur AntAudio journalism (2021) End-to-end production A trip to The National ArchivesAudio journalism (2021) End-to-end production&nbsp; To listen to the Agency of Change podcast, click&nbsp;here. Agency of ChangeCorporate podcast - Kolmeo (2020-present) Producer MAKE IT, WORK Arts podcast (2019) End-to-end production Season 1&nbsp; THE WATER HAS MEMORYAudio documentary (2018) This work was part of a mixed media project that was shown at the 2018 Doing Visual Politics Exhibition in Kathmandu, Nepal. It’s Britney, bitchAudio documentary (2017) End-to-end production https://elliemitchell.cargo.site/Visual Wed, 25 Sep 2019 06:50:20 +0000 Ellie Mitchell https://elliemitchell.cargo.site/Visual SLUTWALK Director (2018)Documentary short film and empowering call-to-action to the feminist movement of the same name.︎SLUTWALK was selected to be shown at Berlin Feminist Film Week 2019 as part of the Feminism Around The World short film project and the Setting Sun Film Festival 2019.&nbsp; 1800 MS PAM Director, videographer (2020) Instagram content video for Melbourne clothing label Ms PAM Instagram ad for cargo pants. How do you like your eggs? Director (2019) Fiction short film where a girl dials in to receive advice on how to cook her eggs. ¿Qué pasa, amigos? Director (2017) Just for fun documentary short - In 60 seconds Ed tells the story of being robbed at gunpoint in Piura, Peru. RMIT Sport Videographer (2018) Highlights reel for RMIT Sport social media channels after the University Sport Nationals 2019. https://elliemitchell.cargo.site/Buzz-off-Why-you-are-getting-bitten-by-mozzies-when-your-partner-isn-t Tue, 01 Jun 2021 13:27:00 +0000 Ellie Mitchell https://elliemitchell.cargo.site/Buzz-off-Why-you-are-getting-bitten-by-mozzies-when-your-partner-isn-t Buzz off! Why you are getting bitten by mozzies when your partner isn’t 21 December 2022 <img src="https://www.canberratimes.com.au/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/160696252/a7533005-914d-4b9a-9895-9ef1e451302a.jpg/r0_0_1200_675_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg">New research by New York's Rockefeller University shows why some were more attractive to mosquitoes than others. Stock image. The high-pitched buzz of a mosquito as it sails past your ear is not an unfamiliar sound in any Australian summer. And this season, it's something Australians may have to contend with even more as experts say mosquito numbers could grow with a wetter than average forecast ahead. University of Sydney medical entomology associate professor Dr Cameron Webb said mosquitoes needed two key ingredients to complete their life cycle: Water and warmth. "They need water for the immature stages to develop. "All the rain and the flooding that we've experienced in recent weeks, and the rain is forecast to continue, will ensure there's lots of pools and puddles in the wetlands and [the] floodplains are all full of water," Dr Webb said. The Bureau of Meteorology has forecast above-average rainfall for the coming months based on climate drivers, including a La Nina system and a natural climate phenomenon that influences weather patterns around the Indian Ocean, known as Indian Ocean Dipole. Both are associated with warmer ocean temperatures near Australia that means more moisture over the continent and stronger low pressure systems in the south. University of Queensland School of Biological Sciences associate professor Dr Nigel Beebe said there was a scenario with a La Nina system where there was too much rain for the insects to survive. "Water sitting in the landscape will generate mosquitoes but, if it's really pouring down, [flooding] will flush the larvae away so [we] might initially see a decrease and then [an] increase," Dr Beebe said. "The worst case scenario for mosquitoes is long, protracted light rain that doesn't flush out the local sites but just keeps enough water in the landscape so that mosquitoes can keep breeding." This comes as new research by New York's Rockefeller University showed people who secrete more carboxylic acids from their skin were more attractive to mosquitoes. Dr Beebe said different people may attract different mosquitoes. "A mosquito will find a host by picking up a Co2 plume that it breathes out from a distance of like 40 to 50 metres ... and then when they get close, they make more subtle decisions based on olfactory cues, the smells, heat and things like that," he said. "To a mosquito, everybody smells a bit different and that often has to do with the microbiome of bacteria that sits on your skin. "Some people in some parts of Australia might always be attractive to mosquitoes, when their partner isn't, but if they move to another part of Australia where there are different types of mosquitoes it might flip around." Mosquito-spread Japanese Encephalitis Virus (JEV) has been in the spotlight this year since the illness was found in piggeries across Victoria, Queensland and NSW in February. If symptoms of JEV occur, they can include fever, headache, neurological complications or possibly death, and usually develop five to 15 days after being bitten by infected mosquitoes. On March 4, the Australian JEV situation was declared a 'Communicable Disease Incident of National Significance'. The latest release on JEV by the Department of Health for October 12 said there had been 32 human cases and 10 probable cases in Australia since January 1, 2021. Those case numbers comprise 13 each in NSW and Victoria, nine in South Australia, five in Queensland and two in the Northern Territory. Across the outbreak, seven people have died as a result of JEV. It is not known how the outbreak came to Australia. Speaking to ACM a Health Department spokesperson said there were measures people could take to prevent bites and lower the risk of disease. "There are simple steps we can all take to protect against mosquito-borne diseases such as wearing long, loose fitting clothes, using repellents containing picaridin or DEET on exposed skin and trying to limit outdoor activities if lots of mosquitoes are around," the spokesperson said. "Residents and visitors in all areas of the state should be aware of the potential of mosquito-borne illness and the need to avoid being bitten." Dr Webb added it was not only the type of products people used to avoid bites, but how they were used. "You should be putting on a nice even coat over all exposed areas of skin because that will provide the longest lasting protection against mosquito bites," he said. "Spread it around, cover as much of your exposed skin as possible, and that will provide the best protection against biting mosquitoes." This article was published at The Canberra Times. It can be found here. &nbsp; https://elliemitchell.cargo.site/Take-a-look-at-some-of-art-s-most-reviled-and-respected-rebels-this Tue, 31 Aug 2021 01:48:09 +0000 Ellie Mitchell https://elliemitchell.cargo.site/Take-a-look-at-some-of-art-s-most-reviled-and-respected-rebels-this Art Gallery of Ballarat opens exclusive Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood exhibition in winter double feature 21 May 2023 <img src="https://www.thecourier.com.au/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/160696252/f97190d2-1aae-404b-9441-ab40a4f213b7.jpg/r0_256_5000_3078_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg">Art Gallery of Ballarat director Louise Tegart. Supplied. When muse and artist Elizabeth Siddall died in 1862, her grief-stricken husband Dante Gabriel Rosetti tucked a book of his poetry in her coffin beneath her long red hair. "She was never very well, it's quite mysterious as to what her illness was ... maybe it was just living with Rosetti that was driving her mad because he was not a very faithful lover," art historian Professor Christiana Payne told The Courier. "Then she died of an overdose ... Rosetti felt guilty about it the rest of his life. He had a manuscript of his poems and he buried them with her." The romantic gesture - which he would revoke six years later by arranging to have the coffin dug up to retrieve for publication - is just one of the many intriguing tales surrounding the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, whose rarely-seen drawings and pre-sketches will be on show this winter at the Art Gallery of Ballarat in Pre-Raphaelites: Drawings and Watercolours. "What's really beautiful about [the exhibition] is it's very intimate ... in that you really get to see the relationships between the artists, which I don't think have really been explored in any exhibition prior to this," gallery director Louise Tegart said. "You start to see not only the relationships between the seven artists who actually established the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, but then how their influence [spanned] a much bigger and wider circle over many, many years. "It's that really beautiful sense of the interconnections between the friendships and the lovers, so there's some really fantastic stories behind the artworks in the exhibition." <img src="https://www.thecourier.com.au/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/160696252/18dbcfee-4861-4649-ada1-e49a059d0669.jpg/r0_103_1000_858_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg">Pippa Passes 1854 by Elizabeth Siddall. Supplied. Formed in 1848 in London by a group of seven artists, including Rosetti, the Brotherhood rejected the British Royal Academy of Arts' promotion of Renaissance master Raphael and, more broadly, contemporary output of the era, seeking instead to make art as similar to the real world as possible. "They saw themselves as young rebels ... they put 'PRP' on their paintings when they exhibited them but didn't tell anybody what the letters meant," Professor Payne said. "There was mystery hanging around them and then when it came out they had called themselves the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, critics were really shocked and there was backlash. "People said their work was ugly, it was harsh, and they were just copying the weaknesses of 15th century art." Art critic John Ruskin, who was particularly adoring of the works of PRB founding member John Everett Millais, played a major part in the group's acceptance in England at the time. "He took the side of the Pre-Raphaelites and defended them ... that turned their fortunes around. Instead of being reviled they were suddenly much more respectable," Professor Payne said. Among the 75 works on loan from the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, gallery-goers will find a sketch of Ruskin by Millais, sketched before Ruskin's wife Effie left him for Millais and their friendship soured. "It's a very slight drawing. [Ruskin's] standing in a rocky stream holding his hat, and Millais wrote about the drawing and said, 'I'm going to paint him looking over the edge of a steep waterfall. He looks so sweet and benign, standing calmly looking into the turbulent sluice beneath'," Professor Payne said. "Actually, he wasn't really sweet and benign at all, because he'd been very cruel to Effie, and Millais soon discovered that." The rift between the pair, in part, has been attributed to the disbanding of the PRB in 1853. <img src="https://www.thecourier.com.au/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/160696252/8854f145-20fa-4271-9e5d-0039069428b5.jpg/r0_0_2000_2559_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg">Jane Morris in Icelandic Costume, by Dante Gabriel Rosetti. Supplied. Another work in the exhibition, a portrait of Pre-Raphaelite William Morris' wife, Jane Morris in Icelandic Costume, fuelled speculation of an affair between Jane and Rosetti. "In 1871, [William Morris] went to Iceland ... He and Rosetti had taken a joint tenancy of an old manor house near Oxford," Professor Payne said. "[Rosetti] just drew [Jane] obsessively. There's also one where she's just lying on a sofa reading the paper ... but very often he depicts her as some sort of goddess. "William Morris went away for the summer leaving his wife and Rossetti together in this house, so it seems that he sort of accepted their relationship." Arguably the most infamous tale of the PRB is of the painting of Millais' Ophelia, when then-19-year-old Siddall posed in a wedding dress, catching pneumonia after floating for hours in freezing bathwater for the artwork. While Ophelia is not on display, the Ballarat-exclusive exhibition will feature Siddall's drawings, and other works by female artists central to the PRB. "It shows another side, that the women were not just passive subjects. They were also actively involved as artists in their own right," Ms Tegart said. Founding member the Brotherhood William Holman Hunt's pre-sketches for renowned painting Light of the World will also be shown. "[The painting] toured to Australia in 1906 and, at that point in time, Australia's population was about five million people and 4 million people turned out to go and see that artwork," Ms Tegart said. "It's been really taken up as a symbol of Christianity but when you dig deeper into the story ... the [open] lanterns [were] a symbol Holman Hunt was trying to get across about God actually being accepting of all religions. It was quite radical work." Light of the World imagery is oft-recreated in stained glass windows across Australia, and can be seen at three churches in Ballarat alone. <img src="https://www.thecourier.com.au/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/160696252/4a23a4ad-94bb-4cc7-8f96-901f301bc2ad.jpg/r0_0_3784_6477_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg">William Holman Hunt's Light of the World pre-sketch. Supplied. Alongside Pre-Raphaelites, exhibition In the Company of Morris will show historical and contemporary Australian artworks, exploring the widespread and ongoing influence of the Brotherhood. It was William Morris who said, "what business do we have with art at all unless we can share it", and it is this philosophy upon which the foundation for the Art Gallery of Ballarat was built, seen in its founding motto; 'not for self but for all'. The relationship between Ballarat and the Pre-Raphaelites, Ms Tegart said, was "an untold story". Ballarat was growing as a goldrush town when Pre-Raphaelites Thomas Woolner, Bernhard Smith and Edward La Trobe Bateman came to the goldfields to continue their careers and spread the word of the Brotherhood. "This is a really incredible Australian story that's not really ever been told before. What we always try to do in bringing in an exhibition, we try and relate it back to our own history and our own collection," she said. "So In the Company of Morris is really about that ongoing influence of the Pre-Raphaelites and William Morris, particularly on Australia." See artgalleryofballarat.com.auThis article was originally published at the Ballarat Courier and can be found here.&nbsp; https://elliemitchell.cargo.site/Widespread-change-on-family-violence-starts-with-an-attitude-shift Tue, 31 Aug 2021 01:56:20 +0000 Ellie Mitchell https://elliemitchell.cargo.site/Widespread-change-on-family-violence-starts-with-an-attitude-shift Widespread change on family violence starts with an attitude shift15 April 2023 <img width="1020" height="678" width_o="1020" height_o="678" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/111db0968e733b6f839b8930bdeecefa3edbffa3eaf65bf27c61f97256ea278e/r0_0_4455_2960_w1200_h678_fmax.jpeg" data-mid="190387674" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/111db0968e733b6f839b8930bdeecefa3edbffa3eaf65bf27c61f97256ea278e/r0_0_4455_2960_w1200_h678_fmax.jpeg" /> Chelsea Millicent. Picture by Adam Trafford, The Courier. There were times when survivor of intimate partner violence Chelsea Millicent just wanted to be "a little kid again". "You feel like your life is never going to change and you want your innocence back," the former Ballarat woman said. "It can be really lonely and pretty hopeless. You just want to feel safe." Ms Millicent was 23 when she received a message on social media from a man who would eventually become her partner - and the person who would push her into filming pornography. He made money off her work, coercing her into making more content through "extreme violence", which sometimes spilled into sexual violence within the relationship. On one occasion, he called an ambulance because "he thought he killed me". "The first responders, when they arrived, I think they just think sometimes ... I've heard the terms, 'they're too far gone, that person is too far gone,' they're just in that [relationship] and they're never going to get out," Ms Millicent said. She did get out, but would later find herself in a different cycle of violence, suffering traumatising harassment and stalking in her late 20s and early 30s from another partner. The Courier is not implying that any other people in relation to Ms Millicent, other than those charged, are accused of this behaviour. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Personal Safety Survey released last month, across 12,000 people surveyed in 2021 to 2022, about 31 per cent of women and 42 per cent of men have experienced physical violence since age 15. About 18 per cent of women and 11 per cent of men experienced abuse during childhood. One in four women, at 27 per cent, had experienced violence by an intimate partner or family member compared to one in eight men. And about one in five women, at 22 per cent, and one in 16 - 6.1 per cent - of men have experienced sexual violence. <img width="1200" height="677" width_o="1200" height_o="677" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d045aefc715fc9abb52c0cb5b706a2cf645f117c72e7c6451e36984d5014de22/r0_294_5760_3545_w1200_h678_fmax.jpeg" data-mid="190387677" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/d045aefc715fc9abb52c0cb5b706a2cf645f117c72e7c6451e36984d5014de22/r0_294_5760_3545_w1200_h678_fmax.jpeg" /> Small networks in regional locations can stop some victim-survivors from speaking out, experts say. File photo. Federation University researcher and Professor of Social Justice, Elisa Zentveld, said there was an added layer of complexity for regional victim-survivors. "In regional, remote and rural areas, because places can be very small and networked, that can add another complex dimension to the fear where people are afraid of saying what is happening because of those networks," Professor Zentveld said. "Sadly there are discrimination aspects where people are discriminated against if they're victims of family violence." For Ms Millicent, when looking back over her contact with potential supports - from first responders to counselling services - she said she had met some prejudice because of her sexual history. "Knowing someone else on the other side might feel how you feel or that you're not necessarily being judged can be helpful," she said. "I had a beautiful person that I dealt with at Cafs [Child and Family Services Ballarat] ... and she opened up to me about going through her own stuff, in a very diplomatic way, but I knew I was talking to someone that really got it." For many practitioners, there's a training gap which can mean some forms of abuse - such as intimate partner sexual violence (IPSV) - are missed. A recent report by Monash Gender and Family Violence Prevention Centre and No to Violence found one in four practitioners in the domestic and family violence perpetrator intervention space did not having any training about IPSV and 40 per cent of surveyed practitioners said they risk assessed for IPSV perpetration less frequently compared to other forms of family violence, with one in five practitioners 'rarely' or never assessing for this type of abuse at all. The report noted IPSV was "consistently viewed by the general community as less serious and more justifiable than sexual assault committed by strangers or acquaintances". <img width="1200" height="675" width_o="1200" height_o="675" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ab71a437bf416b13daecac0a6806bd7a0dcce5a0bc6b23fbb7d1ed7305469f86/r0_240_4703_2884_w1200_h678_fmax.jpeg" data-mid="190387675" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/ab71a437bf416b13daecac0a6806bd7a0dcce5a0bc6b23fbb7d1ed7305469f86/r0_240_4703_2884_w1200_h678_fmax.jpeg" /> Chelsea Millicent. Picture by Adam Trafford, The Courier. Researcher Dr Nicola Helps said it was difficult to quantify if the gap in practitioner assessments could be attributed to such views, although the "socio-cultural sentiment" towards IPSV meant it was less likely perpetrators would consider themselves as such. "They may have a genuine belief of entitlement to sex with partners that they would not presume to have over others, and so may not identify with common notions of 'rapist'," she said. IPSV was often observed in relationships where other forms of family violence were already occurring. A "shared language", the report found, was important for practitioners in identifying cases of this abuse while allowing people to frame their own experiences. "If victim-survivors don't recognise their experience in the language that is used, this will impact disclosures," Dr Helps said. "Practitioners in our study spoke about the erasure of women's voices, autonomy and agency, not only through their experiences of family violence, but through the responses to that violence." Another Monash study, looking into disclosure of family violence by children and young people to support services, found current practitioner approaches failed to see children as individual victim-survivors. "Children and young people in our study, regardless of whether they were living in rural, regional or metropolitan areas, were clear that current responses to family violence are failing to meet their safety and support needs," lead researcher Professor Kate Fitz-Gibbon said. "For too long our services have been set up to work primarily with adult victim-survivors and to respond to children only as an extension of their primary-carer parent." In October 2022, the federal, state and territory governments released the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children with an ambitious goal to end gender-based violence in one generation. "This includes building the workforce and strengthening data collection systems. It also includes increasing accountability for people who choose to use violence, and providing person-centred and holistic responses to support victim-survivors through their recovery and healing," it stated. <img width="1200" height="675" width_o="1200" height_o="675" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6d169e90843eeeb25a2b162e3463f5744c550c6748c77bddbfc9fc9197650855/r0_0_1920_1080_w1200_h678_fmax.jpeg" data-mid="190387673" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/6d169e90843eeeb25a2b162e3463f5744c550c6748c77bddbfc9fc9197650855/r0_0_1920_1080_w1200_h678_fmax.jpeg" /> Widespread change on family violence starts with an attitude shift. Professor Fitz-Gibbon said while there had been significant changes in the delivery of family violence response services across Victoria and Ballarat since the Victorian Royal Commission into Family Violence in 2016, there was more to be done to meet the national plan's one-generation goal. "Children and young people need to be acknowledged as victim-survivors in their own right. Their risks, service and support needs may differ to other family members," she said. "This must be embedded across 'Prevention', 'Early intervention', 'Response', 'Recovery and healing'." It is these four domains, set out in the national plan, with the first - 'Prevention' - noting action was needed to change societal attitudes at the foundation of the ongoing and widespread problem of violence against women and children. It may be the nation's biggest challenge on gendered-violence. "I do find it disappointing for women that are coming forward about sexual assault, violence, domestic violence, what comes into it is, even the police will think in this way, the credibility of the witness," Ms Millicent said. "Don't wear makeup to court, don't come in [dressed] like that, what's her job, what are her backstories, what's she done in her past. It's these small things that the credibility of someone is based on. "The cycle of violence doesn't come into play when we're looking at why women go back to these situations, why women reply [to contact from offenders], why women get stuck in these situations. We're not thinking about that enough." For now, Ms Millicent hopes by sharing her story, other victim-survivors can feel less alone in their experiences. "Everyone's a worthy victim," she said. "We need to cut the unconscious bias around who is a victim and who is not. "Everyone deserves to be heard." Help is available. Call Lifeline on 13 11 14, 1800 RESPECT on 1800 737 732, headspace Ballarat (for 12-25s and parent support) on 5304 4777 or Mensline on 1300 789 978. This article was published at the Ballarat Courier and The Canberra Times. It can be found here.&nbsp; https://elliemitchell.cargo.site/Blackwater-events-cause-mass-fish-deaths-across-the-Murray-Darling Tue, 31 Aug 2021 02:00:55 +0000 Ellie Mitchell https://elliemitchell.cargo.site/Blackwater-events-cause-mass-fish-deaths-across-the-Murray-Darling Blackwater events cause mass fish deaths across the Murray-Darling Basin 21 December 2021 <img src="https://www.canberratimes.com.au/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/160696252/6a27e700-d1f8-44be-863e-c766c86d2dd2.jpg/r0_373_4000_2622_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg">The Great Cumbung Swamp in NSW is one of over 2000 wetlands expected to thrive in the months following La Nina. Picture by John Porter. Murray River fisherman of 30 years Matt Heslop is weary of seeing dead fish along the banks. "To see photos of it is sad, but when you actually see it in the flesh, and you see hundreds of Murray cod piled up on top of each other, just rotting away, the smell; that's when it really hits," he said. "It really breaks your heart." Behind the deaths is toxic levels of blackwater in the Murray-Darling Basin, a naturally occurring event where organic material, such as leaf litter, is swept into a waterway by flooding and its rapid decay sucks dissolved oxygen from the water. An increase in temperature can cause dissolved oxygen to drop and at very low levels it can cause 'hypoxic' water which makes it difficult for fish and other aquatic animals to survive. Blackwater also makes it harder for water to be treated for human consumption. Western Murray Land Improvement Group (WMLIG) executive officer Roger Knight told ACM that as a result of extensive flooding along the basin throughout Victoria and NSW in 2022, dissolved oxygen levels had dropped well below the normal range of 6-8mg/L. "[In 2022] we've generally hovered in the Murray River above 0mg/L but below 2mg/L so we've gotten to some really low levels; below 0.5mg/L for about a week in this event," he said. "For a couple of weeks we've started seeing shrimp come out of the water and congregate near the edge and die, crays are coming out of the water and there have been some fish deaths." Australian National University Fenner School of Environment and Society Professor Jamie Pittock told ACM the blackwater issues were not unlike what occurred along the river after major flooding events in 2010, 2011 and 2016. Although this year's event has not been as severe as in the past. In 2010, dissolved oxygen levels in the river near Barham in NSW were undetectable for six months. "Ironically, one of the issues here is that there's too infrequent flooding, so before development of the rivers the rivers would naturally have flowed on to the floodplain ... every year or every second year and the leaf litter wouldn't get as much of an opportunity to build up," Professor Pittock said. In 2013, the federal, Victorian, NSW and South Australian governments agreed to implement large scale solutions under the Murray Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) constraints management strategy to 'investigate how water can get to where it's needed'. "[The strategy] is about the governments working with land holders on the floodplain to purchase flood easements across private property and working ... to relocate or raise or strengthen infrastructure that might go underwater like low lying roads and bridges," Professor Pittock said. "That's so the environmental water that's being held in big dams ... can be released out in a pulse that fills up the river channel and spills that over onto the floodplain. "That will all diminish the amount of leaf litter on the floodplain and that would prevent or dramatically reduce these big blackwater events." Dams such as Burrinjuck, Hume and Eildon are designed to hold back smaller and medium sized floods that previously would have flushed out floodplains, and are used instead to run that water out to supply irrigated agriculture in drier months. WMLIG's Mr Knight said there was support among river communities for this strategy that could deliver highly oxygenated water to rivers and creeks across the basin. "A lot of fishermen and others have been really vocal about the need to continue that and to make sure that there's information out there so people can make rational informed decisions about the fact that, you know, it's not new water that's coming from nowhere; if it wasn't coming down as irrigation systems it would be going in the river somewhere," he said. "It's been overwhelming that people want more water in the landscape, especially people downstream in the rivers at the bottom end of the system." MDBA's deadline to implement and deliver on the constraints management strategy promises is 2024. The authority's executive director Andrew Reynolds said it was monitoring increased water quality risks as the weather warmed and water flowed from floodplains that had not had water on them "for many years". "Governments and water authorities continue to work together to monitor hypoxic blackwater conditions and blue-green algae which can lead to fish deaths and water quality issues in the Murray-Darling Basin," Mr Reynolds said. "While there have been fish deaths associated with this year's floods and resulting low-oxygen hypoxic blackwater, the reported fish deaths are not unusual for floods of this magnitude." The federal minister for water Tanya Plibersek will hold a ministerial meeting on February 13 where it's anticipated she will address what the government intends to do to implement its election promises including the constraints management strategy. In the meantime, communities across the basin have taken action into their own hands, fundraising to buy aerators for rivers, creeks and lakes 'so [fish] can breathe a little easier until the most deoxygenated flows pass through'. The widespread flooding that prompted the blackwater event across the basin can be attributed to above average rainfall in 2022 as Australia's eastern states sloshed their way through a third consecutive La Nina weather event in three years. The Bureau of Meteorology has forecast La Nina conditions will end in February 2023 and move to an 'ENSO-neutral'. University of NSW researcher Professor Richard Kingsford has been surveying wetlands for almost four decades and said within months the river will show some positive flow-on effects from La Nina to aquatic-plants and invertebrates, which may help blackwater issues in the basin. "What happens is essentially when the plants start to grow and the invertebrates are there, they actually do a fantastic job of cleaning that water up and actually making it a lot cleaner when it comes out the other end," he said. "If you see water coming out of a big wetland like the lower Murrumbidgee wetlands or the Macquarie Marshes, by that time it's been essentially filtered by the wetland plants," he said. And the longer-term positives of La Nina for wetland ecosystems will be seen for years to come. "The water will also go in and replenish groundwater supplies. So the effects of this can last for [up to] 10 years so it is really positive and it's the sort of thing that we've been changing by building dams and taking water out of rivers," Professor Kingsford said. It's a future for the rivers, creeks and wetlands along the basin that seems especially far away given the warm weather ahead. "We don't know what's coming in front of us. We've got some hot weather now and in the next few weeks," Western Murray Land Improvement Group's Roger Knight said. "We've seen dissolved oxygen drop when we've had a couple of warm days. We've been really lucky with the cold weather we've had from a fish perspective for dissolved oxygen. "We're not out of the woods yet."This article was originally published at The Canberra Times and can be found here.&nbsp; https://elliemitchell.cargo.site/Ballarat-knitter-in-adventurous-project-luxury-fashion-first Tue, 31 Aug 2021 02:03:58 +0000 Ellie Mitchell https://elliemitchell.cargo.site/Ballarat-knitter-in-adventurous-project-luxury-fashion-first Ballarat knitter in adventurous project luxury fashion first 20 September 2022 <img src="https://www.thecourier.com.au/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/160696252/40ecc444-f264-44cd-b1f2-0a862f563e57.jpg/r0_0_4292_3252_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg">Tasmanian cyclist and sailor Two Dogs with Ballarat knitter of 70 years Val Chaffey and the beginning of a carbon neutral superfine merino knit for luxury brand M.J. Bale. Photo by Lachlan Bence. From an armchair in Ballarat East knitter of 70 years Val Chaffey sat, footy on the telly in front of her. With each click of her needles a woollen sleeve, collar, or cuff slowly appeared. "It's relaxing," Ms Chaffey said. "You sit there with your needles and your wool and watch whatever is happening on the telly and if the ball goes in you say, 'oh bugger, you weren't supposed to win that." (Her team is Essendon.) Ms Chaffey has not been knitting any old sweater. She has been playing her part in an Australian fashion first, knitting a micro-run of luxury superfine merino jumpers that are completely carbon neutral. The yarn made quite the journey to reach Ms Chaffey's living room with the wool originating from a sheep farm in Kingston, Tasmania, where livestock are fed a red seaweed; Asparagopsis taxiformis, to reduce methane emissions. From the farm, the wool was cycled about 200 kilometres to a port in Hobart, sailed to the mainland in a engineless boat, put back on a bicycle, and with a stops in Geelong and Bacchus March for processing, landed spooled in Ballarat ready for Ms Chaffey to work her magic. The journey was part of Australian luxury menswear brand M.J. Bale's 'The Lightest Footprint' project, the first of its kind worldwide, which set out to create a line of zero-emissions wool turtleneck knits. The yarn, from 32.5 kilograms of wool processed to 17 commercial spools, has been knit into a run of about 30 jumpers. Ms Chaffey said if cared for properly, the garments will last forever. "It's the wool, it's top quality wool, it makes all the difference," she said. "There's no chemicals or anything like that in it ... It holds its shape while you're knitting. It's just beautiful stuff to knit." This first run of jumpers is just the beginning for the project as 500 sheep are set to be shorn next month for production to continue. Tasmanian sailor and cyclist Two Dogs transported the wool via bike and boat to Ballarat and said he hoped the project would inspire other businesses to make sustainable choices. "It's a very adventurous project to go ahead," Two Dogs said. "We needed to find a knitter that could understand what we were doing, understand the quality of the product and was good enough to do it and use it. "They've looked for the best people to do each part of it and in finding the best people they've found people [that are] ... really passionate." Ms Chaffey agreed. "I love knitting," she said. When asked if that meant the jumpers were made with love, the 78-year-old nodded. "Oh yes," she said. "Can't help it." This article was originally published at the Ballarat Courier and can be found here.&nbsp;