In a world where the injustice of gender violence persists, the law is frequently called on to help address those harms. But can it? Can we address gender harms separately from other harms? Is it enough to appeal to the law – or is the law complicit in the violence and harms that we are protesting against? What other possibilities are there to recognise trauma and address harms, and how might we create a fairer world that we want to live in?

The provocative new graphic novel Once Upon a Time in Australia: how our MeToo movement exposed the troubles of truth in Law (Counterpress, 2023) grapples with these questions. In a collaborative and layered conversation, punctuated by eerie images, dark humour and a spirit of generosity and humility, its three authors (Dr Anne Macduff, Sarouche Razi, and Kirsten Hoffman) explore the tensions between law and truth. The novel explores the connections between gender, colonisation, and climate harms, and in doing so, challenges traditional methods of legal knowing and offers new ways of building justice.

With the generous support of the ANU Gender Institute, join the authors in continuing to grow this conversation in a series of events which will run the day before #ReclaimTheNight2023. More information about this annual march against violence towards women can be found here. Details of each of the events appear below including information on how to register as places are limited.

Book launch and art exhibition launch at 5-6pm (Law foyer, Building 5)

Join the authors to celebrate the launch the graphic novel ‘Once Upon a Time in Australia: conversations about our #MeToo movement which exposed the troubles of truth and law’.The event will include a talk by art curator Alice Grundy, who will engage with the authors about the making of the novel. It will also launch the art exhibition displayed at the ANU College of Law featuring works by co-writer and illustrator Kirsten Hoffman, sound artist, Kate Jama, and Canberra Abolitionist collective.

Law and Gendered Harms: Where to for Justice? 6-7pm (Law Link Theatre)

In light of the harrowing events of 2021 that launched the March4Justice and the subsequent failure of law and its processes to recognise harm and support justice for women, this panel brings together a range of speakers to explore what happens next. The panel will consider ideas for priorities for change and insights into new possibilities, where women and others who experience harm are not further traumatised by the legal experience. It asks what needs to change for us to do a better world, where healing can happen and we can move safely through the world we inhabit.

Invited panellists include Dr Karen Crawley, (Griffith University), Chrystina Stanford, CEO of the Canberra Rape Crisis Centre, and others [TBC]. The co-authors of Once Upon a Time in Australia will moderate the session.

This panel celebrates the Reclaim the Night March, an annual global event that demands women be able to move through public spaces safely and highlights issues of gendered violence and injustice. The Canberra Rape Crisis Centre (CRCC) co-ordinates the ‘Reclaim the Night’ march on the last Friday in October which will be held in Glebe Park, Canberra City.