On aver­age the Nation­al Col­lect­ive of Inde­pend­ent Women’s Refuges receive one call for help every nine minutes. From July 2013 to June 2014 the Shakti nation­al crisis line ser­vice exceeded 10,000 calls.

Bring Back Kate is Women’s Refuge’s latest call to action on domest­ic viol­ence in New Zea­l­and. In 1893 Kate Shep­herd and a band of ded­ic­ated suf­fra­gettes com­piled 32,000 sig­na­tures on a huge roll of wall­pa­per, demand­ing women get the vote. When she delivered it to par­lia­ment, it was unrolled across the cham­ber and the politi­cians of the day were per­suaded to make New Zea­l­and the first coun­try in the world to recog­nise women’s right to a polit­ic­al voice.

Bring-Back-Kate

Women’s Refuge is bring­ing Kate Shep­pard back to the steps of Par­lia­ment this Monday, Septem­ber 15th, as a 3D sculp­ture bear­ing the names of every­one who refuses to tol­er­ate viol­ence against women and chil­dren.

Join mem­bers of the Nation­al Col­lect­ive of Inde­pend­ent Women’s Refuges, Shakti, Rela­tion­ships Aotearoa, TOAH-NNEST, Nation­al Net­work of Stop­ping Viol­ence Ser­vices, Aotearoa New Zea­l­and Asso­ci­ation of Super­vised Con­tact Ser­vices and the Pacific Island Safety Pre­ven­tion Pro­ject Inc, along with hun­dreds of sup­port­ers, to Bring Back Kate and March on Monday 15th Septem­ber from Civic Square all the way to Par­lia­ment to have your voice heard.

Meet at Civic Square from 11.30 am on Monday 15th of Septem­ber, or on the steps of Par­lia­ment at 12.40 pm.