Reclaim the Night

Reclaim the Night is a rally and march that is held on the last Friday in October every year in countries around the world to protest against sexual violence against women and children.

Locally, a coalition of women’s organisations calls on the Canberra community to join us each year in Garema Place to demanding the end of sexual violence. In 2008, Reclaim the Night celebrated 30 years in Canberra.

Reclaim the Night marches started over 30 years ago in 1977, in response to a spate of attacks against women in England, where police advised women to stay at home and not go out at night. Women's response was to take to the streets to protest against men's violence against women.

Australian prevalence data tells us that one in four girls (and one in six boys) will experience some form of sexual violence before they are 18. One in three women in Australia will experience it in their lifetime.

We need to ensure that sexual violence is kept on the political agenda - women and children should be able to feel safe wherever they are without fear of violence or harassment. We need to make sure that we, as a society, place the responsibility of sexual violence squarely on the perpetrator, and not on the behaviours of women and children.

While traditionally the march has been women only, in Canberra in 2007 we invited men to support the cause by walking behind women in the march, and we’ve had a terrific show of support by men and men's organisations.

In 2008, Reclaim the Night had a fabulous line up of entertainment, including MC Abby Phyllis, Damsels in this Dress, the Djembaying Drummers, belly dancers, and an excerpt from the Vagina Monologues. Speakers included Deb Wybron from the Women and Prisons group, Kiki Korpinen from the Women's Centre for Health Matters and Veronica Wensing from the Canberra Rape Crisis Centre. There was also information stalls and the annual Reclaim the Night T-shirt!

The YWCA of Canberra is proud to be a member of the organising committee for Reclaim the Night and we encourage you to attend every October and stand up against violence against women.

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