A loud, silent march

It was a moving moment for those on York Street on Friday as a silent march reminded people of the frightening reality of domestic violence.

The community joined together for the eighth silent march held by Anglicare WA, taking time to remember those lives that had been lost.

The march assembled in the Albany Town Square where five large white crosses were laid down on clothes, representing five women killed in WA in 2019 by their partner or ex-partner. Two small crosses were also laid down to represent the two children lost.

Anglicare WA’s Es-Mare van Wyk said the morning brought the community and local agencies together to address the important issue.

“We heard from Helen Marshall, local family law solicitor about her experience in court and the impacts family and domestic violence has on families going through family court,” she said.

“We also heard from five North Albany Senior High School students who gave statistics from the crowd and, lastly, three powerful individual stories of victim/survivors were read out — two of those stories from children.”

The event hoped to address the fact that in WA, on average one woman is murdered a week by her current or former partner.