Community
5 November, 2021
Successful Reclaim the Night march in Cairns
On Friday, October 29, approximately 300 people attended Cairns CBD to take part in the annual Reclaim the Night march.
RECLAIM the Night is an annual worldwide march for women to be free from sexual violence and abuse.
The first Reclaim the Night march was held in Belgium in March 1976 by the women attending the International Tribunal on Crimes against Women.
They marched together holding candles to protest the ways in which violence permeates the lives of women worldwide. The movement quickly spread throughout every continent in the world and Australia’s first Reclaim the Night march took place in 1978 and continues as an annual event.
Due to restrictions in other states, Cairns was one of only a few Reclaim the Night marches that were able to take place around Australia this year.
The Cairns Reclaim the Night committee exceeded expectations this year, when they provided street theatre performances to help raise awareness for Sexual Violence against women, with Dizzy Doolan’s performance getting the crowd pumped prior to the march.
The success of this year’s march goes to the dedicated group of volunteers, who worked tirelessly and with support from the following agencies Cairns Sexual Assault Service (CSAS), True Relationships & Reproductive Health, Shelter Housing Action Cairns, Cairns Regional Domestic Violence Service, Cairns Women’s Centre, Ruth’s Women’s Shelter, Respect Queensland. A special thank you to officers from the Cairns Highway Patrol Group who provided the escort vehicles for the March.
