GIVING VOICE – a group exhibition celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Liverpool Women’s Health Centre. On Monday 21st April 1975, a small group of professional women opened the doors of Liverpool’s Women’s Health Centre. Allowing women to receive medical advice and access to education, abortion and contraception in a safe environment, the Centre empowered women from all backgrounds, tackling issues like domestic violence, homelessness, employment, equal pay and more during a time of significant social change.
For this exhibition I was commissioned to make 14 textile and wood sculptures to be shown with archival material from 1975 alongside works by artists Diana Baker Smith, Susan Grant Murphy and Louise Whelan.
Presented by Liverpool City Council, Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre and the Liverpool City Library in partnership with the Liverpool Women’s Health Centre.
Curator: Ellen Hewitt from Casula Powerhouse.
Artist statements about each work –
1 Women Behind Bars – in MEMORY OF VIOLET ROBERTS (textile sculpture made with salvaged fabrics, vintage china milk jug and saucer) 68 x 20 x 20
Sydney prison activist group Women Behind Bars campaigned tirelessly in the 70’s and early 80’s for the release of Violet Roberts and her son Bruce who were jailed in 1976 for the murder of Violet’s violent husband Eric Roberts. He was a brutal alcoholic and she had endured 23 years of beatings from him. In the trial the judge ruled that Bruce had shot his father and that Violet had been the instigator. Violet was sentenced to mandatory life imprisonment and her son Bruce to 15 years as an accessory. Public events were staged by Women Behind Bars drawing attention to the Roberts case. The campaign included vigils, posters, graffiti, marching through the streets of Sydney, carrying a continuous scroll with thousands of signatures petitioning Parliament for their release. Public outcry was so great it secured their release from jail 5 years later. Their case changed the NSW crime act 1900 to recognise the impact and effects of domestic violence. Violet Roberts died in 1984, three years after her release.
2 BRICKS AND MORTAR – Thank you Mr Whitlam (textile sculpture made with salvaged fabrics, house bricks) 81 x 24 x 22cm
To mark 1975 as International Women’s Year, the Whitlam Government appointed Elizabeth Reid to distribute Federal grants of $2million directed towards women’s health. This funding contributed to Liverpool Women’s Health Centre being able to open its doors at 273 George St Liverpool Monday 21st April 1975, offering a refuge, health and welfare services, dealing with domestic violence, child abuse, rape, sexually transmitted diseases, abortion, contraception, sexuality, homelessness and mental health. Run by women for women and the first centre to employ aboriginal women, they operated as a collective with no boss, dropping their initial titles with equal rates of pay and called themselves ‘Women Health Workers’. Whitlam sought to ensure that the workplace pay and conditions for women were in keeping with the principles of social equality and justice.
3 WOMEN ON THE MARCH – ‘If you’re not angry you’re not paying attention’ (textile sculpture made with salvaged fabrics, plaster hand, vintage cameras) 124 x 20 x 20cm
Protest marches and demonstrations of the 1970’s were driven in good part by anger and women had a lot to be angry about. Women’s Liberation marches allowed feminists to vent their rage. Sisterhood was powerful and there were plenty of women who were fed up with the status quo of male control in every aspect of women’s lives. Equality, legalising abortion, access to the pill, housing, the sexual double standards, objectification of women’s bodies, sexual harassment and violence against woman equal pay for equal work. Thousands of women from all walks of life gathered and marched with placards, banners, and microphones, willing to disrupt city streets and public spaces – using their voices to seek changes to economic, political and social discrimination.
Messages on placards included –
End violence against Women, A Woman’s Right to Choose, My Womb is Not Your Business, Sexism is Alive and Living In Australia, If You’re Not Angry You’re Not paying Attention, Never Underestimate the Power of Women, Equal Pay for Equal Work, No-Fault Divorce Now, Women’s Rights are Human Rights
4 THE PILL – pregnancy, anxiety, depression (textile sculpture made with salvaged fabrics, glass test tubes 76 x 20 x 20cm)
The two heads with test tubes signifies the dual issues of contraception and mental health. In the 70’s there was a luxury tax on the contraceptive pill, the advertising of contraceptives and family planning services were forbidden with restrictive rules on who and who could not have an abortion. Medicine was basically practised by male doctors who believed they knew what was best for women. ‘Give the housewife a BEX and a good lie down. A Quick Fix’. Valium and the bex boredom syndrome. A whole cluster of disorders were chalked up to be psychosomatic. Basically, women were overwhelmed by the expectations of raising children and felt trapped.
5 CONTROL – Hands off my body, Abortion Referral Services, Reproductive Rights (textile sculpture made with salvaged fabrics, plaster leg) 80 x 65 x 20cm
Control Abortion Referral Service Collective was a feminist Australian organisation that lobbied to provide funding for the Liverpool Women’s Health Centre. The Centre provided advice for women seeking pregnancy testing and safe and affordable options for pregnancy terminations. There were no medically safe abortions for low income women. Their options were unsafe backyard abortions or continue an unwanted pregnancy and having their babies taken away.
6 A BLANKET OF SILENCE – The hidden scourge of Domestic Violence (textile sculpture made with salvaged fabrics, vintage hot water jug) 78 x 20 x 20cm
Liverpool Women’s Health Centre was multi-cultural and inclusive. They offered counselling to a diversity of local cultures in a safe and discreet environment, especially for non-English speaking migrants who felt alienated, suffering alone in the quiet silence and shame around marital sexual rape and incest. Many of these cultures were socially conservative and discouraged women from speaking out publicly.
7 GRINDER – Housebound and Unresponsive (textile sculpture made with salvaged fabrics, vintage iron meat grinder, plaster hand, nail polish) 94 x 28 x 38cm
In the 1970’s women who entered marriage would find themselves ‘a stay at home mum’, housebound, pregnant, and trapped. Her role was to support her husband and raise children, be agreeable, supportive, passive and a sexual commodity. Facing exhaustion, depression anxiety and boredom, women were weighed down by the grind of being economically and socially disadvantaged. Half the population were meant to be in service to the other half. Women were discouraged to enter the workforce, or have careers.
Common ideas of the day – Education is wasted on Women, Women are 2nd class citizens, A Woman should never complain, Men don’t like clever women, A woman’s place is in the kitchen and the bedroom
8 MR FRASER’S ‘RAZOR CUTS’ (textile sculpture made with salvaged fabrics, vintage scissors) 94 x 20 x 20cm
After Whitlam’s dismissal on 11th November 1975, the Liberal Party’s Malcolm Frazer became Prime Minister. Over the next couple of years Frazer’s notorious RAZOR GANG slashed funding to community health centres. The cuts were a disaster for women’s services. More money went to private health funds, wealthy doctors and drug companies. Due to lack of funding, women at the centre reduced their working hours. The election of Labour’s socially progressive Neville Wran in NSW in 1976 meant that through strong links with feminists and women’s groups, women’s services in the state survived.
9 THE PREGNANT GIRL (textile sculpture made with salvaged fabrics) 72 x 14 x 14cm
In October 1975 a doctor at the centre who performed an abortion on a 15yr old girl was charged with counselling, aiding and abetting an illegal act. Her parents brought the case to court claiming their daughter had obtained an abortion at the Liverpool Women’s Health Centre without their permission. It was revealed that the girl was frightened of her parents learning she was pregnant. She was sure they’d bring a charge of carnal knowledge against her boyfriend. She had a bad relationship with her parents and after the charges were laid she ran away from home. This resulted in her parents bringing her before the court and charging her with being ‘uncontrollable’. She was placed in a child welfare home. In 1976 the workers legal advisors made an application to the NSW Attorney General for “No Bill’ This was granted in December that year and the case was duly dropped.
10 EXPECTATIONS OF MOTHERHOOD – A Cycle of Guilt (textile sculpture made with salvaged fabrics, plaster arm) 92 x 40 x 20cm
In the 1970’s there was a big swing against breastfeeding. Breastfeeding rates had crept to 28% but that included babies who only went to the breast once or twice and most mothers assumed they would bottle feed. The confusion of mothers not knowing whether to breastfeed made them feel guilty. Baby formula flooded the market and advertising created demand for a product where there wasn’t one before. Counsellors at the Centre dealt with issues regarding childbirth, breastfeeding, post-natal depression and a range of issues relating to motherhood.
11 THE COLLECTIVE (wood Sculpture with vintage plastic pencil, sharpener and pencil) 86 x 14 x 15cm
The Liverpool Centre understood and supported multicultural Liverpool with the local population from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. Operating as a collective, the staff reflected this – they included an Aboriginal community access worker, women’s health nurse, a naturopath, a doctor, counsellors, an acupuncturist, an Aboriginal community access worker, a non-English speaking background community access worker, health promotion workers and a massage therapist. The centre is now one of 23 feminist women’s health centres in NSW.
12 DELPHINE LESLIE & KATE NICHOLAS Wood Sculpture – (vintage Iron paper clip holder 92 x 14 x 15cm) 92 x 14 x 15cm
Liverpool Women’s Health Centre was the second of its kind in NSW after Leichhardt which opened six months earlier. It was the first women’s service to employ Aboriginal women and the centre worked hard to improve the wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, immigrants and financially disadvantaged women. At the Liverpool Women’s Health Centre there were two impressive Aboriginal women involved in the centre’s management – Delphine Leslie and Kate Nicholas.
13 THE OPENING – THE CRISIS REFUGE SHELTER FOR WOMEN MONDAY APRIL 21, 1975 (Wood Sculpture with vintage plastic alarm clock) 92 x 14 x 14cm
The Crisis Refuge Shelter for Women, opened 21 April 1975 1st Floor 273 George Street Liverpool.
14 RUN BY WOMEN FOR WOMEN – LIVERPOOL WOMEN’S HEALTH CENTRE (Wood Sculpture with vintage plastic sticky tape dispenser) 81 x 14 x 14cm
