Antoinette Braybrook is an Aboriginal woman who was born on Wurundjeri country. Her grandfather and mother’s line is through the Kuku Yalanji. Antoinette is the CEO of Djirra, a position she has held since the service was established seventeen years ago. Djirra is an Aboriginal Community Controlled Organization which provides holistic, culturally safe and specialist legal and non-legal support to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who experience family violence – predominantly women. Djirra also designs and delivers important, community-based early intervention and prevention programs and undertakes policy and law reform work to improve access to justice, strengthening Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women’s resilience and reducing vulnerability to violence.

In addition to her leadership of Djirra, Antoinette has held the elected position of Chairperson of National Family Violence Prevention Legal Services Forum since 2012. She seeks to give voice and visibility to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who experience family violence. She is a strong advocate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community control, and self determination.

Antoinette will talk about her own experience - but more than that, she will talk about how women can be supported now while reducing the rates of violence against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women. She will address the systematic denial of rights in the constant battle with governments, and explain why self-determination is more important now than ever.

The Pamela Denoon Lecture was inaugurated in 1989 as a tribute to the memory of Pamela Denoon and as a reminder that the gains that have been made by women over the years have only been possible because of the enormous dedication of women like Pamela. Pamela Denoon worked tirelessly to promote equality for women and was the National Coordinator of Women’s Electoral Lobby from 1982-84. She actively lobbied for women’s rights in Canberra during the 1980s and her bequest helped establish the National Foundation for Australian Women and the Pamela Denoon Trust.

The Pamela Denoon Lecture is a regular event during International Women’s Week in Canberra. The Lecture aims to inspire and motivate women to find out more about issues for women in Australia and encourage some of them to get involved in a local organisation that works to promote women’s rights and other major women’s issues.