A travelling exhibition featuring domestic violence survivors from the Illawarra will make a stop at NSW Parliament House next year.
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The Resistance Resilience Recovery exhibition, by the Mercury's award-winning photographer Sylvia Liber, will be on show in the public exhibition space on March 15 thanks to the efforts of Shellharbour MP Anna Watson.
The display will be used to raise awareness of - and funds for - the Illawarra Women's Health Centre's campaign to establish an Australian-first trauma recovery centre for victims of domestic and family violence.
"We know there's a very small bucket of money these services can access just to stay afloat, which is disgraceful," Ms Watson said.
"Politicians and the public will be able to view the exhibition at Parliament House and it will raise money, and also awareness of the women's health centre's aim to set up this centre.
"This was an idea that was born in the Shellharbour electorate, and will be a one-stop-shop for women and children who've experienced domestic and family violence.
"I've seen women pushed from pillar to post to access different services, women who are already traumatised, and we need to provide a space where they can access all the services and support they need."
Ms Watson envisaged the centre - which requires $10 million to set up and run for the first three years - would sit within the new Shellharbour Hospital development.
"It ideally would be within that precinct, though not the hospital itself," she said.
Ms Watson has long been a champion for women experiencing domestic violence, and she continues to lobby the Attorney General to support her private member's bill that would criminalise coercive control in NSW.
The matter will next be debated in state parliament on February 11, and she's encouraging Liberal and National MPs to support it.
"By having this exhibition at Parliament House, I hope it will also continue to raise awareness of domestic and family violence, and coercive control, to keep the pressure on the NSW Government to get coercive control legislation in NSW."
The Resistance Resilience Recovery exhibition was launched at Project Contemporary Artspace in Wollongong this week. It will then travel to the Imaginarium in Shellharbour Village from December 7 to 12, and will feature at Stockland Shellharbour in January.
The exhibition is a collaboration between the Illawarra Women's Health Centre, Domestic Violence NSW, the Waples Marketing Group and the Illawarra Mercury.
Support the campaign by using the #VoicesForChange hashtag or visit womenstraumacentre.wordpress.com
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