Photo: Barry Smith, Northern Daily Leader.
Domestic violence – It takes more than courage to ‘get out’: Though she had been tangled in a web of manipulative abuse at the hands of her former partner, Kate* counts herself as one of the lucky ones. She was able to get out, and she hasn’t looked back. “The first two months were perfect – it was a normal, happy relationship,” Kate said.
But then the manipulation started, subtle but insidious. “He started to keep me away from my family and my friends. He started hiding my keys and taking my money,” she said. “I wasn’t allowed to wear certain things – I couldn’t wear make-up, I couldn’t wear my hair in a bun, it had to be down all the time.” Read full story at The Northern Daily Leader.
Photo: Geoff O’Neill, Northern Daily Leader
‘To settle, to sleep, to serve’: For one of Tamworth’s newest residents, September 25 was a day of mingled sorrow and joy. Hazara refugee Karar Hussain remembers the date as a “black day” it marks the moment when, 121 years ago, 2.4 million of his people were massacred in Afghanistan.
But September 25 also signals two years since Mr Hussain was released from detention and began his life in Australia after fleeing persecution in Pakistan. Mr Hussain has been residing in Tamworth for three months, and though he has been struck by the kindness of friendly locals, he has also been met with surprise when he tells people he is a “boat person”. Read full story at The Northern Daily Leader.
Image by K.S.T. via Flickr
Taking the Mark—Homophobia and the AFL: Jason Ball has been playing AFL football since he was five years old. He said “it’s always been a big part” of his life, but there was a time when he thought he would be cut off from the football world. Not because he wasn’t good at footy, but because he was gay. Read article or download PDF version.
Image by Jack Beeby
A Leisurely Stroll: “Paris is in truth an ocean that no line can plumb. You may survey its surface and describe it; but no matter what pains you take with your investigations and recognizances, no matter how numerous and painstaking the toilers in this sea, there will always be lonely and unexplored regions in its depths, caverns unknown, flowers and pearls and monsters of the deep overlooked or forgotten by the divers of literature.”
This is Paris in 1819, in the novel Old Goriot by the French writer Balzac, known for his detailed representations of society and for his contribution to realism. Read article.
Erin Handley 