I arrived at the Police kiosk in the Cathedral square at 12.30 noon with my bag of pegs and string in hand, Anna-Claire and Helen were already setting up, we were preparing for a street theatre demo against the appalling lack of support that women receive when laying a rape complaint. The action was in support of Louise Nicholas, and other women, who were gang raped by NZ Police officers in the 1980’s. We were protesting also against a culture of Rape, in particularly a culture of Police rape. As well as handing out info on the trial of John Dewar which started yesterday, and his involvement in obstructing Nicholas’ right to justice.

for more info on the case..go to indymedia.org.nz and here for more pics and summary of the demo

I was reminded throughout the demo of what it is we are fighting, the words of Andrea Dworkin kept surfacing in my mind, until in the end I just shouted them out “I want a truce, a day in which there is no rape, just one day in which there is no rape!”…well she actually said,”I want one day of respite, one day off, one day in which no new bodies are piled up, one day in which no new agony is added to the old, and I am asking you to give it to me. And how could I ask you for less- it is so little. And how could you offer me less it is so little. Even in wars, there are days of truce. go and organise a truce. Stop your side for one day. I want a twenty-four-hour truce during which there is no rape. … and on that day of truce, that day when not one women is raped, we will begin the real practice of equality, because we can’t begin before that day.” (addressed to a regional mens conference ‘Changing Men’.)