Title

Helen Grace + Julie Ewington: Justice for Violet and Bruce.

Venues

Wagga Wagga Art Gallery [3] (4 June 2022 – 17 July 2022)

Date

(2022)

Summary

Single-artist exhibition. Located: Australia (NSW). Photographs

Curator

Ewington, Julie.

Country of context

Australia

Abstract

Justice for Violet and Bruce’ focuses on the historical domestic murder court case which took place in Sydney in 1980. A perceived miscarriage of justice for these victims of domestic abuse led to a community campaign which resulted in legislative change to allow the admissibility of ‘provocation’ in criminal sentencing. Campaign photographs taken by photographer Helen Grace will be shown for the first time alongside street posters and a campaign banner on loan from the National Museum of Australia. As a regional cultural institution, Wagga Wagga Art Gallery is proud to present this exhibition. It provides the opportunity to lead important community discussion and debate concerning domestic violence.

More Information - Justice for Violet and Bruce

In 1976 Violet and Bruce Roberts were convicted of the murder of Eric Roberts, Violet’s husband and Bruce’s father, at Pacific Palms near Taree in regional New South Wales. By 1980 the public outcry against the injustice of their imprisonment was spearheaded by Sydney activist group Women Behind Bars. Violet and Bruce’s release from jail on 15 October 1980 turned on the recognition of the defence of provocation in cases of murder where there had been long-term domestic violence; it led to changes in the New South Wales Crimes Act.

Sydney artist Helen Grace photographed many public events staged by Women Behind Bars between May and October 1980 drawing attention to Violet and Bruce Roberts’s case. The campaign included vigils, marching through the streets of Sydney carrying a continuous scroll with thousands of signatures petitioning Parliament, and a presence in Macquarie Street outside Parliament House.

This project focusses on 253 photographs in Grace’s archive from 1980. It asks how images documenting an historical event, now over 40 years ago, are to be interpreted today? What issues are being foregrounded? What is the relevance today of a campaign about the long-term effects of domestic violence on families, on society? What changes have been made in Australian life since?

Many feminist artists committed to changing the lives of Australian women contributed to this campaign, which relied on the public visibility of their works. In Grace’s photographs you see handmade banners: Toni Robertson’s Justice for Violet and Bruce Roberts, which functioned as the campaign’s ‘logo’, is now in the collection of the National Museum of Australia, a tangible reminder of this history. The street posters at the far end of the gallery by Jan Mackay and Toni Robertson, however, have almost all vanished: their work was done.

[Wagga Wagga Art Gallery media]

Last Updated

06 Aug 2024