A giant fibreglass elephant designed to help reduce the shame, stigma and secrecy around family violence has made its new home at the Maryborough Hospital.

Arriving at the hospital on Friday, Ellie the Elephant is part of the Central Goldfields family violence action group’s coordination of a local campaign to quite literally address the elephant in the room — family violence.

The local campaign is part of the international 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence campaign which runs from this Wednesday, November 25 through to December 10 in a bid to raise awareness and encourage action towards ending violence against women and girls.

The arrival of the elephant comes as the result of collaboration between the Maryborough District Health Service (MDHS), Women’s Health Loddon Mallee, Centre for Non-Violence, Northern District Health and Loddon Campaspe Community Legal Centre.

MDHS social worker Tanya Miles said having a physical elephant in the room is a great conversation starter.

“Family violence is prolific everywhere and Maryborough does have a high police call out rate to incidents of family violence,” she said.

“This is a really good way of raising awareness of family violence in the community and it is something you can talk about.

“It’s so important to continue to have conversations about family violence, to be able to name and recognise different types of violent and abusive behaviours and to realise that any kind of abusive behaviour is not acceptable.”

Designed and developed by survivors of family violence, one side of the elephant features images that speak to the damage caused by family violence, while the other highlights the strength of women recovering from domestic abuse.

“This is a project to address the fact that traditionally family violence has been perceived as something that should be kept behind closed doors and not talked about in public,” Women’s Health Loddon Mallee health promotion worker Hayley Davis said.

“The elephant in the room is the literal elephant in the room where everyone knows family violence happens but historically we’ve been very discouraged to talk about or acknowledge it.

“The elephant is designed to stimulate conversations about family violence, reduce the stigma around talking about it and to also educate people about what family violence is.”

MDHS CEO Nickola Allan said the project is a key step in changing the “story of family violence” in the community.

“It would be remiss of us not to be involved in this, particularly considering our population of employees is predominantly women and a percentage of our staff are actually victims of family violence,” she said.

“If we can create an environment that’s safe within our workplace to really acknowledge the problem exists and acknowledge we are a safe place for people to start that conversation, then that’s a great step forward. 

“We’ve had a strong partnership with Maryborough Rotary and its #SayNO2familyviolence campaign and this is building on the next steps of organisational commitment which is calling family violence out for what it is and really working actively as a community to change that story of family violence.”

MDHS manager primary and preventative health Robyn Jordan said having the elephant at the hospital is one of many ways the community is marking the 16 Days of Activism.

“Ellie the Elephant is our main health promotion tool as part of the 16 Days of Activism campaign but through to December 10 there are a number of activities going on,” she said.

“There will be a walk against family violence taking place, Zonta Club of Central Goldfields will have their flower bed installed at Phillips Gardens, all of our staff at the health service will be taking part in family violence training and the Maryborough Library has events happening.

“There’s a broad range of activities going on both internally for the health service and externally across the community which is really important.”

For more information about local events and activities, search 16 Days of Activism Central Goldfields on Facebook.

If you or someone you know is impacted by family violence, you can reach out to the Orange Door on 1800 512 359 or call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732.