EXCLUSIVE
A Sydney woman has “beautifully” summed up how women across Australia are feeling with her moving poem, Hart Up, in the wake of the Westfield stabbing.
Mia Findlay, an eating disorder recovery coach, told WhatsNew2Day Australia that she spent just one hour writing the monologue that has moved women around the world.
In a two and a half minute video, Findlay managed to summarize decades of repressed rage that women have felt at the injustice of male violence.
He said Saturday’s attack in which five women and a man were stabbed to death by deranged Joel Cauchi, 40, at Westfield Bondi Junction was the final straw.
Sydney-based eating disorder recovery coach Mia Findlay (pictured) has touched women around the world with her poem Fed Up.
Findlay said he started writing Hart Up after hearing that Joel Cauchi (pictured) possibly had a misogynistic motive for the Westfield Bondi Junction stabbing.
Findlay said he wrote the article after the knifeman’s father admitted that his son “had a problem with women” as a possible reason for his frenzied rampage.
‘I just burst into tears and normally when I read stories like that, which are constant, I respond with anger but I just felt defeated. Exhausted, defeated,” he told WhatsNew2Day Australia.
In her poem, Findlay compares the government’s response to attacks against women to the government’s response to attacks against men.
In particular, it highlights how, when single-punch victims Thomas Kelly and Daniel Christie were murdered in Sydney’s Kings Cross, the New South Wales government introduced harsh lockout laws across the state.
“I was reflecting on something that has always seemed so disproportionate to me, which is the government’s response to the attacks so many years ago, which literally shut down our hospitality industry in Sydney,” Ms Findlay said.
‘They showed that they can achieve change.
‘We were outraged when two young men were living their lives and were brutally murdered by men, as we should have been.
“But since then, and certainly before, there have been dozens of women murdered for doing exactly that.
‘So what is the difference? What is the difference?’
Ms Findlay described the government’s response to the country’s “great shame”, violence against women, as nothing less than “poor”.
“They have shown what they can do, they were willing to sacrifice the economy, an industry that sustains our tourism,” he said of the king’s attacks.
‘But nothing for us, crickets. clichés when something as huge as this happens. But nothing else.
Ms Findlay (pictured) questioned why the Australian government has done more to prevent violence against women.
The poem mentions 17-year-old Masa Vukotic (pictured), who was murdered by a man unknown to her in March 2015.
One case Findlay mentioned was that of 17-year-old Masa Vukotic, who was stabbed to death by a stranger in March 2015 while walking in a Melbourne park.
Findlay’s poem on Thursday prompted Masa’s sister Nadja to share her own video calling for women to be better protected.
‘My sister went for a walk about 500 meters from our house. They killed her, it wasn’t even night, it was 6:50 p.m.,” Nadja said.
It’s been enough for so long, even before my sister passed away. something really needs to be done.
‘I really don’t understand the hatred towards women. We all come from a woman.
“Please be better, be better.”
Nadja also spoke about her sister, describing her as “the best person I have ever met and had the privilege of knowing.”
‘She was 17 years old. “I wanted to be a lawyer, I wanted to get married, I wanted to have a big family,” Nadja said.
‘She is more than just a victim of a man. She is more than just a victim of knife violence.
“And she could have been a lot more than she was, she was 17 years old.
“She was just a damn girl.”
Findlay said he received dozens of messages from his friends after a possible misogynistic motive for Saturday’s stabbing was revealed (pictured, a woman at the memorial).
Findlay said the pain from women in response to her video has been so overwhelming that she needed to take a break from her phone.
“The stories being shared are just heartbreaking,” he said.
‘I’ve been in the online space talking about eating disorders for 10 years and when I touch on topics in this space, there will usually be a percentage of women who believe it’s our job to keep ourselves safe.
‘There has been nothing like that. There hasn’t been a single comment from a woman who isn’t exhausted, angry, fed up.
“Australian women are over it.”
Ms Findlay highlighted several cases of men with a long history of violence against women killing them in preventable attacks.
He looked at Jill Meagher, a Melbourne woman whose killer had already violently raped several women.
“Because the punishments are not punitive or prohibitive enough, he clearly felt entitled to continue that pattern of behavior,” Ms Findlay said.
‘They (the government) don’t give a damn about us.
‘My feeling right now is that they either hate us or they don’t care enough about us to hate us.
“We just don’t factor, we’re invisible.”
Ms Findlay highlighted several cases of men with a history of violence against women committing horrific crimes, including the man behind the Lindt Café siege (pictured), Man Haron Monis.
Findlay had initially written his poem to vent after receiving so many messages from friends crying after the possibly misogynistic motive for Bondi’s knife was revealed.
‘I just wanted to put it into words. “I got Instagram direct messages from my friends crying,” she said.
‘Just: “What do we do? Where can we go? Where are we safe?”
‘Just to vent and hopefully put into words for other women what they might be feeling.
‘This just constant hum of exhaustion and defeat that we all feel and the anxiety we feel wherever we look over our shoulders.
‘I want to tell you: I believe you, I am exhausted and I hope it gets better.’