Library announcements

Red Shoes Donations

16 Days in WA is an annual State Government campaign to stop violence against women, running between 25th November (International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women) and 10th December (Human Rights Day).

In 2009, Mexican artist Elina Chauvet made an installation in memory of the thousands of young women who had disappeared, been tortured, and then killed in Mexico during the 1990s and 2000s. The original installation was 30 pairs of red shoes placed in the main street of the city of Juarez, connecting Mexico to the US. Since then, the “Los Zapatos Rojos” or Red Shoes installation has been replicated in over 80 cities around the world, with thousands of red shoes donated to symbolise the need to address gender-based violence.

This year we will bring it to Australia for the first time, in the iconic location of the WA Museum Boola Bardip November 27 to December 1 2022.

Red Shoes Australia will be created from 392 pairs of red women’s shoes representing the total number of women murdered in Australia between 2015 and 2020 (Australian Criminal Intelligence National Homicide Monitoring Program – 2015 to 2020).

To do this, we are requesting donations of pairs of red shoes (or shoes painted red). These shoes will be used for the installation. Once the installation has ended, shoes of acceptable quality will be donated to charity.

Please donate red shoes (or shoes painted red) into the box before Tuesday November 15. Notes and messages of support/memorial can be added to the shoes or placed in the smaller box.

More information can be found at visit.museum.wa.gov.au/boolabardip/red-shoes-16-days-wa-stop-violence-against-women

You can get behind Red Shoes Australia by visiting www.redshoesaustralia.com.au