Ben Apfelbaum

SYDNEY PEACE PRIZE 2019

On the 14th November at Sydney Town Hall Tarana Burke on behalf of America and Tracey Spicer AM accepted the Sydney Peace Prize on behalf of the Me Too Movement.

The Peace Prize Jury chose the Me Too Movement from over 200 nominations from the community.

The Peace Prize citation was “for empowering survivors of sexual harassment and violence, and elevating their voices; for championing truth and justice; for highlighting the breadth and impact of sexual violence worldwide; and for launching a demand  for change that is sweeping the world.”

These words were amplified by all the speakers commencing with the Welcome To Country by Ann Weldon who outlined that the lack of a treaty disempowered first nation and especially aboriginal women.

Former Deputy Labor Leader Tanya Plibersek  outlined the importance of education in helping young women  combat sexual violence and harassment.

The Chair of the Sydney Peace Foundation Archie Law and its Director welcomed the Prize winners, the other speakers as well as the near capacity audience.

Tracey Spicer with the support of Tarana Burke surrendered her formal address to allow Antoinette Braybrook to speak as a powerful advocate for oppressed aboriginal women. As CEO of Djirra, a Victorian organisation helping abused aboriginal women, gave horrifying statistics of the suffering of aboriginal women amplified by both race and gender. 18,000 aboriginal women are incarcerated as opposed to the general population of 2,000.

Featured image : Tarana Burke in conversation with Tracey Spicer. All pics by Ben Apfelbaum.

 

 

 

 

 

Published by Ben Apfelbaum

My photography began when my father handed me the proverbial brownie box camera as a child. As cameras developed I went through Fujica and Olympus range finders graduating to my first single lens reflex camera, the Minolta SRT101, the latter being the greatest facilitator to my growth as a photographer. Digital photography has only added to this. I was a regular contributor to Camera Craft magazine (Australian Camera ) for over three years. During Australia’s Bicentennial year (1988) I made it a personal project to document the celebrations. This culminated in the creation of a book of my photos which was published in 1989. The book was called CELEBRATING AUSTRALIA and came with an accompanying calendar. My works have appeared in a number of publications including the coffee book entitled MY AUSTRALIA (1989), publisher Robertsbridge Severn. This book had a preface by the then Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke. I was a co-photographer on a book entitled SYDNEY- DISCOVER THE CITY with text written by Robert Treborland. Major Mitchell Press was the publisher. Also for two years I was the photographer for calendars celebrating Sydney’s multicultural communities. The two calendars were entitled MULTICULTURAL SYDNEY. My work appeared in a group exhibition held at Sydney’s Town Hall pertaining to the diversity of life in South America to raise money for orphanages there. I have over one hundred photos stored in the New South Wales State Library archive. I had a solo exhibition held in 2007 entitled Ben’s Lens at the Sydney Jewish Museum which celebrated the vibrancy of the Sydney Jewish community. Some of these photos are on the Museum’s permanent display. I have exhibited internationally firstly at the Spruill Gallery in Atlanta Georgia, united states, and in an exhibition entitled Kosher and Co at the Jewish Museum in Berlin. Currently I am a regular contributor to J-Wire and this esteemed publication.