Lived Experience Advisory Council | Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commission

Purpose of the Council

Amplifying the voices of people with lived and living experience is at the heart of our work.

First established in 2023 as a commitment made under the National Plan, our Lived Experience Advisory Council helps us to better understand the full picture of domestic, family and sexual violence and its consequences.

Embedding lived experience is not symbolic participation – it is a systemic requirement. Inquiries and reviews have repeatedly shown that including lived experience strengthens service design and ensures reforms meet the needs of those most impacted.

Current Members

Akii

Akii is an international multi-award-winning disability, gender equity advocate and violence survivor activist, trainer and educator who is dedicated to and deeply passionate about human rights, accessibility, intersectionality, inclusion, advocacy, non-tokenistic representation and co-design/co-production. A 2022 United Nations International Day of People with Disability Ambassador and winner of the 2023 National Awards for Disability Leadership Institute Inclusion Award, they are a proudly disabled, neurodivergent (Autistic, ADHD and CPTSD), gender-diverse, trans non-binary and queer/LGBTIQA+ person of colour from a refugee and culturally diverse background. Akii lives with numerous complex chronic illnesses, disabling chronic pain and various physical disabilities. Akii has dedicated their entire career to making a positive and sustainable difference to their communities and all marginalised and disadvantaged groups.

Famin

Famin is a pro bono lawyer. She also is a founder of a social enterprise project, which raises money for a domestic violence organisation that provides legal advice to women facing violence and raises awareness about domestic and family violence in the wider community. Famin is particularly passionate about creating systemic change for culturally and linguistically diverse women facing domestic and family violence.

Vincent

Vincent (or Vinnie) is a community legal centre lawyer working to support children and young people experiencing disadvantage and marginalisation in the western suburbs of Melbourne. Vinnie is a survivor of childhood family violence and shares his story to amplify the voices of children and young people, to ensure they are not forgotten in the national conversation around family violence. Vinnie was born in South Korea but has lived in Melbourne for the majority of his life. Vinnie’s dream is for all women and children to feel safe and loved in their own home, free from all forms of violence and harm.

Conor

Conor is a nationally recognised advocate dedicated to transforming Australia’s responses to children and young people impacted by family violence. As the Lead of Youth Engagement and Advocacy at the Australian Childhood Foundation, Conor bridges the gap between lived experience and policy, ensuring that the rights of children and young people are foundational to systems change. A survivor-turned-reformer, his work – including his children’s book, The Shadow That Follows – centres on the need for trauma-informed, child-centric ways of working with children and young people. Conor is a tireless advocate for a future where every young person is seen, heard, and protected by the systems built to support them.

Alison

Alison is a proud Noongar woman from Western Australia. She is a lived experience champion who has experienced intimate partner violence, and her sister’s life was tragically taken through family violence in 2019. Alison has extensive experience in government and Aboriginal services and is passionate about creating safe communities, addressing inequity, empowering First Nations people and healing.

Ella

Ella is a domestic and family violence lived experience advocate. She has experience working with children and young people who have been impacted by domestic, family and sexual violence, and has worked as a survivor advocate on numerous projects across local, state and national levels. Ella is passionate about amplifying the voices and advocating for the rights of children and young people.

Holly

Holly is an Indigenous early years educator and a survivor advocate who lives and works in very remote NT. She hopes to create pathways for First Nations women and their children – free from domestic, family and sexual violence. Her recent focus has been the delivery of an Indigenous mental health app, Gundirr, which provides an opportunity for people to advocate for themselves through the mental health system and broader health systems.

Tiffiny

Tiffiny is a lived experience advocate and survivor of childhood sexual abuse and family violence. She leads vulnerability strategy for one of Australia’s big four banks and is passionate about the role corporates can play in minimising financial harm through better product and service design. She is married and a proud mother of two.

Nada

Nada is a survivor advocate, facilitator and community leader committed to improving responses to women and children impacted by domestic and family violence. Drawing on lived experience as a child and adult survivor, and more than 15 years across community services, she brings expertise in trauma, exploitation and healing. Her work supporting women and children affected by trafficking, exploitation and violence, including facilitating healing groups and working in trauma recovery programs, has shaped her commitment to culturally safe, trauma-informed and healing-centred responses. Nada advocates for a survivor-informed family law system that does not retraumatise women and children. She is passionate about recognising children as survivors in their own right and ensuring women and children can heal together. She is committed to a future where survivors are heard, children are seen, and every woman and child has the opportunity not only to survive, but to heal and thrive.

Amani

Amani is an author, visual artist and advocate for women’s health and safety, based in Western Sydney. Amani’s ground-breaking feminist memoir The Mother Wound, published in 2021, explores the effects of domestic abuse and state-sanctioned violence on women. It has received several awards, including the 2022 Victorian Premier’s Prize for Nonfiction. In recognition of her advocacy against domestic violence, Amani received the 2021 UTS Faculty of Law Alumni Award and was named Local Woman of the Year for Bankstown in 2020. Drawing on her legal background and lived experiences, Amani has served on the boards of Bankstown Women’s Health Centre and the Australian Muslim Women’s Centre for Human Rights, and consults with various institutions on improving access and outcomes for victim-survivors. As an active visual artist and former Archibald Prize Finalist, Amani collaborates with various organisations to facilitate visual arts and storytelling workshops for victim-survivors from migrant communities.

Quinn

Quinn is a survivor with diverse expertise from lived experience, policy and research. They are passionate about advocating for safer housing and mobility for victim-survivors of domestic, family and sexual violence.

Libby

Libby is a queer young woman, survivor advocate and consent and respectful relationships educator. She is experienced in working with young people to co-design solutions to gender-based violence.

Camille

Camille is an activist, social worker, sexual violence prevention practitioner and PhD Candidate. She founded The STOP Campaign, an organisation addressing sexual violence at Australian universities, and holds a Churchill Fellowship examining prevention strategies across Canada, the USA and the UK. Camille has worked across government, university and non-profit sectors in gender-based violence prevention, specialising in policy reform, resource development and co design with people with lived experience. Camille helped secure the Action Plan Addressing Gender-Based Violence in Higher Education and has advised on the National Student Ombudsman and National Higher Education Code. Her PhD research explores how shame informs sexual violence primary prevention, alongside broader advocacy on child-on-child sexual abuse and mental health system reform.

Tanya

Tanya is a Tasmanian lived experience advocate and practitioner who has witnessed the impacts of family violence across three generations of her own family. She has also worked with children, young people and families across family violence, child protection, youth justice, disability and community services. Tanya is particularly passionate about ensuring children and young people have a voice in the decisions and systems that affect their lives. She is also passionate about building the capability of the workforce to respond well to family violence, and wants to see earlier, more coordinated responses that better support the safety and long-term recovery of victim-survivors and children.

Founding Members

Adele

Adele is a queer disabled person of colour and lived experience advocate. They draw on their experience working in various capacities in domestic, family and sexual violence services and responses, research, survivor advocacy and collective social justice action.

Kim

Kim is a parent of six and proud descendent of the Yanyuwa and Larrakia people of the NT, who works as a speaker, educator and coach in healing, group work for youth, men, families and culture. Kim is founder of IvolveGen, which promotes spiritual and cultural development as the catalyst for healing, wellbeing and growth.

Jay

Jay is a hearing-impaired and culturally diverse human rights lawyer, lived experience advocate, and survivor of sexual and family violence. They are the founder of a Victorian advocacy project for the victim-survivors of domestic, family and sexual violence used by police officers, an active police accountability and response reform advocate, and the co-founder of a national survivor-led advocacy group which seeks to embed varied and diverse lived experience – particularly marginalised voices – in all aspects of family violence response reform and the deployment of the National Plan.

Beck

Beck is a queer feminist who is passionate about ensuring the safety of rainbow families and is a long-time campaigner of LGBTIAQ+ rights. They have significant experience leading domestic and family violence organisations.

Amanda

Amanda is a Yorta Yorta woman, a trauma, domestic and family violence-informed survivor advocate, activist, speaker and writer. They are the founder of an initiative to amplify historically excluded survivors of gendered violence.

Aishwarya

Aishwarya, also known as Ash, is a survivor advocate who has a keen interest in advocacy, education and intersectional feminism. Originally from India, Ash strongly believes that violence against women and children is not a part of her culture, or any other culture. Ash joined the Council to support and platform the voices of women of colour in the family violence sector reform.

Saxon

Saxon is a survivor advocate, law reform campaigner and advocate for the rights of survivors to tell their stories. Their advocacy triggered a review of sexual assault laws, to better protect victims and survivors of sexual assault and violence.

Current vacancies

Available Council positions will be advertised on our Work with us page, with appointments generally made through an expression of interest process.

View current opportunities

Want to share your own lived experience?

Hearing from people with lived or living experience of domestic, family and sexual violence is critical for understanding the full picture of violence and its consequences.

Share your experience