Fierce and fabulous Reclaim the Night 2025

Fierce and fabulous Reclaim the Night held on 31st October

Reclaim the Night 2025 in Adelaide Kaurna Yarta was held on Friday 31^st October, with community members, feminist and trans justice activists, sex workers, trade unionists and folks from many diverse backgrounds and lived experiences, gathering to march from Rymill Park, through Rundle Street and Rundle Mall, on to Parliament House for an evening rally.

Reclaim the Night is a global activist event that calls for the elimination of gendered violence, an end to victim-blaming, and for actions to build safe and just communities.

This year’s march and rally was organised by a broad group of activists, survivors and organisations under the Reclaim the Night Collective, including the Sex Industry Network SA, Trans Justice Adelaide, the domestic and sexual violence sector, queer people, young people, multicultural communities, SA Unions and the union movement, and the Working Women’s Centre SA.

Reclaim the Night called for:

• Justice for First Nations women and communities
• An end to violence on the streets, in our homes and in our workplaces
• Safety, autonomy and healthcare for everyone
• Funding for specialised services and education
• Human rights, solidarity, and an end to discrimination and hate
• Hearing the voices of victim-survivors – end the systems of silence!

At Parliament House, the Reclaim the Night rally was jointly emceed by leading DFSV survivor advocate Stacey Nelan and graduating high school student and young feminist advocate Emma Choi. We were welcomed to Kaurna Country by Taylor Tipu Power, a member of First Nations women’s collective Ngangki Warra.

The gathered crowd then heard powerful and moving addresses by Mary Leaker from Embolden, Shai Wittles from Trans Justice Adelaide, Brass Brown from Sex Industry Network SA and Aira Firdaus from Working Women’s Centre Australia

Some of the urgent priorities for the speakers and the RTN collective include:

• Supporting and funding the work of trauma informed and specialised DFSV services and victim-survivor advocacy
• Changes to the Liquor licensing Act to reform the way alcohol is delivered to the home
• Gender equality legislation for South Australia
• Decriminalisation of sex work in South Australia
• Changing laws in South Australia to stop the misuse of non-disclosure agreements
• Truth-telling and Treaty for South Australia and a Human Rights Act for South Australia

Speakers urged all sides of Parliament to resist hateful and divisive politics such as the anti-abortion bill being brought to Parliament in mid-November; and reminded us that we all need to be responsible for eliminating hate and discrimination towards gender-diverse people and for uplifting trans kids.

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Photos provided by Tessa Milford-Behn and Aeon Nguyen