Project Description

A week before Brittany Higgins went public with her allegation of rape in a parliamentary office (in Australia), a musician friend sang a song during his weekly live stream performance. During COVID times, as we both lived in regional areas, I’d started writing lyrics for the first time, and he’d started putting my lyrics to music. One of the songs was called ‘Beautiful Avalanche’. It was built around a memory of a sexual assault that happened 15 years ago, an experience that I’d never spoken about publicly or even privately, really, even to close friends and family. As my friend’s beautiful voice sang out my words, I felt suddenly, incredibly, exposed. This was my voice, but I wasn’t singing it. I wasn’t ready for its impact and I had no safety net. I also didn’t anticipate what was soon to happen in Canberra.