A mural that honours women who have allegedly died as a result of predominantly male violence has been defaced in Melbourne’s CBD, with the words “war on men” spray-painted across.
The “She Matters” mural — paying tribute to the more than 120 Australian woman killed since the beginning of 2024 — was set up on Hosier Lane on International Women’s Day earlier this year, featuring pictures, names, and artistic images of the lives lost.
On Friday, numerous posts appeared on social media, revealing the upsetting news that the mural had been vandalised.
“A clumsy, hateful ‘war on men’ now scrawled across the faces of the dead,” wrote Melbourne artist Dans Bain, who shared a picture of the defaced mural on Instagram.
The Red Hearts Campaign and Australian Femicide Watch founder Sherele Moody — who regularly maintains and updates the mural — also shared pictures of the defaced wall on Facebook.
Speaking to PEDESTRIAN.TV, she explained she had received several calls and photos about the significant damage.
While it’s not the first time the mural had been defaced, with images needing to be reprinted in the past, this is the worst damage since it was erected.
“[The spray-paint] basically destroyed it. The only faces that weren’t erased were the women on the very top row, so the row that was out of reach of the person who did it,” Moody explained.
“It really just broke my heart, it was everything I could do to not cry. I think I was much sadder than angry, but I was angry.”
PEDESTRIAN.TV understands a team from the City of Melbourne attended Hosier Lane on Friday to buffer the wording over the mural, given it breached the City of Melbourne’s graffiti policy.
On Saturday morning, a number of volunteers gathered to help restore the images, with around 200 people present at one point to lend a hand, according to Moody.
“You watch people looking at that mural and you hear them having conversations about the diversity of the faces, realising violence impacts everyone, because there are so many different faces on there from different cultures, backgrounds, age groups,” she explained, reflecting on the significance of the She Matters wall.
“They’re talking about not actually understanding before how prevalent violence is in Australia, they’re talking about male violence and domestic violence. There are conversations happening down here many times a day when people see this mural.”
A number of social media users have also condemned the “disgraceful” vandalism, with users pointing out the mural is “not a war on men, it is a war against violence”.
“This is disgusting,” one user stated while another called out the “malicious behaviour”.
“This is abhorrent. I’m so sorry & angry this happened,” another user remarked.
Looking ahead, Moody said she is considering hiring security.
“I’m actually hiring a security guard to protect it tonight, so that it at least has another night,” she told P.TV.
Unfortunately, she’s unsure if police can take any action regarding the incident, given Hosier Lane is a legal street art lane for people to paint on the walls.
“The She Matters mural is a very female production, most women working on it, obviously all women victims, so we’ve carved out this space and we’re going to use it in a way that we want to use it in our activism. So it’s been good to take this bit of space,” Moody said.
She said she intends to contact the City of Melbourne for more protection of the mural — or potentially a new space altogether to set it up.
“Or maybe some business will come forward and say, ‘hey, we’ve got a wall you can use’, that would be awesome,” she said.
The City of Melbourne has been contacted for comment. A Victoria Police spokesman told NewsWire they were investigating the incident.
“It is understood a mural in Hosier Lane was graffitied,” they said, per news.com.au. “Investigators are working to establish when the incident occurred.”
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