IKEA Rolls out Confronting Installations to Raise Awareness About Domestic Violence

Installations highlights homelessness feature family possessions stuffed inside a car, tent and living room at Ikea in Sydney, Australia, AAP Image/Supplied, Mark Jezercic

Twenty-three-year-old Claire and her two young children had been calling their car home after escaping violence from her former partner, Paul.

The abuse began two years after Claire and Paul got married, when Paul went from controlling what Claire ate and how she dressed to cutting off Claire’s access to their bank account, taking away her car keys, and forbidding her from returning to work.

When Paul’s abuse worsened, Claire decided to grab the essentials—some clothes, some cash, baby toys, medications, and enough food to last a day or two. She then found her car keys and drove away with the children.

With an adult and two kids living in it, the car was claustrophobic, the air never felt fresh. Claire had to move regularly to make sure her ex couldn’t find them.

Fortunately, Claire and her children found refugee at a Save the Children Australia shelter. But their road to recovery has been long, as Claire has little work experience and no financial safety net, while her children’s social and emotional development suffered because of the trauma.

Their story was depicted in one of the provocative installations at IKEA’s store in Tempe, a suburb in inner West Sydney.

It is part of the Swedish furniture giant’s “This is not a home” campaign in collaboration with Save the Children Australia, which aims to highlight the rising rates of homelessness due to family violence.

Family violence, the company said, is a leading cause of homelessness for women and children in Australia.

Mirja Viinanen, CEO of IKEA Australia, said the campaign aimed to “raise awareness of the stark living situations of women and children escaping domestic violence across the country.”

Meanwhile, Mat Tinkler, CEO of Save the Children Australia, said, “each scene created in the Tempe store activation is informed by a collection of experiences of women and children who have fled a violent home and were supported by Save the Children on the journey to safety and recovery.”

DV’s Impact On Men Go Under Radar

The campaign, however, didn’t mention the impact of domestic violence on men, despite data showing that many men could become victims of family abuse, albeit less prevalent.

According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, from 2021-22, over one in four women and one in eight men have experienced domestic violence since the age of 15.

The data found that women and men were more likely to have experienced domestic violence by an intimate partner than other family members, 23 percent for women and 7.3 percent of men.

Meanwhile, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) 2016 Personal Safety Survey revealed that of 1.26 million Australian women and 370,000 men had suffered violence from their partner. Many became homeless for a period of time.

Staying at a friend of relative’s house were the most common housing options, followed by staying in a refuge or shelter, and staying in a motel or hotel.

Sleeping rough on the street, in a car, in a tent or squatted in an abandoned building was the least common.

Independent MP for Fowler, Dai Le, previously warned that campaigns aiming at reducing the incidence of male-on-female domestic violence must be “mindful of language ... because not all men are violent.”

She warned that Australia must not “alienate one group from another.”

“I’m a mother of a son. I know that we have to be mindful of our language because not all men are violent, but how we are portraying it is that men are violent against women,” she told ABC in April.

In addition, while Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were disproportionately affected by domestic abuse, with almost three in four assault hospitalisations involving Indigenous people in 2021-22 were due to family violence, the issue wasn’t in the scope of the campaign.

‘This is not a home’ will be on display in the IKEA Tempe store from June 5 to July 31.