A mural honouring Lady Maie Casey is unveiled in Berwick on Wednesday 9 September 2026, proposed by Year 10 students who audited who is remembered in their own suburbs and found the women missing. The Project Respect toolkit launches with it, setting out how any council and school can do the same.
"Twenty-eight Year 10 students counted whose names were on the streets and statues around them, and worked out that the absence was designed rather than accidental," said WHISE Chief Executive Officer Kit McMahon.
"They did not stop at the analysis. They built the case, put it to Council, and there is a mural in Berwick because of it."
The mural, painted by local artist Arina Apostolova, honours Lady Maie Casey, who lived at Edrington in Berwick. The City of Casey commissioned it after students pitched their proposals through Project Respect, the Council's 2024 Safer Cities initiative.
Lady Casey's record was never lost. Her Place Women's Museum holds a profile of her as a writer, artist, aviator and cultural patron. What was missing was not the history. It was its place in public view.
Women's Health in the South East (WHISE), the regional women's health service for Victoria's Southern Metropolitan Region, working across ten local government areas and 1.56 million people, designed and delivered the gender equality and commemorative justice component, and wrote the replication guide.
What the students found in their own streets is a state wide pattern
Around 1 in 10 commemorative place names and public artworks in Victoria honour a woman. Less than 1% recognise First Peoples women or women from multicultural backgrounds.
That pattern was built, which is why it can be rebuilt. Commemorative place names honouring women rose from 26% in 2022 to 70% in 2025, the first year Victoria named more new places after women than men.
The model is written down so that nobody has to invent it twice
The toolkit sets out three stages, from a single classroom module to a full four phase council project, each with its own conditions, costs and evaluation tools. It is grounded in the commemorative justice framework developed by Free Egunfemi through the Black Freedom movement in Richmond, Virginia, and councils are asked to learn that history first.
It also names what the project could not do. Archival gaps and colonial boundaries made it hard to honour First Nations women from Casey. The next iteration needs First Nations led partnership and changed naming rules.
Ms McMahon said the point of publishing it is replication.
"Every council in Victoria has a place naming process and at least one school it already talks to. That is the starting line. We are asking councils and secondary schools to run one commemorative justice project in their own area using the Project Respect toolkit, at whichever of the three stages their existing relationships can carry.
"A mural changes one street. A model that travels changes what a generation of young people expects to see when they look around them."
ENDS
About us:
Women's Health in the South East (WHISE) is a leading organisation dedicated to improving the health and wellbeing of women in the south eastern region. With a focus on promoting gender equity, WHISE advocates for women's rights, acess to healthcare services, and leads initiatives to address gender-based violence and gender inequality. By collaborating with stakeholders, WHISE strives to create positive change and ensure every woman has access to comprehensive, inclusive, and high-quality care. For more information, visit www.whise.org.au
Contact details:
Doseda Hetherington
Communications Lead
E: [email protected]
M: 0412 317 334
