11/05/2026
Hey guys!, 👋🏽😊
🐘 THERE IS A PINK ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM!
Her name is Domestic and Family Violence — and she’s been sitting in our lounge rooms for far too long.
👧🏻 Children who watch.
🧒🏻Children who hear.
👶🏻Children who feel everything but are told nothing.
We talk about the victim survivor — and we absolutely should. But who’s talking about the kids 😔?…
Here’s the truth that breaks my heart:
💔 2 in 5 Australian children are exposed to domestic violence. 1 in 3 experience physical abuse. These aren’t just numbers — they’re children in classrooms, on playgrounds, in homes near yours.
💔 Around 10% of Australian kids are living in homes right now where domestic violence is their daily reality — carrying emotional scars, disrupted learning, and mental health challenges that can stretch well into adulthood.
💔 Research shows that children exposed to family and domestic violence face long-term effects on their development, with increased risk of mental health issues, behavioural problems, and learning difficulties.
💔 The rate of children subject to child protection notifications has risen from 49 per 1,000 in 2019–20 to 53 per 1,000 in 2023–24.
And the adults in these homes? The losses are devastating:
💔 Between 1 July 2024 and 30 June 2025, 98 domestic homicide victims were recorded in Australia — and 67% of all female victims were killed by an intimate partner.
💔 In 2024–25 alone, 58 women and 15 men lost their lives at the hands of a current or former partner. That’s more than one woman every single week.
💔 Advocates warn that for every woman killed, there are thousands more who are injured or psychologically harmed.
🚫 These children are not bystanders.
They are victim survivors in their own right.
They hear the storms.
They feel the fear.
They carry trauma it in their little bodies and minds long after everyone else has moved on — and most of the time with no language to name it and no adult who has the tools to help them.
That’s exactly why the Little Wings Neat books matter so much. She’s giving children — and the adults who love them — a way in. A safe space. A story that says: I see you!, What happened in your home was not okay!, And you are not alone! 🫶🏽
🐦🌿 There’s a little magpie named Mmara — and she might just change a child’s life!
Therefore I want to take a moment to shout out my incredible friend Amelia Golsby-Smith, founder of Little Wings Nest and author of the beautiful Mmara children’s book series — Mmara and the Broken Branch, Mmara and the Safe Branch, and Mmara and the Two Skies.
Amelia hasn’t just written books. She’s built a bridge — for the little ones nobody thinks to look for in the wreckage of domestic and family violence.
When DFV enters a home, every conversation, every resource, every bit of energy gets directed at the adult victim survivor. And that’s important. But here’s what we don’t say loudly enough:
That’s exactly the space Amelia stepped into. Drawing on her lived expertise and her career as an Advanced Specialist Domestic and Family Violence Practitioner, she created Mmara — a young magpie who grows up around storms — to give children a gentle, safe, nature-based way to recognise their feelings, find calm, and understand that safe branches and safe people exist.
She’s also developed the Mmara Bridge Framework — a trauma-informed tool for practitioners, educators, and caregivers to use these books as a starting point for real conversations with children about regulation, safety, and belonging.
This is not just a beautiful book. It’s a lifeline dressed in feathers.
👉 Follow Little Wings Nest, visit www.littlewingsnest.org, buy the books, donate a set to a school, a refuge, a counsellor, a family court waiting room.
Because children deserve calm skies, safe branches, and adults who help them find their wings again. 🤍
Let’s make sure Amelia’s work reaches every little one who needs it. Please share this post. 🙏🤍✨
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🌐 Website: littlewingsnest.org
📧 hellolittlewingsnest@gmail.com
A specialist practitioner-led initiative creating child-centred resources and training to support emotional safety, regulation, and connection.
Designed for families and professionals supporting children through complex experiences.
