Sophie Elliott was just 22 when she was stabbed 218 times by former boyfriend Clayton Weatherston in January 2008, and her mother Lesley will be one of two speakers at a community evening organised by the Waitaki Family Violence Network at the Oamaru Opera House on Monday night.
After her daughter's death, Mrs Elliott set up the Sophie Elliott Foundation to raise awareness of the signs of domestic violence, and foundation trustee Bill O'Brien said she would be raising awareness of the "subtle but classic" signs of domestic abuse at Monday's meeting.
"After Sophie died, she had no idea why Weatherston had killed her. It was only afterwards when another woman came forward about similar sort of abuse that Lesley started researching it and came upon the fact that there were a whole load of signs of abuse that neither she nor Sophie recognised. They thought it was just odd behaviour, but it was actually typical, classic abuse.
"There must be many other people in the community who similarly don't recognise the signs. They are usually quite subtle but they are very classic."
Mrs Elliott will be presenting alongside Vic Tamati, who will provide an insight into his own involvement with violence towards his wife and children before becoming violence-free 20 years ago.
Waitaki District Council community safety and development facilitator Helen Algar said the meeting had been arranged by the Waitaki Family Violence Network group and would form part of a series of events aimed at providing a "comprehensive approach to education, awareness and strategies to deal with the issue of family violence".
"These include a community evening to be held at the Oamaru Opera House Ink Box at 7pm on Monday, a business breakfast to be held at the Kingsgate Brydone at 7.30am on Tuesday, visits to schools, presentations to community groups and organisations."
She said the events would lead into the White Ribbon Ride, which would take place in Oamaru on November 22.
Senior Sergeant Jason McCoy, of Oamaru, said the town's figures for family violence were on par with national figures. The evening would provide a good chance to raise awareness of the problem.
"It is a way to try to prevent more instances from occurring."
