A new, raw and intimate body of work
Comprised of an EP with three new powerful new tracks, an accompanying self-directed short film, self-portrait album artwork, and an evocative release statement - victim impact statement sees Jaguar Jonze reassert her creative vision and artistry with a project that signifies a sort of creative rebirth for the artist.
The launch of victim impact statement comes after five years spent at the frontlines of the #MeToo movement in Australia, with Jonze often putting her own creative endeavours aside to advocate for change that would see assault survivors like herself better protected. This new, comprehensively curated project sees Jonze once again flexing her multidisciplinary muscle with one driving message – she will not be constrained to a box of anyone else’s devising. In sharing with the world the emotions from victim impact statement, Jaguar Jonze announces her return to the spotlight on her own terms, a freedom to create and be an artist without conditions imposed upon her.
Jaguar Jonze says, “I became an artist to tell stories and break the cycle that has followed me my whole life. The cycle of slipping through the cracks of the complex systems built to protect society. I have worked hard to not let that pain define me. However, in 2019, I became the story when my body was taken without my consent.
When I made the choice to go public with the incident, it came at an insurmountable cost. I allowed the music industry, media, government, justice system, and the weight from the pain of many other survivors take my body too.
For the last five years, I have relived the violation of my body again and again in every room, on every stage, across newspapers, screens, websites and whispers until I was no longer one of you. Every door that I walked through became conditional and I put on the heavy mask I was expected to wear…the mask of a perfect victim and tireless advocate.
I am proud of the ripples I created – in conversations, commitments, the music industry, National Cultural Policy and legislation. But as the public world slowly started to let light in, my private world was overcome with darkness. At the end of 2023, the criminal court trial of the two perpetrators ended in a mistrial after a merciless cross examination and relisted late 2024 to start all over again. Through the advocacy and justice system, I learned that sacrificing my body, my life alone, was never going to take down the structural violence so prevalent in our society.
The victim impact statement EP + short film was written as a gift to myself; to return my voice and own my body – this is my protest. To remind myself why I came into art and music in the first place. To take back my potential and take up the space I deserve in this world. To rely on myself for justice.
I am not the sexual assault I never consented to. I am no longer the story. I am one of you. I am an artist that needs the freedom to connect and create again.”
