The piece came together within weeks, after Ms Kruger was approached by fellow artist Liz Marmo about an exhibition on domestic and family violence.

"This has really been cathartic, because everything I feel is written on these pinstripes," she said.

"She carried it for years and years and no one really listened, so she kind of went, 'Well, maybe it's my fault, maybe I need to fix me'.

"On her collar, it says 'I just wanted to be loved by my partner. What happened?' Because I didn't know what happened."

Ms Marmo did not know of her friend's personal experience when she reached out about the exhibition, happening in lieu of the annual Step Out Against Violence Albury-Wodonga.

"It was bizarre ... there are multiple people I could have gone to, and I went to Julie," she said.

The third survivor in this exhibition was also brought into the picture by chance.

Wodonga education support worker Tammy Campbell was at Ms Marmo's home and saw the Albury advocate's mannequins.

"I told her I was an Aboriginal artist and showed her some work on my phone - and she said, 'Oh wow, do you want to do a mannequin?'," she said.

"I told Liz my story, but nobody else new."

As the three women opened their exhibition last night at the David Street gallery Art Partners Australia, many heard their stories for the first time.

Ms Campbell explained that her mannequin, Walan Wiradjuri Yinaa (Strong Wiradjuri Woman), embodied her healing through art and culture.

"I started my art journey as a part of healing from domestic violence, trauma, grief and loss," she said.

"I do really get my resilience and my strength from my culture.

"Five years ago, I probably wouldn't have been able to do this, because I just wasn't at that healing phase.

"Whereas now, with my line of work, I use my personal experiences to try and ensure that other young girls don't have to go through the same thing.

"I grew up seeing DV everywhere, but that doesn't mean it's normal and it doesn't mean you have to live that.

"A lot of people just think, or they just assume that, domestic violence is in certain cultures.

"It's actually the exact opposite - it's not in traditional cultural practice."

Ms Campbell said discrimination and wider societal and institutional barriers enabled family violence to continue at such high rates.

"One thing that really stands out for me was the first sentence he got was by a female judge, and that was the heaviest sentence he got," she said.

"All the times that he re-offended when he was still on parole, his sentences were less and they were all by a male judge.

"My story was spread through the newspapers, and I just wanted to hide.

"You see it on Facebook, you see the comments, and although it's not our shame when we tell our stories, it feels like your shame.

"Like, 'Why was I such an idiot, why did I not do this?'"

As survivors spoke up, Ms Kruger said, "the opposition was allowed to speak up as well".

"It's education (needed) - I would never have known that that was psychological abuse," she said of her experience.

"My mannequin holds red roses, usually a symbol of affection and true love.

"However, when you're being gas-lit, you don't realise they're not coming from a pure place.

"This happens to us; it's codependency and control and manipulation."

One woman is killed every nine days and one man is killed every 29 days by a partner.

Twenty-five per cent of women have experienced emotional abuse, and the figure is one in six for physical or sexual violence.

Judy Langridge, who has been central to Step Out Against Violence since it was first held in 2017, said every two minutes Australian police responded to a DV incident.

"For something to be happening that requires police intervention, there's often been a period of coercive control and assaults," she said.

"And then that's been exacerbated by perhaps unemployment, extra mental health challenges and things like that.

"We were already at epidemic proportions with gender-based violence and sexual assault; I would not have been the only person to just think, 'This is going to get very messy and very dangerous for a lot of people'."

While hundreds won't be marching through the Albury CBD today as they have done in previous years for the 16 Days of Activism, Ms Langridge said their exhibition showed the Step Out movement was "alive and well".

"We've had quite challenging moments but we are continuing to make people talk about violence and show those suffering they are not alone," she said.

"This exhibition shows you can heal from these horrific things.

"I really think it's going to be quite a powerful event and thanks to the incredible generosity of Jacinta Mirams, it's going to be in the gallery for quite a while, so hopefully we get a bit of traffic through."

The six mannequins aim to represent the diversity in survivors and the complex, nuanced ways in which domestic and family violence presents.

The most confronting piece was a deliberate statement from Ms Marmo.

"I always knew it was going to just be her, with words and blood, because words can hurt as much as a punch in the face," she said.

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"Many people will say, 'I just wish he'd hit me in the face so it would be over'.

"It's this 'At you, at you, at you' ... this badgering that it represents.

"The last thing that went on her was, 'See what you made me do'."