The sexual abuse of children by adults entrusted with their care and protection, ranks as the most vile and odious of crimes.  And yet in New Zealand, we witness an unacceptable level or tolerance and denial of this abuse culture. We have failed to meet our obligations as a country to protect our children from harm.

Any measure of a society’s legitimacy must be benchmarked by the way in which it protects its most vulnerable and the punishment it metes out to those that abuse them.

The consequences of this predation are childhoods lost, lived in fear and suffering, torn apart, and adult lives often shredded, shattered, splintered. Many have not survived.  They have died victims of their abuse, many suffering early deaths from using alcohol and drugs to medicate their unbearable pain or taken their own lives,

The ripple effect of this childhood trauma ran and continues to run, through entire families and through generations, a tsunami of suffering sweeping through the siblings, parents, uncles and aunts, grandparents of the primary victim, through their friends and partners, their own children and the communities in which victim survivors were and are, expected to function.

Many attempted and attempt to bury this pain. Some manage to navigate their lives around the abuse and subsequent trauma they suffered. The majority did not and do not. Whatever the response has been, all carry the consequences with them decades after the horror was inflicted on them. And the assaults continue and will continue to unless stopped. The notion that abuse of our children is all historical is an obscenity that must be resisted for the lie it is.

The decision to have a Royal Commission in New Zealand to investigate this abuse in care has prompted this podcast. It is an opportunity for the voices of victim survivors to be heard. It is an opportunity for advocates to be heard,

It is a chance to look for solutions, for redress, for healing, for answers and to ask new questions.

It will be a multiplicity of voices from diverse backgrounds, ethnicities and beliefs reflecting the complexity of New Zealand society that will challenge our culture of abuse in New Zealand and achieve change.

The subject being spoken about will not be easy to listen to. But through the courage and commitment of participants in this podcast series, perhaps we can together shed light on what is happening and start the conversation that will lead to the change needed to prevent it continuing.