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News & Events
Living or merely existing?
The experiences of male survivors of historical sexual abuse in Aotearoa/New Zealand.
Peer Support as a Pathway Forward.
Thriving, not just surviving: The experiences of male survivors of historical sexual abuse in Aotearoa/New Zealand. - Part 2.
Senior ministers suggested lowering expectations on govt commitments to abuse in care survivors
Abuse in care survivors are outraged after senior ministers suggested lowering expectations on government commitments. Abuse survivors Ken Clearwater and Tu Chapman spoke to Corin Dann. Listen to report
The disappeared
Solitary confinement destroys people, but New Zealand continues to inflict it on our most vulnerable and damaged people, including children, as a matter of course. Aaron Smale reports on the practice that won’t go away and the people that are…
Tautoko Tāne Aotearoa publishes a brief history of the last ten years developing a national network to enable the wellbeing of New Zealand male survivors of sexual violence.
The publication, Coming In From The Cold, includes the experiences of 26 male survivors, generously shared by Tautoko Tāne staff and clients with editor Bex De Prospo Carr and ably crafted by her pen. The history is summarised in four…
Aaron Smale: An apology both sincere and hollow
For me the most powerful words were virtually unintelligible. Gary Williams is severely disabled and in a wheelchair, but that did not limit the power of his words, which were flashed up on a screen behind him. He was the…
Abuse in care apology called PR stunt, ‘not genuine’ and ‘tokenistic’ by some survivors
Survivors of abuse in care arrived at Parliament today to hear the formal apology from the state which oversaw and inflicted harm on children. Public sector leaders from Oranga Tamariki, the Ministry of Health, New Zealand Police, and Ministry of Education also…
The full text of Christopher Luxon’s Crown apology to abuse survivors
It “is a significant, sorrowful but important day” for the country, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has said in his formal apology to abuse victims at Parliament. Survivors around the country gathered and tuned in to proceedings at Parliament, where a ballot-selected group…
For abuse in care survivors, an apology without action means nothing
As we drew closer to the date of the public apology, the response minister Erica Stanford began preparing abuse victims for disappointment. It’s clear that redress will not accompany the national apology tomorrow. There are a number of “extraordinarily complex decisions” yet…
Sorry means you don’t do it again
Luxon surprised a number of people, myself included, when the Royal Commission’s final report was tabled in July by acknowledging that the abuse suffered by hundreds of children at the Lake Alice adolescent unit in the 1970s was torture. And…
Male sexual abuse survivors isolated in the darkness
Richard Old had been dead for about three weeks before anyone found him. And it wasn’t because he had no friends to check on him. He did. But Old was a survivor of sexual abuse and would isolate himself. He…
Erica Stanford: ‘Apologies can be hollow without actions’
On November 12, the Prime Minister, alongside his ministers and a selection of public service heads, will offer a national apology for the abuse and torture that tens of thousands of children suffered at the hands of the state But…
Attorney-General ignores survivors’ calls and backs Solicitor-General
Attorney-General Judith Collins says she continues to have confidence in Solicitor-General Una Jagose, despite calls for the head of Crown Law to step down for how she has handled the claims of state abuse survivors. Key survivor advocates have called for…
New head of Crown abuse response put NZ’s false case to UN
The bureaucrat appointed to head the agency responding to victims of state abuse presented a report to the UN in 2015 that failed to acknowledge the torture that occurred at the adolescent unit at Lake Alice hospital. On Tuesday the…
