News & Events

In an exclusive interview for TVNZ’s Sunday, Stan Walker bravely reveals to us the horrifying physical and sexual abuse he endured in his childhood family home in Tauranga. Published on TVNZ Stan has decided that it is time to bring his story out into the light, in the hope that it will encourage others with…

An advocate for victims of abuse in religious institutions says the Dilworth school case is unusual because the accused have ended up in court. Published in RNZ Six men in their 60s and 70s with historical links to the Anglican boys’ school in Auckland have been charged with indecent assault, sexual violation and drug supply.…

An Auckland boarding school has come forward to address historic allegations of sexual abuse against six of its former staff, saying it’s “cast a dark shadow” over the school. Published on NewsHub It comes after police charged six men who worked at Dilworth School over offences that took place across a number of decades. The…

The emergence of Covid-19 disrupted most aspects of life, creating a high degree of uncertainty and unpredictability about the future. Knowledge from a place of lived experience offers insights and strategies to better understand how to live, grow and thrive through the difficulties that people who experience mental health challenges, other disabling health conditions, people…

The revelations never end about priests and brothers, of monsignors and bishops with their secret sexual lives, masturbating, buggerizing, sodomizing and raping boys and girls – protected by an amoral hierarchy and a few corrupt members of the upper-echelons of various police forces. Published on Pearls and Irritations When will the swelling tide inside the…

The Victorian government has announced a review of laws preventing sexual assault survivors from speaking publicly about their experience, hours after a campaign to have them repealed was launched. Changes to the state’s Judicial Proceedings Reports Act introduced in February made it an offence for sexual assault survivors to publish their stories under their real…

Sexual assault victims at the secretive religious Gloriavale sect are made to meet with their abuser and forgive them – without police being notified. Gloriavale leaders then give offenders “second and third chances” to stop offending, along with more rounds of forgiveness and repentance meetings when they fail to stop, before leaders will consider kicking…

Louise Nicholas taught Kiwis how to speak about sexual violence. Now, she believes the Government wants to silence her. Jehan Casinader reports. Published in Stuff It takes a lot to make Louise Nicholas cry. She has been called a “slut”, a “whore” and a “media-loving liar”. Her sex life has been splashed across the papers. She…

Abuse of children at Marylands School in Christchurch from the 1950s to the 1980s will be the subject of a special Royal Commission investigation. The Royal Commission looking into the abuse of children in state and religious institutions has announced it will inquire separately into events at Marylands. Marylands was a residential school for boys,…

Over the last few decades more and more cultural attention has been paid to intimate partner violence, especially emotional abuse. Follingstad, Rutledge, Berg, Hause, and Polek (1990) established that emotional abuse fell into six distinct categories; however, little attention had been paid to how abusers can utilize polite communication to hurt their partner. Equally, Brown…

The Ministry of Social Development (MSD) has recently released a document on Social Sector Commissioning – Progress, Principles and Next Steps. It does just that – covering commissioning in its broadest sense – “planning, engagement, funding, procurement, monitoring and evaluation that need to be undertaken though third-party providers to ensure people whānau and communities who…