It’s a popstar memoir. It’s also about one man’s immense compassion, writes Sam Brooks. Content warning: contains details of rape, sexual abuse and violence. On a whim, this past weekend I picked up Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead. The elegant epistolary novel, much lauded on its release 16 years ago, is set in mid 20th century America, … Read more
In Ted Dawe’s new novel Answering to the Caul, traumatised young men obliterate the schools that made ‘ordinary kids into evil bastards’. And as Dawe told the Herald last week, his sensational 2012 novel Into the River had its roots in the sex abuse scandal that’s just blown open at Dilworth School. Here, Dawe writes … Read more
If we want to address family violence in Aotearoa, we need to change the way we act and think about shame, writes Leilani Tamu. The following includes discussion of child abuse and trauma. When I was six years old, my mother’s boyfriend told me to eat on the floor with his dog, a German shepherd, … Read more
Petra Molloy was born in the Netherlands and moved to Aotearoa with her family in 1952; she lives in Auckland. Her novel Chosen Boys is about child abuse in the Catholic Church. It’s set in dawn-raids South Auckland – and is written largely from the point of view of a Samoan mother. We asked Molloy … Read more
After two weeks of deeply personal tales at the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care hearing, common threads began to emerge. Katie Scotcher reports, in a piece originally published on RNZ. The setting was impersonal – a hotel conference room, with thick charcoal commercial carpet and name cards placed neatly on tables – … Read more
Over the weekend, horrific false news about a teenage girl being “euthanised” due to mental illness was reported all around the world. The truth was almost as uncomfortable: a teenage girl dying by suicide from the impact of sexual abuse and assault. Emily Writes discusses the conversation we must have. Content warning: This post discusses … Read more
Stories linking cases of extreme child neglect to plant-based diets are peddling dangerous rhetoric, writes Jai Breitnauer. When I read about the malnourished toddler in Sydney this week, who at 19 months was so severely starved she looked like a newborn baby, I was heartbroken and outraged. But I also felt something else – anger. … Read more
Long term abuse and grooming happened to me and I waited two decades to take it to court. I can talk about this now when others can’t, because I was lucky, writes Amanda Thompson The Leaving Neverland documentary is out and I can’t watch it. Good luck to you amateur sleuths who will be glued … Read more
Last night, the first part of the Michael Jackson documentary Leaving Neverland aired on TVNZ. Katie Meadows looks at what it means for the popstar’s legacy. This piece involves descriptions of child abuse, sexual assault and grooming. Since Leaving Neverland first aired, one of the first questions to be asked in a world where Michael Jackson is an abuser … Read more
Two years after David Farrier helped to unearth the exploitation of children on YouTube, the sexualisation of children on the platform continues – and NZ companies are inadvertently appearing alongside it. Oskar Howell reports. New Zealand businesses are advertising their goods and services alongside softcore pornographic videos on YouTube; they just don’t know they’re doing … Read more
Writer and poet Paula Harris reflects on a childhood friend’s experience with abuse – and how her own upbringing affected how she viewed that abuse. Content warning: this essay discusses the physical and emotional abuse of children. Her name was Allie. Well, no, actually, it wasn’t. Despite never having changed a name for anyone in … Read more
Father’s Day is this Sunday and we will be sharing stories from dads in the days to come. In this piece first published on her blog, Spinoff Parents editor Emily Writes writes about how hard the day can be for some. Later today we’ll have a post with crowdsourced ways to get through the day … Read more
Spinoff revelations about sexual abuse within the Jehovah’s Witnesses underline the need for a community-wide response to child sexual abuse, writes the children’s commissioner, Judge Andrew Becroft New Zealanders as a whole have only recently come to understand the full extent and cost of child sex abuse. There are many reasons for this. One is … Read more
Best known for their door-to-door evangelising, Jehovah’s Witnesses are on a quest to save the ‘wicked’ from damnation. For victims of sexual abuse within the organisation, however, that quest has seen perpetrators shielded from justice. Amy Parsons-King has met several survivors as part of an investigation for The Spinoff. These are their stories. This feature … Read more
On Saturday, the widow of the late Tauranga Moana leader Awanui Black posted a video to Facebook about child sexual abuse and her husband. Their whanaunga Graham Cameron says her brave stand is a chance to break the cycle of silence and shame. Content warning: sexual abuse of children. If you’ve had the opportunity to … Read more
In response to The Spinoff’s coverage of the baby with the broken bones, Oranga Tamariki’s Paul Nixon explains the careful process behind taking a child into state custody. The impact of a tamaiti being removed from their family is traumatic and how we manage this is very important. Many New Zealanders share our deep concern … Read more
The newborn baby taken from his parents by Oranga Tamariki at an Auckland hospital last year is coming home, but their daughter remains in state custody. Joris de Bres follows the family’s fight to get their children back. Last September, baby Liam* was taken because Oranga Tamariki (OT) believed he was in danger of harm if … Read more
Last night the Herald published a story about a six-year-old Russian child described as the ‘most beautiful girl in the world’. Who on earth thought this was a good idea? Once upon a time, my mate’s beloved van was stolen from outside his house. As he was recounting the story, it just got worse and … Read more
The forthcoming inquiry into state care abuse must remember that women were victims, too, writes Paora Moyle, herself a former ward of the state. Last week on The Spinoff, Aaron Smale shared personal stories of state abuse of indigenous people in New Zealand, Australia and Canada, and asked what we can learn as New Zealand … Read more
Joris de Bres shares the story of a family who almost had their child, who suffers from osteogenesis imperfecta, taken away due to a bruise caused by the brittle bone disease. Sheryl is tearful as she recalls “the worst day of our lives” at Wellington Hospital, when she and her partner Stuart feared their baby … Read more
A baby girl with broken ribs is taken into government care; 14 months later her newborn brother is also taken into custody at an Auckland hospital. But the case is not as simple as it seems, writes Joris de Bres. Two weeks ago, newborn baby Liam* was taken from his parents at an Auckland hospital. … Read more
‘This is not my New Zealand.’ Ahead of her speech to the UN this week, the Race Relations Commissioner calls on politicians to stand on principle and do right by the victims of institutional abuse. Earlier this year I was on the same train in America where a week before a man had murdered two … Read more
How do we teach our children that their body is their body when there are times we just need them to comply with us so that we can keep their body safe? Laura Borrowdale finds there’s no easy answer – but it’s a discussion we need to have. One of my mother’s key pieces of … Read more
New Zealand’s record on child abuse and neglect is a scar on our conscience. A new agency seeks to change that. Expert Emily Keddell explains what it’s intended to, the pitfalls it could face, and that controversial ‘vulnerable children’ label. On Saturday the government launched the Ministry for Vulnerable Children (Oranga Tamariki), replacing Child, Youth … Read more
I have asked myself why I didn’t do something about the shocking treatment of institutionalised children, writes Kim Workman. If the government fails to respond to our calls now, this issue will become a matter of national shame I am urging fellow New Zealanders to support Dame Susan Devoy’s call for a full inquiry into … Read more
A National Party chair has called for the return of corporal punishment, which seems sure to return the issue, including the smacking debate, to the agenda under NZ’s new social conservative PM. You’d be forgiven for thinking that New Zealand had by and large concluded the debate about whether beating up children is a good … Read more
The refusal to mount an independent inquiry on behalf of those who suffered horrendous physical, sexual and psychological abuse in state care is staggering, writes Elizabeth Stanley. This morning the prime minister, John Key, has joined his social development minister, Anne Tolley, in defending the government’s approach to victims of horrendous physical, sexual and psychological … Read more