AUSTRALIA
The Australian
GEORGIE MOORE
Australian Associated Press
July 7, 2017
Survivors of child sexual abuse in Ballarat have turned “pain into strength”, with their stories being told in a play about the town’s notoriously dark history.
‘No More Silence’, opening in the regional Victorian town on Friday, is based on interviews with 13 men and women abused in institutions and by their families.
“A lot of them had families that didn’t believe them… a lot of them were just told to pray and a lot of them, as men, were just told to get over it,” Hannah Davies, co-director of the Federation University Australia alumni production, told AAP.
About half of the survivors were involved in the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, fellow director Fae O’Toole said.
“It’s not an easy story … but I wouldn’t say it’s unpalatable,” she said.
“When we walked away from those interviews, we didn’t walk away feeling pity.
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