melanie maree

When you grow up in childhood trauma, nowhere feels like home. I spent most of my childhood dissociating from the reality of my homelife so I could function at school and in my community. This left me with an image of my life that was skewed. I knew deep down that my family didn’t feel right, but I couldn’t understand why I felt that way.

The news broke this week of a perpetrator hiding in plain sight in 20 child care centres across Melbourne. It's safe to say it's been distressing for parents who send their child to one of the centres involved. I've loved seeing the influx of educational posts about sexual abuse on social media. It warmed my heart. But is sharing information after the fact going to bring real change to violence against women and children?

The culture I grew up in was one of silence. If I made an attempt to express myself it was met with tactics to ensure I learned that my voic