Malika Reese will be part of the panel following the screening of Such A Resounding Silence. Photo: Zoe Cartwright.
Powerful documentary Such A Resounding Silence is set to screen in Warrawong this May, lifting the lid on “one of the last taboos in our society” — child sexual abuse within families.
Featuring survivor voices and followed by a panel discussion with a stellar line-up, the event aims to shatter stigma, foster support, and ignite conversations long overdue.
Illawarra Women’s Health executive director Sally Stevenson said having watched the film by Mission: Impossible actress and survivor Emmanuelle Beart in Sydney, she was struck by the silence and high rates of perpetration around incest.
Sally said 70 to 80 per cent of child sexual abuse cases in Australia were incest.
“The film is so powerful and compelling that it showed me what a great opportunity showing the film would be in terms of raising awareness around the issue,” she said.
“It’s just a really good tool to be able to talk about intra-familial sexual childhood abuse, because it really is one of the last taboos in our society.”
To lead the panel discussion will be journalist and See What You Made Me Do author Jess Hill, Illawarra Women’s Trauma Recovery Centre head of programming Dr Karen Williams, childhood survivor and advocate Malika Reese, and Stepping Out CEO Melissa Holmes.
The event will also hear from Zoe Carides and Tanya Lee from the No Laughing Matter podcast, with Tanya responsible for touring the film around the country.
Sally said the inspiring documentary featured victim-survivors sharing their experiences of resilience and courage, moving stories that offered hope and healing, and the complex dynamics of incest and its long-term psychological impacts.
“We know that women often don’t report or disclose,” she said.
“But often more so with this form, they wait for the perpetrator to die, or somebody close to them who they thought would be embarrassed or shamed by it to die.
“So often, disclosures come very late in their lifetime, which means that has impacted them throughout their lifetime, but it’s also prevented them the opportunity to heal and recover from it.
“That’s something we really want to raise awareness about.”
Sally said there was often a lot of self blame, due to that being one of the strategies used by perpetrators.
She said often they had a different profile to other perpetrators, being over 40, in long-term relationships with an adult partner, and having steady employment.
“They are often camouflaged by the socially legitimate role they play in a family – it’s the father, the uncle or the grandfather,” she said.
“It’s really important to continue to shine a light on the perpetrators because of the fact they’re easily camouflaged, and it’s often difficult to substantiate their behaviour in the criminal legal system.
“We need to absolutely focus on the victim, but the perpetrator is the one responsible and we really need to shine a light and lay the blame at their feet.”
She said it was a powerful film that “brings forward the voices of those who’ve experienced it in a really powerful and compassionate way”.
In the Illawarra, one such voice and a panellist on the night is 2025 Wollongong Citizen of the Year and National Centre for Action Against Child Sexual Abuse member, Malika Reese, whose own perpetrator was deemed an “upstanding citizen”.
Malika, who made legal history as the first person in Australia to have a name suppression order dropped in an intra-familial abuse case, is passionate about the opportunity to raise awareness of incest.
She said she encouraged people to attend to gain a better understanding of it, learn how to be effective allies and provide support for survivors.
“Any stories we hear help us understand how it happens, how often it happens, where it happens, the consequences of it, and how it can affect someone’s whole life from one incident,” she said.
“Shame, embarrassment and feeling complicit are reasons why people don’t speak out.”
For survivors, she said the event would maybe help “feel solidarity or find strength and the support of people who will tell you that you’re not broken, you’re not wrong, you’re not bad, but that you are a survivor and you deserve to thrive”.
Malika hoped by watching the film people would also learn to have those “uncomfortable conversations”.
She said to achieve that, one of the topics she would be speaking about on the panel was wanting to see representation of the crisis on our screens.
“I would love to rally Netflix, SBS, Stan, Binge and challenge them to put on more stories like this, so that we can have the conversations in homes, because that’s how you start the discussions and the uncomfortable conversations,” she said.
Such A Resounding Silence will screen on 27 May from 5:45 pm at Gala Cinema in Warrawong.
If you or someone you know is in need of crisis support, contact 1800RESPECT (call 1800 737 732 or text 0458 737 732), Lifeline 13 11 14, or in an emergency call police on triple zero.
