Blue Borage Conversation Café

Real Conversations. Evolving Forward.

Real conversations for real change. Blue Borage’s Conversation Café is a virtual gathering space for survivors, allies and professionals to explore healing, advocacy and hope through lived-experience-led panels, creative expression and courageous dialogue.

🎧 Audio coming soon for accessibility: Listen to the content we’ve shared on each page of our website.

What People Are Saying

Even if it is difficult to talk about, it is far worse to live it in silence.

Our stories are different but so relatable. Thank you all.

This is the first time I’ve been in a room with both survivors and concerned parents. It felt like healing began there.

I didn’t know how much I needed this until I heard others speak the same things I’ve never dared say aloud.

Upcoming Events

Each 90-minute session welcomes survivors, supporters and curious professionals into a safe, trauma-aware space. Conversations aren’t therapy — they are creative, empowered and brave.

🔗 Each event below links directly to its own Eventbrite page to register, view your local time and all the details of the event.

📝 Note: While the organiser records each event, the recordings are not shared to protect the integrity of the space we hold for our participants. The recordings help guide future themes and shape the summary recap newsletter sent to participants.

---

AUGUST 2025: What Justice Might Look Like: A Roundtable on SSTA and Repair

⚖️ A Guided Roundtable Conversation: Survivor, Parent, Ally & Practitioner Perspectives

• Event 1:
  🗓️ Wednesday 6 August | 🕘 9:00–10:30 AM AEST
  🔗 Register here (Eventbrite)
• Event 2:
  🗓️ Monday 25 August | 🕠 5:30–7:00 PM AEST
  🔗 Register here (Eventbrite)

---

SEPTEMBER 2025: Survivor & Parent Q&A Panel

💬 All registration fees beyond the first 20 participants to sign up will go towards training the support teams at 5WAVES.org, so if you become registrant no. 21, 31, 41 or 51, all of that goes to 5WAVES!

• 🗓️ Wednesday 10 September | 🕘 9:00–11:00 AM AEST
  [🔗 Register here](Link Coming Soon)

---

OCTOBER 2025: From Silence to Influence: A Showcase of Survivor Visionaries

🕘 Wednesday 8 October | 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM AEST
🎂 Part of Susan Dunlop’s 60th Birthday Reflection Series

This gathering marks a milestone, not just for Susan as host, but for all of us who’ve walked alongside the Blue Borage Conversation Café from its earliest moments. It’s a chance to pause and reflect: look where we started, where we are now, and where we’re heading.

This special event is open by invitation to those who’ve contributed to or attended Conversation Café Series 1 and 2 (Jan–June 2025). It’s a showcase of brave voices shaping survivor-led change through memoirs, novels, poetry, podcasts, documentaries, advocacy, art, and organisational dreams.

Come share your story or project. Celebrate how far we’ve come. Contribute to where we go next.
Alone is hard — together is better.

OCTOBER 2025: Who We Leave Behind, Who Moves Forward

🌿 Forgiveness vs Reconciliation in fractured families.

• Event 2: Monday 20 October | 6:30 PM AEST (5:30 PM AEDT)
  [🔗 Register links coming soon]

---

---

DECEMBER 2025: The Elephant in the Room

💗 Rest, Reflection & Reconnection at Year’s End

The end of the year stirs many emotions: grief, gratitude, loneliness, love. For those affected by trauma, the season can bring heightened tension — family gatherings where we feel disconnected in our hearts, walking on eggshells around those who don’t (or won’t) understand.

This December, we’re not wrapping it up with bows or pretending it’s all tinsel and joy. Instead, we’re naming the elephant in the room — and choosing to sit beside it, together.

Join us for reflection, honesty, humour, maybe a little Christmas crafting, and gentle grounding as we honour how far we’ve come and close the year in community.

Two sessions will be offered to suit different time zones and energy levels:

Wednesday 3 December (Morning)[🔗 Register links coming soon]

Monday 15 December (Evening) [🔗 Register links coming soon]

---

What to Expect

• Curated Panel and Round Table Conversations: drawing together international lived experienced storytellers, survivors, professionals and artists
• Structured Dialogue: Facilitated discussion, presubmitted questions, live Q&A.
• Creative Showcases: When appropriate, panelists share creative work, poetry, music and visual arts or advocacy projects.
• Global Community: Designed to welcome participants across time zones, with two sessions per theme when possible.

Each session is a space for insight, shared learning, and courageous connection. 💡 You don’t need to speak — just come as you are.

---

Who Are These Conversations For?

• Survivors of SSA and other forms of intrafamilial abuse or trauma. We know that SSA doesn’t stand alone in many of our stories – if you experienced one form or both, we see you. You are not alone.
• Survivors of sibling abuse (emotional, physical, psychological). Likewise, there is an undercurrent of each of these forms of abuse in most SSA stories or in the families of survivors.
• Allies, loved ones, activists and advocates, and those with a commitment to breaking cycles of harm.
• Educators, social workers, therapists, and mental health professionals seeking deeper understanding.
• Parents and carers wanting to create safer, more aware family environments.
• Anyone drawn to activism and advocacy, healing, justice, and compassionate systems change.

Join the Conversations

Follow Blue Borage on eventbrite.com.au to see upcoming panel themes and register for sessions.

Ticket Info

Standard Registration (90-minute events): AUD $40

Eventbrite will convert the amount based on your location. Approx. $40 AUD = $26 USD | £21 GBP | €25 EUR (subject to exchange rates). This covers panel coordination, event and tech administration costs, planning and hosting, post-event summary creation, and pre- and post-event communication with our participants.

Community Discount Codes for subscribers of the 5WAVES.org or INCESTAware.org newsletters and the Bright Futures community of practice in Australia. The discount code will be shared in the newsletters.

Stay Connected

Follow Blue Borage on EventBrite and across social media:
– Instagram and Facebook or search: @blueboragetraining
– LinkedIn: Blue Borage
– Website: www.blueborage.com.au

---

Archived Series:

Series 1: Spotlight on the Authors (Jan-May 2025)

Monthly large-group conversations featuring four lived experience authors.

Series 2: Small Group Conversations (Feb-June 2025)

Trauma-informed, small group rounds using the Conversation Cafe method.

Completed Events Series 3 and 4: