There’s a quiet power in gathering people together, a global community, all choosing to lead rather than follow. All of us – survivors, parents, allies, researchers, and professionals, choosing to sit at one Zoom room ‘table’. All participants are there not to be talked about or to be talked at. Actively engaging, we speak with vulnerability, ask questions and listen deeply. We open our minds and practice asking better questions. We have conversations that heal and grow us and make generational change become a reality.
When I first launched the Blue Borage Conversation Café series #1 in January 2025, my hope was simple: to be a conversation starter. I deliberately chose the four most recent memoirs to use as our base, collaborating with leading advocate authors (Jane Epstein, Diane Tarantini, Alice Perle and Maria Socolof). Together, we co-created a space where survivors, supporters, and advocates could speak freely and be heard, without judgment or expectation. As our second series draws to a close, I find myself reflecting on what has unfolded and where the path is leading next.
In every room, in every Zoom screen, a reality has surfaced: lived experience must lead the conversation. Not just around the edges, not hidden behind polished campaigns. Lived experience must be central to how we think about healing, prevention, and systemic change.
A New Chapter
This work is deeply personal for me. As a survivor of sibling sexual trauma, I have spent years asking hard questions about family, about silence, about what it means to heal. Through my professional work, my writing, and the conversations we’ve hosted here, it’s become clear that personal experience isn’t something to be hidden away. It’s a form of leadership.
As Dr. Daniela Ligiero, founder of the Brave Movement, reminds us:
Survivors are true experts, highlighting the cracks and fault lines in our societies, laws, and policies. Survivors integrate lived experience with the skills and knowledge developed throughout their lives. We are advocates and educators, parents and professionals — ordinary people with extraordinary experiences committed to building a safer world.
Survivors are not just witnesses; they are changemakers! This belief has inspired me to expand my thinking and creativity. Our conversation café series extends Blue Borage’s impact beyond the cafés and aligns us with global movements that are reshaping the narrative around trauma and recovery. We actively support changemakers like 5WAVES.org, a survivor-led nonprofit working globally to confront and heal sibling sexual trauma. Additionally, we contribute through the generous invitation of the Daniel Morcombe Foundation’s Bright Futures community of practice, which has opened up webinars for us to participate in, focusing on this challenging topic. Blue Borage is also engaging with local, state, national, and international survivor leadership initiatives. Currently, I am reaching out to leaders in the field, such as the Brave Movement, to explore how we can bring greater attention to the power of lived experience in Australia and beyond.
Three Guiding Truths for What’s Ahead
- Lived Experience is Expertise.
Survivors carry memories and powerful insight. It is such a deep, lived knowledge of the cracks that must be healed in our systems, communities, and families. - Survivors Belong at the Heart of Solutions.
It’s not enough to listen. We must integrate survivor voices directly into policy, education, and advocacy. Together, we can ensure the future we are shaping is one informed by those who have lived its deepest challenges. - Healing Leads to Leadership.
We are not only what happened to us: we are educators, advocates, artists, parents, and leaders. Lived experience leadership is not supplementary — it is essential to lasting change.
What Is Ahead?
Starting this July, a new sequence of Blue Borage Conversations will begin. They’ll still be rooted in courage and community, and continue to reach deeper, asking different questions.
We will be exploring not just what happened, but what’s possible when survivors lead the way forward.
These conversations are not easy, but they are necessary. They move us from silence to strategy, from surviving to creating new legacies of safety, trust, and connection.
I invite you to walk this path with us, to sit in the circle, to lend your voice, and to be part of a global shift that starts with a simple, courageous act: speaking the truth, and listening with an open heart.
Stay tuned for our new conversation dates, or reach out if you feel called to be part of what’s next. Sign up to receive new articles as they are published here on our blog, and follow Blue Borage on Eventbrite. You will receive notifications as each new event becomes available for registration.
Together, we are not just telling stories.
We are creating change.
Susan Dunlop
Founder, Blue Borage