THE TRAUMA CLEANER
The Trauma Cleaner by Sarah Krasnostein
Before she was a trauma cleaner, Sandra Pankhurst was many things: husband and father, drag queen, gender reassignment patient, sex worker, small businesswoman, trophy wife…
But as a little boy, raised in violence and excluded from the family home, she just wanted to belong. Now she believes her clients deserve no less.
A woman who sleeps among garbage she has not put out for forty years. A man who bled quietly to death in his loungeroom. A woman who lives with rats, random debris and terrified delusion. The still life of a home vacated by accidental overdose.
Sarah Krasnostein has watched the extraordinary Sandra Pankhurst bring order and care to these, the living and the dead—and the book she has written is equally extraordinary. Not just the compelling story of a fascinating life among lives of desperation, but an affirmation that, as isolated as we may feel, we are all in this together.
Buy “The Trauma Cleaner” here
IN BAD FAITH
Inside a secret ultra-Orthodox sect and the brutal betrayal it tried to hide
Dassi Erlich and Ellen Whinnett
The true story of Dassi Erlich – a woman who grew up in a closed ultra-Orthodox sect and endured a harsh hom
e life that made her the perfect target for a predatory teacher. It is an honest, harrowing but ultimately inspiring story of survival and the fight for justice.
Buy “In Bad Faith” here
WHO GAVE YOU PERMISSION?
The memoir of a child sexual-abuse Survivor who fought back
Michael Visontay, Manny Waks
‘Who gave you permission to speak to anybody?’ Rabbi Telsner, the leader of the Yeshivah Centre, thundered during his regular weekly sermon. It was a question directed to Manny Waks’s father, after Manny had finally gone public with his accusations of sexual abuse and its cover-up within the centre.
Manny Waks was raised in an ultra-Orthodox Jewish family, the second oldest of 17 children. As an adolescent he was sexually abused at the religious school across the road from where he lived. Betrayed by those he trusted, Manny rebelled against his way of life, though he later went on to become a prominent Jewish community leader.
Buy “Who Gave You Permission” here
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Melbourne Victims Collective Charter
Towards Justice: The Charter is an initiative of the Melbourne Victims’ Collective, comprising more than 30 people. Members of this Collective have experienced the consequences of primary, secondary, tertiary and/ or systemic abuses by clergy, religious and lay personnel within the Melbourne Catholic Archdiocese. These abuses date from approximately 1948 to 2008, across the tenure of five Archbishops. The Collective includes independent practitioners with a combined 60 years of legal, pastoral, psychiatric and psychological expertise in their work with clients abused within religious settings. Towards Justice: The Charter expresses the opinion of the Melbourne Victims’ Collective and is based on case materials from numerous victims.
Read Towards Justice – Charter here
