Historically, archives have not been created or managed with survivors of child sexual abuse in mind. Archiving practices have not been trauma-informed or served the needs of those who have the highest stake - namely, survivors.
On the contrary, archives have centred the interests and narratives of institutions and authorities rather than the testimonies and actions of survivors. This has reinforced the silencing and disempowerment of lived experience and memory, and meant that histories of child sexual abuse in the late 20th and early 21st centuries have been shaped by the perspectives of those with power.
Remembering Together aims to disrupt this status quo and asks: What should survivor-centred archives of child sexual abuse look like? How can we create space for alternative archives that hold personal memories, traumas and hopes, co-created with survivors in trauma-informed ways? How might these archives create new opportunities for histories of sexual abuse and trauma in childhood?
Our two-year project (2026-2028) will start to explore these questions by developing new methods for identifying, preserving and digitising the archives of child sexual abuse survivor-activists in England, c. 1960-2024. These archives include:
- records of survivor-led groups, collectives and charities;
- the personal records of individual activists;
- the oral histories and memories of survivors.
Such archives will highlight the vital role that survivors-activists and advocates played in protecting children and developing understandings of, and responses to, child sexual abuse since the 1960s.
However, the creation of survivor-centred archives presents many ethical and practical questions.
- How will we take care of the interests and needs of those whose personal experiences might be collected?
- How will issues of confidentiality, consent and identity be handled? How will practices be trauma-informed?
- How will archives be sustainable in the long term?
Before we embark on collecting archives we need to create workable and safe conditions: this is the key aim of Remembering Together.
The research team and a Participatory Reseach Group of survivor-activists, supported by our partner Survivors Voices, will work together to produce a toolkit for archiving child sexual abuse activism. We will use two pilot archives to develop and test it.
You can find out more about the toolkit and other elements of the project in the Research section of our website. If you would like to get in touch about the project, see the Contact Us page.
