About Remembering Together

Survivors’ campaigning was (and remains) often transient and poorly funded, leaving no major archival deposits to date. Ephemeral remains can be found in the archives of larger campaigning and feminist organisations, but no single access point is available. Many records remain in private hands, in sheds and on USB sticks. As activists age or pass away, there is risk of irreparable loss. Archives are also routinely destroyed when organisations, under increasing financial pressure, close. Without these records, the role that survivor-activists played in changing responses to child sexual abuse across the last sixty years are obscured. Dominant political and media narratives are perpetuated at the expense of experts by experience, whose persistent activism has been marginalised and undervalued. Remembering Together will innovate participatory approaches and collaborative methods for archiving child sexual abuse survivor campaigning and activism in England, 1960-2024. Potential archives include the records of grassroots collectives and charities, alongside the papers, oral histories, and creative outputs of survivors. The project will define the logistics, considerations, and ethical conditions for survivor centred ‘living archives,’ focusing on agency and consent, to support new opportunities for multi-vocal histories of sexual violence.