Asian Sexual Violence Survivors’ Experiences and Expectations of Support within Schools in New Zealand

According to the 2023 Census, Asians comprise 17.3% of New Zealand’s total population, and Asian communities are one of the fastest-growing populations in New Zealand. Despite the growing demographic significance of the Asian communities in New Zealand, the experiences and needs of young Asian people affected by sexual violence remain largely unexplored.

This study addresses a significant research gap which exists in providing culturally responsive and age-appropriate support for young people within New Zealand’s Asian communities, which comprises diverse ethnic subsets. Addressing this gap is crucial for fostering inclusivity and equity within New Zealand society.

Leveraging the power of arts in health research, the study aimed to investigate Asian sexual violence survivors’ experiences and expectations of support from schools, to identify social, cultural, and systemic barriers preventing these survivors from accessing support and to explore new insights gained through arts-based research methods regarding the support of young Asian people affected by sexual violence.

The purpose of this research report (due November 2024) focuses on answering the following research questions:

• What are Asian sexual violence survivors’ experiences and expectations of obtaining support from schools?
• What are the social, cultural and systemic barriers for these survivors in obtaining support from schools?
• What new insights and creative approaches will be yielded from arts-based research methods regarding the support for these survivors within schools?

Arts offer a safe and non-threatening way for survivors to express themselves. In this study, arts-based methods provided a dual layer of safety: they allowed participants to discuss difficult topics using comfortable language and creative expression, and they helped researchers approach sensitive questions with care.

Creative mediums, such as visual art and poetry, were used to explore the emotional aspects of participants’ experiences. This approach enabled researchers to delve into participants’ narratives, metaphors, and images, gaining deeper insights into their experiences.

Through arts-based methods, the researchers developed the participants’ artworks into arts-based responses to creatively express the emotional impact on participants from their traumatic experiences. Short movies and songs have been developed from the participants’ narratives and artworks as creative manifestations of data representation.

A Little Seed is a short movie which captures young Asian survivors’ emotional journeys at the time they needed support after their traumatic events. This creative output uses metaphors and words from participants’ interview transcripts.

Not Leaving Me in the Rain is an AI-assisted song which creates a collective voice from young Asian survivors’ experiences of the inadequate support services they encountered. The lyrics were created from participants’ narratives.

It’s Not Her Fault is an AI-assisted song which captures the challenges around caregivers’ support for young Asians and the complexity of caregivers’ needs. The lyrics were created from participants’ narratives.

A Growing Seed is a short movie which presents young Asian people’s call for an empowerment-based support approach. This creative output uses metaphors and words from participants’ interview transcripts.

Through creativity, the profound emotions of these survivors become visible, hearable, and feelable, giving a voice to those who are often marginalised and making the information more accessible and engaging for a wider audience, including young people who might not engage with traditional research outputs such as academic papers, conferences and research reports.

This study is just the beginning for this important work. Informed by the study findings, we have secured an HRC activation grant 2024 for expanding this study, to explore and develop an integrated support model for young Asian people affected by sexual violence and their families.

We acknowledge the Lottery Grant Board for their generous support in providing the Post-Doctoral Grant that made this study possible.

This study is led by Dr Ying (Ingrid) Wang and Professor Peter O’Connor.