After being groomed and raped by her maths teacher when she was just 15 years old, Grace Tame has turned her traumatic experience into advocacy for survivors of child sexual abuse and has been a leader of positive change for over a decade.

Recognising the injustice of Tasmania’s gag order that prevented survivors from self-identifying publicly, Grace offered her story to the #LetHerSpeak campaign created by Nina Funnell, along with the stories of 16 other brave survivors. In 2019, she finally won a court order to speak our under her own name, making her the state’s first female child sexual abuse survivor to do so.

Now, Grace is dedicated to eradicating child sexual abuse in Australia, and supporting the survivors of child sexual abuse and is the Founder of The Grace Tame Foundation.

Her focus is around enabling survivors to tell their stories without shame, educating the public around the process and lasting effects of grooming and working with policy and decision-makers to ensure we have state, territory and federal legal systems that support survivors, not just perpetrators.

She is also a passionate yoga teacher, visual artist, and champion long-distance runner. She now resides in her hometown of Hobart and regularly competes in ultramarathons around the country. On 2 December 2023, she broke the female course record for the Bruny Island 64km Ultra in a time of 5:04:07 and in May 2023 won the Great Ocean Road Ultra as the first women and 6th overall.

Grace was diagnosed as autistic at age 20 and talks candidly about how this affects her life and work.

On 27 September 2022, she released her number 1 best-selling memoir The Ninth Life of a Diamond Miner, which was nominated for three Australian Book Industry Awards, including New Writer of the Year and Biography Book of the Year. She is a regular columnist for titles including The Monthly and the Saturday Paper.
An open book about her experience, but even more passionate about preventing this from happening to other children, Grace speaks from the heart and will have her audience simultaneously inspired and in tears. She is a regular keynote speaker, media guest and advocacy commentator.

Links:
Grace Tame Instagram
Grace Tame Foundation
Running and Autism for Aspect
PREACH! for The Monthly