About Us
The shattering discovery that her daughter had been sexually assaulted by a much-loved and trusted family elder set Bravehearts Founder Hetty Johnston on a remarkable path that would see her become Australia’s leading child protection advocate and form one of the country’s most prominent and active organisations specialising in child sexual assault services, lobbying and research.
After discovering that her family member had been sexually assaulting children for more than 40 years without anyone in the family speaking out, Hetty began her mission to break the silence that seemed to surround the issue. Bravehearts (formally PAACSA) was established in 1997.
With the support of her family, Hetty decided that the time had come to lift the cone of silence that had, for too long, aided and abetted the assault and torture of society’s most vulnerable. The search was on for a symbol to polarise the issue. After much discussion, there seemed no better symbol to highlight the issue of child sexual assault than the humble white balloon. The white balloon was considered symbolic of the issue of child sexual assault following a public demonstration held in Belgium on October 20th, 1996. On this day, 300,000 people gathered with white balloons and white flowers in a show of public sympathy and support for the parents of several young girls who were either murdered or missing at the hands of a previously convicted and released pedophile Marc Dutroux. White Balloon Day is now an annual national event run by Bravehearts. It is widely supported by commercial, government and community sectors. In addition, White Balloon Day enjoys overwhelming support and encouragement from the media, schools, churches, health practitioners, emergency services, the legal fraternity and community organisations.
In 1999, White Balloon Day was labelled a ‘phenomenon’ by the authorities after sparking a flood of child sexual assault disclosures to Queensland Police. Bravehearts now employs more than 30 staff and has offices in four states. The organisation provides a range of services for victims and their non-offending family members.
Thanks to the dedication of Hetty, her staff and Bravehearts supporters and corporate partners, the silence is gradually being broken with more victims coming forward every day, empowered at last to speak out about their abuse and start on the path toward justice and healing.
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