Kate Miller-Heidke, a pop artist, has stated that a Home and Away narrative gave her the courage to tell her family about her own abuse.
The 40-year-old singer-songwriter, who wrote a song about her ordeal called You Can’t Hurt Me Anymore, has revealed her abuser to be her great grandfather Archibald Barnes.
Kate was 11 years old when she saw a terrible echo of her own experience on the popular serial, she told the Daily Telegraph over the weekend.
In the episodes, a paedophile victim musters the fortitude to tell their parents about their abuse.
‘I just went to my bed and cried all night,’ she said, ‘and then finally had the courage to tell my mother what had occurred.’
Barnes was later revealed to be a chronic paedophile who had assaulted his granddaughter Kate between the ages of six and four for three years.
You Can’t Hurt Me Anymore was about ‘dancing on the grave of an a**ehole,’ according to the popular singer-songwriter, who recently stated on Instagram.
She followed up with a message detailing the song’s backstory.
‘[My great-grandfather] was a serial offender and a paedophile. I wasn’t the first or the last person to do so. (Of course, my family was unaware of this at the time, and didn’t learn about it until years later.) ‘
‘This song is about my feelings when he died.’ ‘At the end of the day, it’s a really empowering song to sing.’
The Brisbane-born artist also gave tribute to the people who encouraged her to share her tale.
‘Without the examples of Grace Tame and Brittany Higgins, I definitely wouldn’t have been as open about it, but the most crucial inspiration was Jaguar Jonze, with whom I had a really profound talk the morning this song was composed,’ she said.
‘She told me about some awful things that had occurred to her as a child, and I felt incredibly connected to her and full of admiration for her strength – that’s when the song title You Can’t Hurt Me Anymore came to mind.’
