Grace Tame is an Australian sexual assault survivor and advocate, who is best known for her campaign work to change Tasmania’s ‘gag laws’ which prevented sexual assault victims from being publicly identified even if they permitted it.
Her work with the #LetHerSpeak campaign helped give voices to women all around Australia and reform outdated laws silencing victims of sexual assault.
But there’s a lot more to Grace Tame’s story, read on to find out more about her work and her life.
Grace Tame Quick Facts
Name: Grace Tame
Age: 27
DoB: 28th December 1994
Nationality: Australian
Net Worth: $500k (estimated)
Instagram @tamepunk– 239k Followers
Twitter @TamePunk– 201k followers
Who is Grace Tame?
Grace Tame is an Australian sexual assault survivor and activist, who has been an important voice in reforming the treatment of assault in Australia in the last few years.
Grace Tame was groomed and assaulted by her 58-year-old maths teacher, Nicholaas Bester when she was only 15 years old. Due to Tasmania’s Evidence Act, survivors of sexual assault were unable to publicly speak about their incidents, leaving Tame unable to speak about her experience as she tried to raise awareness.
She then spent the next decade advocating for reforming laws and attitudes towards sexual assault survivors.
In November 2018, Grace Tame and journalist/sexual assault survivor advocate Nina Funnell spent several months campaigning with the #LetHerSpeak campaign, which gained support from celebrities such as John Clease and Alyssa Milano.
The campaign aimed to abolish sexual assault victim gag laws in Tasmania, as well as the Northern Territory and Victoria.
Almost 18 months later, in April 2020, the law was finally changed to allow Tasmanian survivors to speak out.
What does Grace Tame do now?
After successfully changing the Evidence Act, Tame has worked to enable survivors to be able to tell their stories, she has educated the public about grooming, and advocated to ensure policies and laws support survivors.
She’s also launched The Grace Tame Foundation (a not-for-profit organisation) to campaign and fund initiatives working to respond to sexual abuse of children. It also aims for cultural and structural change to eradicate the sexual abuse of children.
Additionally, she has worked with the Los Angeles Human Trafficking Squad to help prevent grooming and sexual assault.
Grace Tame and Scott Morrison
During the Australian of the Year morning tea on Australia Day 2022 (Grace Tame won the Australian of the Year Award in 2021), Grace Tame was pictured next to Scott Morrison and his wife Jenny, at The Lodge with a stern expression. The pictures divided the public with some seeing it as ‘childish’ and ‘rude’ while others praised the move noting she had no responsibility to smile in the situation.
On the matter, Grace Tame stated “the survival of abuse culture is dependent on submissive smiles and self-defeating surrenders“ and she wasn’t going to wear the “consequences of civility for the sake of civility”.
Grace Tame was a vocal critic of Mr. Morrison and his government while they were in power for their handling of women’s safety issues, stemming from allegations of rape and assault from parts of his team.
Grace Tame Tattoo
Grace has a tattoo on her hand, which says “Eat My Fear”.
“It’s about acknowledging fears and negativity that’s naturally out there in the world but being prepared to swallow that and doing things anyway despite that and actually converting that negative energy into positivity that can fuel you throughout your life.” she said when she appeared on Q&A.
Grace Tame Australian of the Year 2021
In 2021 Grace Tame was named Australian of the Year. The panel said she’d won the award for demonstrating “extraordinary courage” and “using her voice to push for legal reform and raise public awareness about the impacts of sexual violence.”
She is both the first Tasmanian and the first public survivor of sexual assault to win the award.
Grace Tame Personal Life
In 2017, Grace Tame married American actor Spencer Breslin but they later divorced. She has been with Max Heerey since 2020, whom she met through the running app Strava. They announced their engagement in January 2022.
Outside of her advocacy work, Tame is also a visual artist, a yoga teacher and a long-distance runner.
Her father, Michael Tame, is a former first-grade Tasmanian cricketer.
Grace Tame Net Worth
Grace Tame’s net worth is estimated to be around $500,00 according to Apumone. While her work hasn’t been done with a focus on profits, she’s become a leader in sexual assault advocacy in Australia and is paid to campaign around the country, often featuring as a keynote speaker at events.
Some of these talks have included a TED talk, events during International Women’s Day and for The National Press Club of Australia with Brittany Higgins (where she spoke with a sling after breaking her collarbone in a cycling accident).
Celebrations
Recognizing the pillars in her life, Grace thanked her friend Alex, who took her in when she was unemployed, educated her on a lot, and her husband, for being her safest space. Grace celebrated one year of her dog, Zappa’s adoption in April with pictures of the dog and Iggy, her cat. Also, she celebrated her brother, Josue, on his birthday, highlighting his importance to society and the family at large. In October, she congratulated her parents on 20 years of marriage, thanking them for their support to herself and her siblings.
Writing & Nominations
With more feathers added to Grace’s hat, The Matt Richell Award nominated her book ‘Grace Tame, the Ninth Life of a Diamond Miner’ for the categories of New Writer of the Year, Book of the Year, and Audiobook of the Year. Grace’s article on the shot magazine, ‘Monarchy of monsters: Child exploitation rots the heart of the British empire’ which was published in May 2023 gathered a lot of reactions and publicity. Grace attended the Tropical Writer Fest in Cairns, Queensland, Australia. She also attended the event “Actually Autistic” at the Sydney Opera House.
Feats
She took on greater strides when she met with the Australian Federal Minister of Education, Jason Claremp, discussing ways to safeguard primary and high school children against child sexual exploitation.
Grace’s Course
Feeling victorious, Grace shared the enactment of the Child Law Consolidation (Child Sexual Abuse) Amendment Bill 2023 on her social media handles, aimed at amending the Child Sex Registration Offenders Act 2006. At the Stop Domestic Violence 2023 event, Grace shared that stopping child abuse is the duty of the community as a whole. Grace also headed the committee which conducted local research on the attitudes of Australian men who have sexually harassed kids. As she’d say, Rape is neither a debate nor democracy; rather, it is an inherent imbalance in society that must be addressed with utmost attention.
Leisure
Chanel Contos, Hannah Ferguson, and Grace, the three cheeky musketeers, were present at the ‘In Style Australia’ event for ‘Care Australia’. December witnessed Grace run her first marathon (64km). She was the 5th overall and the first female to get to the line, all thanks to her cousin, Eloise Warren. The author spent her holidays at Honeymoon Bay.