With rape and sexual violence regularly in New Zealand news headlines, the value of consent education cannot be underestimated, say the founders of Let’s Talk Consent.

University of Auckland students Jasmine Gray, Laura Porteous, and recent graduate Genna Hawkins-Boulton travel to Milan this month to share their mahi around consent education and compete in the inaugural Sustainability Impact Forum, hosted by the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network.

In New Zealand, some schools have comprehensive education programmes on consent and preventing sexual harm, says Genna. However, other schools have absolutely nothing.

“Unlike Australia, we don’t have a mandatory requirement for schools to teach consent. We’re working to change this while bringing attention to Aotearoa’s epidemic of sexual harm.”

Genna, who recently graduated with a Bachelor of Arts, Jasmine who is in her final year of a conjoint Bachelor of Arts and Global Studies and Laura, who is also in the last year of a conjoint degree in Global Studies and Commerce, created Let’s Talk Consent as a way to catalyse change in the area of sexual harm by utilising their combined passions for social advocacy, filmmaking, media and communications.

This June marks one year since Genna, who is a survivor of sexual assault, started a campaign to make consent education in schools compulsory. As part of her efforts she collected approximately 300 anonymous testimonies from young people around the country concerning their experiences of sexual harm and education.

“From those testimonies, and the advocacy work I was doing, I realised there was a gap in the market for an organisation that connects and brings awareness to youth, policymakers, teachers and politicians, and that’s how the idea for Let’s Talk Consent came about.”

The founders have since worked to challenge rape culture and prevent sexual harm by creating training and accreditation programmes for businesses regarding consent culture.

They have also soft-launched their social media presence and are developing consent-related resources and workshops for businesses, parents, caregivers and educators.

“Some people might think this kind of education is inappropriate or that it’s solely the job of the family, but many families won’t have these conversations with their young people, whether it’s because they don’t want to, don’t know how, or have never been taught consent themselves,” says Jasmine.

“We want to equip people with resources and knowledge so that they feel comfortable having those conversations with their children. If we’re not taught these things when we’re young, there’s a lack of knowledge that could lead to harm.”

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