Gold and glitter mark the hope young survivors found, as Southland Help art exhibition opens at Invercargill Central

Look closely at the artworks hanging in a former games shop at Invercargill Central and you will find gold and glitter worked into them. Southland Help counsellor Emma Borland says that is no decoration for its own sake: the shine stands for the things the young women who made them have found hope in.

The exhibition, Survivors Stories, gives people who have lived through sexual violence and abuse a chance to tell their stories through art. It has opened in the old EB Games store at the mall and will run for two weeks, the Otago Daily Times reported. Southland Help kaiwhakahaere Tina McColgan told the ODT the opening was timed for what she called the National Day of Reflections, acknowledging the accounts survivors gave to the Royal Commission into abuse in state and faith-based care.

McColgan explained that money flowed from that process to groups supporting survivors, but none of it covered prevention, a gap she feels keenly. "While I'm busy creating an ambulance, I feel like there's this massive hole of community awareness and prevention work that needs to be done," she said. The exhibition grew out of a wish to raise that awareness while giving survivors a voice, and she pointed to one of the strongest messages survivors gave the commission: "they needed to be seen, they needed to be heard, and they needed to be understood."

To support the young rangatahi taking part, McColgan approached Lisa Benson, an artist whose work has hung at the Auckland Art Gallery. Benson told the ODT she saw her job as holding space rather than teaching. "It feels like an absolute honour to work with these women in a space-holding capacity," she said, and she described the role as "supporting them to allow what's in them to come out of them".

Borland, who also supported the artists through the process, said the hope now visible on the walls was not something many of them would have recognised at the beginning. "We're talking about glitter and sparkles, but I don't think a lot of them would have seen that at the start," she said. "It was nice to have some hope, there was a way forward, that it doesn't have to decline."

For McColgan, part of the power of the project was the group itself. "There's something really special in being in a group that understand what you've been through," she said, describing it as "empowering and permission-giving" to be among people who knew how much courage it took simply to turn up. She also wants the wider community to take more responsibility. "Don't stand by and be witness to it, because by being a witness you're being complacent," she said.

She thanked Invercargill Central and the exhibition's other supporters, along with backers of prevention initiatives such as the Red Light Drink, and she praised the bravery of the women whose work is on show. Her message to anyone still struggling was short.

"We see you, we hear you, you are not alone." It is the same promise the gold on the canvases is meant to carry, for anyone who walks into the old shop over the next fortnight.

Where to get help: HELP, which supports survivors of sexual abuse, can be reached on 09 623 1700 in Auckland and 04 801 6655 in Wellington. In an emergency, call 111.