A little look behind the scenes of Tender season two with creators Madison and Beth.

Tender has received numerous accolades, including Gold awards for Documentary and Factual Podcast at the 2022 Australian Podcast Awards, the 2022 Our Watch Award for Excellence in Reporting on Violence Against Women and Children (administered by The Walkley Foundation), Gold for Social Justice Podcast and Silver for Narrative/Documentary Podcast at the 2022 New York Festival Radio Awards, a finalist position for Podcasting at the 2022 Quill Awards for Excellence in Victorian Journalism, and Best Audio Documentary at the 2022 Australian International Documentary Conference Awards.

Tender season two is produced by Madison Griffiths, Beth Atkinson-Quinton and Roia Atmar, with Jon Tjhia, Shakira Hussein and Danae Gibson.

Photos by Athina Wilson, Eye To Eye Productions.

“My name is Roia Atmar, and—in my after—I made it a mission that other women find proof of their own. Proof that there is no uncomplicated route, that fear and shame lives in the most dubious of places, even still. That abuse does not end with the last lighting of a match, with the last foul insult, with the last bellow of a man—or ten—as they stand on the dusty steps of a court, the same court where women wanting nothing more than justice stand, holding space for any semblance of pride they can muster. Women that fight for their very own afters.”

In the sixth and final episode, My Name is Roia Atmar, she battles through the family court system as she is confronted not only by her abuser, but by the loud and obnoxious presence of “Men's Rights Activists”. As she fights to keep herself and her children safe, Roia reflects on the ongoing nature of healing, survival and hope.

Co-producers: Madison Griffiths and Beth Atkinson-Quinton
Lead Storyteller: Roia Atmar
Sensitivity Editor: Shakira Hussein
Assistant Producer: Danae Gibson
Sound Designer and Engineer: Jon Tjhia
Guest in this episode: Samantha Jeffries, Amani Haydar and Ashlee Donohue

For episode transcripts and more information visit our website and stay in touch across Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at @broadwavepods, and @tenderpodcast on Twitter.

Tender season two is Broadwave podcast supported by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria, and proudly sponsored by the Victorian Women’s Trust.

“Abuse grows where love once could have. Interpersonal violence is a double-edged sword. And this, this tense and dangerous phenomenon, makes any sort of court proceeding incredibly hard. A webbed thing. The end, or so it seems, of a terrible, loveless promise.”

In episode 5 Hungry and Holy, Roia tackles the criminal justice system head on as she faces her abuser in the courtroom. In a bid to protect himself, he uses his faith to distract and delay court proceedings. Roia considers how religious institutions of all kinds can be weaponised by men when it comes to the way they exercise violence.

Co-producers: Madison Griffiths and Beth Atkinson-Quinton
Lead Storyteller: Roia Atmar
Sensitivity Editor: Shakira Hussein
Assistant Producer: Danae Gibson
Sound Designer and Engineer: Jon Tjhia
Guest in this episode: Hala Abdelnour

For episode transcripts and more information visit our website and stay in touch across Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at @broadwavepods, and @tenderpodcast on Twitter.

Tender season two is Broadwave podcast supported by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria, and proudly sponsored by the Victorian Women’s Trust.

“Working in the sector, and simultaneously existing as a survivor, means being looked at: being perceived, even if the woman on the other end of the line, or sitting before you, isn’t aware of your past. It means being an image of recovery, whether that image feels fully-formed or not.”

In episode 4 An Image of Recovery, Roia establishes a career in the family violence sector. Confronted by one particular client’s story and the way it eerily echoes her own, Roia is forced to reckon with the complexities of being a support worker as well as a victim-survivor in the space, especially when the client looking back at you for help resembles all that you once knew.

Co-producers: Madison Griffiths and Beth Atkinson-Quinton
Lead Storyteller: Roia Atmar
Sensitivity Editor: Shakira Hussein
Assistant Producer: Danae Gibson
Sound Designer and Engineer: Jon Tjhia
Guests in this episode: Karina Hogan, Cat Kilpatrick, Ashlee Donohue and Maha Abdo

For episode transcripts and more information visit our website and stay in touch across Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at @broadwavepods, and @tenderpodcast on Twitter.

Tender season two is Broadwave podcast supported by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria, and proudly sponsored by the Victorian Women’s Trust.

“Over the span of my life, I had to get my nose re-pierced five times. It was a no-brainer: I was obviously going to do it. And, in a way, there was something quite powerful and commanding about my body’s insistence when it came to healing itself. Just this time, they were my wounds: and the sort that allowed me to bedazzle myself, time and time again, bleeding but adorned.”

In episode 3 Bleeding but Adorned, Roia delights in all of the small, but significant ways she is able to reclaim her appearance after abuse: from buying her first pair of skinny jeans, to getting her nose pierced. After her divorce, she is also forced to make a map of what it means to be ‘an Australian’ in the early 2000s, in the dawn of 9/11, when xenophobia was - and still is - rife in the Western world.

Co-producers: Madison Griffiths and Beth Atkinson-Quinton
Lead Storyteller: Roia Atmar
Sensitivity Editor: Shakira Hussein
Assistant Producer: Danae Gibson
Sound Designer and Engineer: Jon Tjhia
Guests in this episode: Debbie, Dr Mehreen Faruqi, Maha Krayem Abdo OAM

For episode transcripts and more information visit our website and stay in touch across Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at @broadwavepods, and @tenderpodcast on Twitter.

Tender season two is Broadwave podcast supported by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria, and proudly sponsored by the Victorian Women’s Trust.

“Given the way my burns creeped over my neck and side, it meant I physically wasn’t able to move in certain ways. I was a walking, talking, breathing conundrum of sorts: presented with this hopeful newfound agency having just left my abuser, but still restricted entirely by his doing, a prisoner in my body.”

In episode 2 Twice Over, Roia moves to Melbourne, where she lives with her children and her family. Despite leaving her now ex-husband, her burns continue to gnaw, sting and throb. Drawing on her body and its unique architecture post-violence, Roia describes the kind of claustrophobia she is forced to face in a body made to wear her ex-husband’s rage. 

Co-producers: Madison Griffiths and Beth Atkinson-Quinton
Lead Storyteller: Roia Atmar
Sensitivity Editor: Shakira Hussein
Assistant Producer: Danae Gibson
Sound Designer and Engineer: Jon Tjhia
Guests in this episode: Jeremy Rawlins
Voice actors: Thank-you to Rosemarie Jansz who voiced Roia’s mother Najeeba, and to Areej Nur, Izzy Roberts-Orr, Michelle Macklem, Anu Hasbold, Beth Atkinson-Quinton, Elle Marsh, Karishma Luthria, Mel Cranenburg, Sophie Woods, Ayan Shirwa and Adalya Nash Hussein for their contribution to this episode.

For episode transcripts and more information visit our website and stay in touch across Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at @broadwavepods, and @tenderpodcast on Twitter.

Tender season two is Broadwave podcast supported by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria, and proudly sponsored by the Victorian Women’s Trust.

What does leaving actually look like? What does it mean for a space to become yours? Like, really, truly become yours?

For Roia Atmar, it began in a burns unit in a Perth hospital during the summer of 1998. After a brutal domestic assault from her then husband, the shy 20-year-old had never ventured out of the suburban home she shared with her partner’s family… at least since arriving in Australia from Pakistan six years prior as a 14-year-old bride.

In episode 1 Something Burning, Roia harnesses her strength: musing on how, when something goes up in flames, it becomes larger than itself.  

Co-producers: Madison Griffiths and Beth Atkinson-Quinton
Lead Storyteller: Roia Atmar
Sensitivity Editor: Shakira Hussein
Assistant Producer: Danae Gibson
Sound Designer and Engineer: Jon Tjhia
Guests in this episode: Carol*, Jess Hill and Ashlee Donohue. Thank-you to Danae Gibson who voiced Carol, and Jon Tjhia who voiced the nurse. And, a heartfelt thank-you to Carol and Patricia who supported Roia through these early days in her recovery process.

For episode transcripts and more information visit our website and stay in touch across Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at @broadwavepods, and @tenderpodcast on Twitter.

Tender season two is Broadwave podcast supported by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria, and proudly sponsored by the Victorian Women’s Trust.

What does my ‘after’ look like? How did my story begin? 

Tender is a thoughtful podcast series about what happens when women leave abusive relationships.

The first season of Tender followed Madison’s journey of self-discovery and growth after an abusive relationship, zooming in on the small, soft details. Tender started where the story seemingly ends, at least in how domestic abuse narratives are often conveyed.

It has been two years, and in that time domestic abuse has remained a national crisis.

For those that survive abusive relationships, that forge their own complex journeys after undergoing a kind of private terror, the monstrosity of that experience doesn’t come with an expiration date. The hurt doesn’t always promise to subside, and when—or if—it does, the healing never quite looks the way it seems it should. But scattered amongst it all are pivotal moments: of tenderness, of growth, of selfhood.

In the second season of Tender, we introduce you to Roia Atmar, a mother, activist, survivor. Join us as we invite you into Roia’s after. 

Credits
Co-producers: Madison Griffiths and Beth Atkinson-Quinton
Lead Storyteller: Roia Atmar
Sensitivity Editor: Shakira Hussein
Assistant Producer: Danae Gibson
Sound Designer and Engineer: Jon Tjhia
Trailer Video Producer: Madison Griffiths
Website: Catherine Huang (Peer Process)

Tender season two is Broadwave podcast supported by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria, and proudly sponsored by the Victorian Women’s Trust.

Get in touch
We love hearing from our listeners. Stay in touch across Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at @broadwavepods, and @tenderpodcast on Twitter.

Tender is an audio series that follows one woman’s story as she slowly--but surely--gets to know herself again. Chronicling the life of domestic violence awareness advocate, mother and victim-survivor Roia Atmar, Tender season two invites listeners into the inner-workings of Roia’s after: from a solitary hospital bed, to the haunting stare of a room full of police recruits, to crowded Perth pubs, Tender captures the complex intricacies of what it means to live with abuse. 

In this six-part series, you’ll meet activists with lived experiences of domestic abuse, racial and religious discrimination and--most importantly--Roia Atmar. Being a survivor of domestic violence is a convoluted and extensive reality. Tender makes known the negligible and often misunderstood dimensions of surviving interpersonal abuse, the aspects often forgotten in the healing process. 

Meet the production team behind Tender season two.

Madison Griffiths is a writer, producer and visual artist. Their work has been widely published across The Guardian, Meanjin, SBS, and more. In 2019, Madison created the first season of Tender which followed her own story after she left an abuse relationship.

“The second season of Tender tells a twenty-year long journey: a comprehensive deep-dive into how one woman survived, and continues to survive, post terror. It was nothing short of a privilege being able to play a part in telling a story as momentous as this, knowing that - despite it all - what lives at the core of season two is hopefulness, resilience and strength.” - Madison Griffiths, co-producer

Beth Atkinson-Quinton is a broadcaster, audio producer and artist. Their work has been published by ABC Radio National, The Guardian, Schwartz Media and more. Recently, she has produced podcasts Better Off Dead (The Wheeler Centre) and A Fluorescent Feeling (Broadwave).

“My experience as a victim-survivor has shaped me in ways I'm still grappling with a decade later. Centring this lived knowledge of what it means to survive these private horrors in the core production team was crucial for what we wanted to create. This made for slow work that necessarily needed to prioritise collective care and patience. We hope this season will be a balm for anyone wading through their after.” - Beth Atkinson-Quinton, co-producer

Roia Atmar is a mother, activist and survivor.

“I can not help but to feel extremely proud to be a part of this amazing project with even more amazing people. It is an absolute privilege being able to not just say but show that victims will not always stay victims if they are supported and given the right tools to pave their way out of the most horrifying experience of their life and into their happily ever after.”

Shakira Hussein is a writer and researcher based at the University of Melbourne and the author of From Victims to Suspects: Muslim women since 9/11

"This story is powerfully told and framed within a wider narrative about violence against women and those who combat it across all sectors of society. The podcast’s focus on ‘what happens after’ is very important. Stories about family and domestic violence too often conclude at the moment when the woman leaves the relationship and/or the abuser is convicted (in the minority of cases where this occurs). It’s important both for women to know that ‘after’ is achievable and for society more broadly to know that ‘after’ brings its own challenges and that long-term support needs to be available and properly funded." - Shakira Hussein, sensitivity editor

Jon Tjhia is a radio maker, musician, artist and writer who lives and works in Naarm on unceded Wurundjeri country. His essays and stories have most recently been published by Institute of Modern Art, Going Down Swinging, LIMINAL and Avantwhatever. His radio and sound works have surfaced at Manchester Literature Festival, the Barbican, City Gallery Wellington, Sydney Opera House and Arts Centre Melbourne, and on podcasts including Short Cuts, Constellations and The Truth. He’s the co-founder of the Australian Audio Guide and Paper Radio, a producer of The Messenger and a member of the Manus Recording Project Collective.

“I’m humbled to be involved in bringing Tender to listeners. My hope is that it can help domestic abuse survivors feel their experiences are recognised and validated by other survivors and society at large, and that it can offer listeners a deepening understanding of trauma’s fundamentally destabilising effects. Most of all, I hope it demonstrates that healing is possible, on personal and social levels, through care, material support, persistence and trust.” - Jon Tjhia, sound designer and engineer

Danae Gibson is a broadcaster, trainer and producer with RTRFM in Perth. Danae has worked with SYN Media, JOY Radio and more.

“It has been a pleasure and a privilege to work with the team on season two of Tender. I feel so fortunate to have played a small part in this important project with remarkable women sharing their stories of survival and strength.” - Danae Gibson, assistant producer

Tender season two will be released from October 5th, 2021. 

What happens once a women leaves? Often we aren't told the story ends the moment the last door is slammed. But it doesn't. That's when it starts.

In 2019, Madison Griffiths released season one of Tender, which centred around the aftermath of abuse. This trailer signified the end of the first season, and the start of a new partnership. Season two follows another person’s story as she generously shares her after. Season two helps another women share her story because there are no shortage of women's stories that have just begun. Of women who have rewritten their own reflections, who have arisen from badness and who deserve to be celebrated.

This video was first broadcast at 'Broadwave Presents: Tender LIVE' at Loop Project & Space Bar on Tuesday 30th April 2019. Written and produced by Madison Griffiths, with production assistance by Broadwave.

Tender season one was created independently by Madison Griffiths.