Book Jade Robertson | Keynote Speaker on Safeguarding
Signature keynote · Watch it live

What Made Speaking Dangerous? Why "speak up" means nothing without a safe response.

Most campaigns tell people to speak up. This keynote asks the harder question: what taught them it was dangerous to? Audiences leave understanding how silence is built through families, systems and adult response, and what actually changes when the response changes.

Book Jade to speak

What your audience gets

Lived authority, not just theory

Jade speaks from inside the systems she describes, as a survivor, a Gubbi Gubbi woman and a law and justice student. Audiences trust her because she has lived what she teaches.

A framework people can use Monday

The Architecture of Silence gives audiences language and structure, not just emotion. People leave able to recognise the patterns in their own family, school or workplace.

Hard topics, held safely

Jade handles disclosure, child safety and trauma with care and without graphic detail. Rooms feel challenged and safe at the same time, which is exactly the point.

Talks

Signature framework

The Architecture of Silence

How silence is built, protected and maintained across families, institutions, culture and systems. The question is not why people did not speak. It is what taught them it was dangerous to.

Parents and educators

The Safe Adult

What makes truth safer to speak? A practical talk on safety, disclosure, response and what children learn from the adults around them.

Leadership and workplaces

Truth, Disclosure and Response

Why the response determines the risk. How disbelief, minimising and shame management deepen harm rather than address it.

Women and community

Motherhood and Cycle Breaking

A deeply human talk on inherited patterns, body autonomy, truth-telling and what it means to refuse repetition.

Advocacy and justice

Storytelling as Justice

What storytelling can do when systems fail. On lived experience, counter-narrative and why story becomes a form of truth and witness.

Leadership and social impact

Lived Experience as Authority

What it means to turn survival into language, pattern recognition and work that changes things, without flattening lived experience into content.

Go deeper than a keynote

Parents and carers

The Safe Adult Workshop

Practical education for adults who want to become safer people for children to tell the truth to. Covers disclosure, response, body autonomy and the small truths children test us with first.

Workplaces and leaders

Responding to Disclosure

Training for teams and leaders on what to do in the first minutes after someone tells the truth, and how organisational responses either deepen harm or make safety real.

Schools and services

Safe Adults in Schools

For educators and student-facing staff. How children signal, test and disclose, and how everyday adult responses build or break the conditions for truth.

Where this work has been heard

TEDx QUT The Cost of Silence
Ahpra Invited speaker, national Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health workforce series
IndigenousX × QUT Carumba Institute Black Knowing series, published writer
She Speaker, Gold Coast What Made It Dangerous to Speak

Jade's contribution to Ahpra's national workforce series informed findings later published in the Asia Pacific Journal of Health Management.

The Cost of Silence, TEDx QUT

Ten seconds of Jade holding a room will tell you more than any paragraph.

About Jade

Jade Robertson is a proud Gubbi Gubbi woman, TEDx speaker, writer and founder of UN/SPOKEN, a platform dedicated to dismantling the Architecture of Silence. A survivor, mother and law and justice student at QUT, Jade speaks on silence, disclosure, safeguarding and what it takes for adults, organisations and systems to respond safely when someone tells the truth.

Her TEDx talk, The Cost of Silence, and her signature framework, The Architecture of Silence, have taken her from national health sector platforms to community stages. She is known for conversations that are sharp, grounded and morally clear, the kind that stay with a room long after it ends.

More about Jade

Common questions

Where is Jade based, and does she travel?

Jade is based in Queensland and speaks across Australia. Travel and accommodation for events outside South East Queensland are added to the speaking fee. Virtual keynotes are also available.

How are fees set?

Fees depend on format, audience size, travel and preparation involved. Community organisations, schools and not-for-profits are encouraged to enquire, as options exist for different budgets. Send the details through the enquiry form and you will receive a clear quote.

Is the content safe for audiences with lived experience?

Yes. Jade speaks about disclosure and harm without graphic detail, and structures every talk so audiences are challenged and supported at the same time. She can work with your wellbeing team on content notes and support pathways for the day.

Can talks be tailored to our sector or event?

Yes. Every keynote is shaped to the room, whether that is a safeguarding conference, a school community, a government forum, a women's event or a leadership offsite. Share your audience and goals in the enquiry and Jade will shape the talk to fit.

What formats are available?

Keynotes typically run 20 to 45 minutes. Workshops run 90 minutes to half a day. Jade is also available for panels, MC-supported conversations, podcasts and media commentary.

What does Jade need on the day?

A lapel or handheld microphone, a screen for slides where used, and a short briefing call beforehand. Full AV requirements are confirmed at booking.

Bring this conversation to your room.

Keynotes, workshops, panels, schools, podcasts and media. Replies within two business days.

Make a booking enquiry