All About My Brother

According to Archbishop Mannix, boys like David Kanatopsky were the lucky ones’. Having sustained an acquired brain injury at birth, Davey grew up in a loving Jewish family in Melbourne. At 16, his care was entrusted to the Hospitaller Brothers of St John of God, a Catholic order dedicated to meeting the needs of people with intellectual disabilities.

But behind closed doors, and away from his family, Davey was subjected to horrific physical, psychological and sexual abuse. As the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse revealed, the Order of St John of God was deemed the worst of the worst.

In All About My Brother, Ilana Snyder asks us to consider the personal, social and institutional forces that enabled and protected this perpetration of evil. She shows how survival plays out for the abused and their loved ones, navigating complex legal, financial and bureaucratic systems. In telling Davey’s story, Ilana writes for all those who care for the disabled, for those who care for justice in our society and for those who care to understand the humanity of people who cannot advocate for themselves.