Speaking out brings healing for 'little monster' created by state abuse

Wednesday, 21 July 2021

Survivors of abuse from the Pacific community will give evidence before the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. (First published July, 2021)

Joanna Oldham spent her entire childhood being made to feel worthless. But telling her story of abuse and neglect by the state has her feeling like she can do anything.

As a nine-year-old in her grandmother’s care in Christchurch, the reverend at their church molested her and took indecent photos of her three times before an uncle found out and put a stop to it – something she only learned a few years ago.

She tried to tell her Pākehā grandmother, who had been openly racist towards her half-Tongan grandchild, but she did nothing.

Joanna Oldham, testifying before the Royal Commission of Inquiry into abuse in care.

And in response to Oldham’s traumatised tantrums, social welfare got involved, sending the child towards more abuse, drugs, and crime.

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Fine mats from all across the Moana are strewn before the Royal Commission of Inquiry and survivors giving testimony.

Speaking to the Pacific Investigation hearings of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care on Wednesday, Oldham was resolute as she told her story: how the state “created a little monster”.

“Taking a child away from one community and putting them, not even in another community, [but] in the middle of nowhere, it’s reinforcing a negative message.

“Early appropriate intervention could have made a difference. There were opportunities that were missed.”

Throughout her life, Oldham stayed at Ford Milton Children's Home, a family home that cannot be named, Kinsglea School, Allendale Girls’ Home in Auckland and Glenroy Family Home, before being sent to try living in Australia with her mother only to return to Christchurch two weeks later.

Over five years in Kingslea she was abusively restrained often, strip-searched, and kept in a concrete “secure unit”, once for a stint of six weeks.

“I remember that by the time I came out of Secure that first time, I was unstoppable,” she said.

“It was like they had created a little monster. After that I ran to the streets any chance I got.”

Later at Glenroy, both the foster father and son raped her, separately. She doesn’t know if they each knew about what happened. But by then, she wasn’t surprised by rape.

The Pacific hearings, part of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into abuse in care, are being held at the Fale O Samoa (Samoa House) in Māngere.

Every home she was placed in from age 9, she ran away from, thinking it would be safer away from the adults tasked with her care. She spent her life in fight or flight mode, she said.

“The story of me running away constantly, is that the outcome of having adrenaline running through a child’s veins on a daily basis? I don’t know.”

On the streets, she fared little better. Raped by strange men, she turned to drugs and committed crimes with other children like her.

The courts discharged Oldham from state care when she was 16. After that, no-one ever checked on her, and her life derailed further.

She and her sister, who she’d been living with, became addicted to heavy drugs. When her sister died, Oldham moved to Auckland and started a methadone programme, and made a strong recovery. She has been clean since 2000.

In Auckland, she looked for a home in the Tongan community, and today her three children are proud Tongans. She was rejected by both her Pākehā and Tongan sides as a child, and it left her lost, so now she is creating an identity for herself.

“I can’t identify as Tongan and I think that’s just part of my story because of what I have been through,” she said. “In saying that, I am not white, I am not Tongan, but I am not a victim.

“I have found the process of providing my story for my claim, and for this Royal Commission, fascinatingly therapeutic.

“I am starting to really believe in myself, believe that I have done a great job, and for the first time ever I feel proud of myself, and that I really can achieve anything.”

Oldham filed a claim to seek redress for her abuse at the hands of the reverend, who is now deceased.

Dr Seini Taufa, the research and evaluation lead for Moana Research. (File photo)

Two weeks ago the Anglican Church wrote to her and confirmed they will not contest her account of events, and opened a redress process with her.

The church’s legal counsel and a bishop of the church were present for her testimony on Wednesday.

“Getting the letter when they said we had no intention to dispute it, I felt like I could exhale. I almost expected them to go, ‘No, you’re a liar’.”

The commission’s work will be confounded by poor data, researcher Dr Seina Taufa told the inquiry in the afternoon.

Routine undercounting and neglectful data collection both historically and today fail Pasifika people across New Zealand, she said.

Dr Taufa is the research and evaluation lead for Moana Research – a company she co-founded – and a senior Pacific advisor for the Growing up in New Zealand Longitudinal Study.

“We rely on data to understand what is happening in our Pacific families and communities and what we need to inform policy and practice for Pacific people in New Zealand,” she said.

“The government needs to be held accountable. They need to prioritise collating data that will inform best practice, policy and give voice to the experiences of our people.”

To fix the problem, Taufa wants more Pacific people at the table designing the data collection methods, and to double count where people list more than one ethnicity in the census instead of “prioritising” one for grouping purposes.

The undercounting, and often miscounting, can hurt people too.

This week the commission heard how being recorded incorrectly in state care can feel like another insult upon multiple injuries for survivors of abuse by the state.

One survivor, who can only be identified as Mr CE, is Samoan but was recorded as part-Māori by social workers.

“This, to me, was another kick in the face because it shows me how they did not care about me or to get my information right,” he said.

“I'm not offended about being Māori, but it was getting information incorrect that really made me angry.”

Another Samoan, Fa’amoana Luatufu, feels the same. He saw on his records that the only options for recording ethnicity were Māori or non-Māori.

“I am Samoan, not non-Māori. It's important that our ethnicity, our identity, is recorded specifically and accurately.”

The Pacific Investigation into abuse in state care hearings continue until July 30.

Where to get help for sexual violence

Rape Crisis 0800 88 33 00, click link for local helplines.
Safe to talk: a 24/7 confidential helpline 0800 842 846, text 4334, webchat safetotalk.nz or email support@safetotalk.nz.
The Harbour Online support and information for people affected by sexual abuse.
Women’s Refuge 0800 733 843 (females only)
Male Survivors Aotearoa Helplines across NZ, click to find out more (males only)
If you or someone else is in immediate danger, call 111.

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