Abuse was rife at Pukeora Home for the Disabled in Hawke’s Bay: victims

A historic picture of the Pukeora Sanitorium near Waipukurau which became the Pukeora Home for the Disabled. Photo / NZME

WARNING: DISTRESSING CONTENT

Humiliating group showers, physical and sexual abuse, possible experimental surgery, and children being shut in a room for long periods as a punishment.

That was the abuse endured by residents at the now-closed Pukeora Home for the Disabled near Waipukurau in Central Hawke’s Bay during the 1970s, according to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care.

The royal commission report was released last week after six years of investigation, detailing “gross violations” in state and faith-based care between 1950 and 2019 across New Zealand.

It contains two mentions of victims in Pukeora who came forward to the Commission.

Pukeora survivor Gary Williams said it was a relief to see a credible report released into the public domain as “us survivors weren’t believed or were worn down to stay silent”.

The 3000-page report has called for reforms, public apologies, redress and accountability.

Williams, who is based in Christchurch and a leading advocate for people living with disabilities, was on the Royal Commission’s Survivor Advisory Group of Experts. He hoped the report’s recommendations would be actioned as quickly as possible.

“We cannot wait - people are dying and more children are entering the care system.

“For disabled people, we need support and resources so that we, our whanau and communities can get on and build good lives without the state needing to dictate.”

Pukeora survivor Gary Williams says it has been a relief seeing the royal commission report come to light.

Hawke’s Bay Today can now print Williams’ account of his five years living at the state-run Pukeora Home for the Disabled as a teenager during the 1970s.

Pukeora Sanitorium history

In 1918, a hill site near Waipukurau was chosen to build a sanatorium to care for soldiers returning from World War I with respiratory illnesses.

The Pukeora Sanatorium soon became a facility for the treatment of tuberculosis for the general public, given its high-up position and fresh air.

It was later turned into the Pukeora Home for the Disabled in the late 1950s.

The number of residents living with disabilities at the facility eventually declined and, in its later years, the facility took more of an emphasis on caring for people with serious head injuries. It closed in 1998.

The sprawling facility was bought by a private owner in 2000 and converted into a winery. It recently changed hands but remains a winery.

The Pukeora Trust operates at another site in Waipukurau caring for people with disabilities.

It is a charitable trust and has no affiliation to the state-run Pukeora Home for the Disabled, apart from taking on some of its remaining residents when it closed in the late 1990s.

In his own words: Pukeora survivor Gary Williams on the abuse he faced in the 1970s

“I have cerebral palsy. This affects my muscles and my mobility. I am a part-time wheelchair user. I also have a speech impediment.

“When I was young, I wasn’t treated like I was disabled. I participated fully in whānau life on the marae and at school.

“I went to the local school Hatea-a-Rangi [in Tokomaru Bay], which I enjoyed because I am an academic [Williams went on to work for GNS Science for 20 years as an adult].

“When I was in Form One, my family were planning to send me to the University of Waikato to study accounting. I would make a contribution to the community and to my iwi.

“When I was ending my intermediate school years, I began planning my high school years. The nearest high school was in Tolaga Bay, which is 40km from Tokomaru Bay. All my peers were going there.

“The Education Board decided that school would not be accessible for me, so I would need to be sent away to go to school.

“It was the 1970s and I believe the Education Board did not want to make school accessible for me because of the financial cost. This meant I would have to leave and go to school somewhere else.

“I moved to Pukeora, Waipukurau, when I was 13 years old. Pukeora was a converted tuberculosis sanatorium.

“It was a place that housed disabled people from all over New Zealand. There were about 80 people living there, and it was full most of the time.

“It was a big change.

Pukeora was closed in 1998 and is now a winery. Photo / Warren Buckland

“Pukeora was in a little town where everybody knew everyone. At Waipukurau Hospital, there was Matron Pene who used to work at Te Puia Hospital and she knew my mother, so she knew me.

“Things were good while she was there. She retired after I had been at Pukeora for a year. Then things got hard.

“I was clever, I didn’t fit in the environment and I didn’t really have anyone I could trust and talk to about things.

“As there was no one I trusted, I kept things to myself.

“The biggest employer in Central Hawke’s Bay at that time was the Peter Pan ice cream factory.

“When the factory closed, the factory workers became workers at Pukeora.

“They didn’t know how to care for disabled people, but they couldn’t get anyone else to do the work.

“There was a staff hierarchy. I would try to avoid becoming over-familiar with most of the staff, because they worked together.

“So, there was not much point in complaining – nothing would get done.

“But when the staff were unjust to me or anyone else, I stood up to it.

“I would say stuff like “I bet your mum would be embarrassed by you” or “real men don’t beat defenceless people”.

“I am quite lippy, and I was willing to stand up to authority figures. Staff tried to get retribution for my non-compliance.

“There were times when they would put me on the toilet and leave me there. They knew I wouldn’t move in case I embarrassed myself.

“I couldn’t get their attention, the alarm cord that hangs from the ceiling was turned off.

“I would pull it, and no one would come. One time, they left me there for four hours.

“That kind of abuse didn’t leave physical marks.

“I was 13 years old and I cried the first time I was punched. I’d never been hit before. It was a combination of shock, pain and humiliation.

“I decided not to cry again, no matter what.

“It was practical for staff to shower two or three of us at a time. Sometimes it was mixed genders. I hated it. I used to position myself so I couldn’t see the person behind me. The area was so small.

“I was innocent and naïve. I knew nothing about sexuality, it wasn’t in my consciousness. I was abused in the showers by a range of staff from older men to teenage girls.

“Pukeora was open slather for staff who sexually abused. Some of the staff were quite open about the abuse, like it was a badge of honour.

“I didn’t tell my parents about the abuse I was experiencing. I made the conscious decision to stay at Pukeora and not create turmoil in their lives.

“After all, they’d been promised I was only there until the end of my secondary education.

“I have excessive saliva and I dribble as a result. To fix this, they wanted to cut a gland through my ear to reduce or stop the saliva production.

“I went in to Palmerston North Hospital on the 22 or 23 December 1975. This meant I couldn’t go home for Christmas. It was the first time I had been in a medical hospital. I had no idea what to expect. It was the first time I had surgery.

“It was horrible, my ear was full of blood. Saliva is natural and necessary for living. The operation didn’t work.

“I think that it was experimental surgery. I am not sure if my parents gave consent to the operation.

“It was unnecessary, and I was available for the experiment.

“When I left Pukeora, I moved to Laura Fergusson Trust in Lower Hutt. I lived there for 17 years.

“After the 45 years I was in state care, I do not trust the system. It has let people down, I need to see change.

“We live in a sophisticated nation. In my view, schools that teach disabled people to fit the narrative of what a disabled person is - helpless, needy, dependent, vulnerable – are not helpful.

“Children need to be supported in their local communities and stay local.

“In my view, I think that non-indigenous systems have not worked even for non-indigenous people.

“We all need to step back from the brink and figure out a move in a different way. I often think about pre-colonial times and ways of living and behaviour where Māori influence was the norm.

“If things are done differently, that way of life will surface again.

Gary Hamilton-Irvine is a Hawke’s Bay-based reporter who covers a range of news topics including business, councils, breaking news and cyclone recovery. He formerly worked at News Corp Australia.