Denise Caltaux (left) and Community House manager Shelley Loader. Photo / Mike Tweed
Denise Caltaux (left) and Community House manager Shelley Loader. Photo / Mike Tweed
The organiser of a Whanganui hui for survivors of abuse in care wants to establish a support network for people from all backgrounds and “reintroduce the element of trust”.
Teacher, researcher and survivor Denise Caltaux provided evidence about her own experiences to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care, released in July.
Caltaux was committed to Kingseat Hospital in Karaka at the age of 16 and later in life, spent time in the Tokanui psychiatric hospital near Te Awamutu and Wakari Hospital in Dunedin.
While at Tokonui, she had “the most soul-destroying experiences of my life”.
She said despite the inquiry, a lot of survivors had not been heard and had been dealing with trauma alone, often for decades.
“Many people don’t have voices, I particularly think of those with intellectual disabilities or neurodivergent people who are non-verbal.
“I am neurodivergent and autistic and there were only a few of us who took part in the inquiry, so we were speaking on behalf of thousands who have not had a chance to share.”
Calteaux said older survivors had completely lost trust in the system and were being re-traumatised when they went into aged care.
Community House manager Shelley Loader is helping organise the event but said Caltaux was doing it her way.
The hui is being put on with no external funding.
As well as the support group, issues covered at the event will include the Royal Commission findings and recommendations, the resulting Government apology and redress process and its Survivor Experiences Service, Loader said.
Developing a community advocacy team to explore redress opportunities will also be discussed.
“Having to keep standing up to fight for survivor rights and real change comes at a huge personal cost to Denise after the trauma she has suffered,” Loader said.
“The message I would like to get out to survivors and whānau who might be in two minds about attending this hui is it really is survivor-led and will genuinely be a safe space.”
She said the hui was a chance to better learn how to support survivors into the future.
The Lake Alice facility closed in 1999. Photo / Mark Mitchell
“In that regard, what Denise has achieved has been groundbreaking and the interest and support we’ve got from all around the country is a testament to that.”
Caltaux said she was entitled to $9000 in redress through the Ministry of Health but had not applied because of the amount of effort and proof required.
She had been inspired to put on the event after attending wananga run by the New Zealand Collective of Abused in State Care (NZCAST), a survivor-led organisation formed in 2020, she said.
NACAST founder Karl Tauri said they were held around the country with a total focus on getting survivors into a safe space and “delivering a survivor’s language and survivors tools”.
Tauri was born in Whanganui but left at age 2.
When he attends next month’s hui it will be his first time back since then.
Tauri was sent to Epuni Boys’ Home in Wellington at the age of 9 and spent “23 hours a day in solitude, seven days a week”, before being sent to Christchurch’s Stanmore Boys’ Home and Hokio School and the Kohitere Centre in Levin.
“I’m a survivor of sexual abuse, a lot of violence, and what I always try to make clear is the level of psychological abuse,” he said.
“The report quoted 3000 [survivor accounts of abuse] but there are hundreds of thousands of us out there, and what about our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren?” he said.
“Survivors and their whanau is exactly what this hui is about and I’m rapt that Denise has initiated it.”
He said there were high numbers of survivors in the Whanganui area.
The city is close to the Lake Alice Child and Adolescent Unit, which closed in 1999.
Caltaux said part of the reason she initiated the hui was to reintroduce the element of trust, something that had left many survivors years ago.
It was important a Whanganui survivor network and group followed it, she said.
“I’m really hoping there will be a cross-section of services that can jointly facilitate it.
“Long-term, apart from us being able to support each other and share information openly, people will be able to come in and help with the [Government] redress process - how to go about it and how they can be supported.
“There are a lot of genuine people out there that want to help. I want to help them help us.”
The Abuse in Care Survivors Hui is at Community House on Saturday, October 5, from 10am to 4pm. Registrations are open until October 2 and can be made via email to manager@communityhouse.org.nz or by calling (06) 347 1084.
Mike Tweed is a multimedia journalist at the Whanganui Chronicle. Since starting in March 2020, he has dabbled in everything from sport to music. At present his focus is local government, primarily the Whanganui District Council.
