Turakina artist and writer awarded local hero medal

Catherine Daniels has been named a local hero in the Kiwibank New Zealander of the Year awards. Photo / Esther Bunning

Catherine Daniels has inspired many New Zealanders to speak about their experiences of childhood trauma and sexual abuse over the past 18 months.

Daniels’ work in producing her book and travelling exhibition The Secret Keeper has earned her a Local Hero medal presented by Rangitīkei mayor Andy Watson, and she is now in the running for a national award.

The first things that are noticeable when entering Daniels’ garden studio at Turakina Beach are two of her child-sized hollow-eyed sculptures.

“This one is new,” Daniels said as she opened a little cage door in the figure’s stomach and removed a small, sitting figure with its knees drawn up.

She handed it out to hold while she poured homemade lemonade.

“It’s the small vulnerable part that needs protecting,” she said.

Sculptures from The Secret Keeper by Catherine Daniels.

Daniels began writing about her childhood trauma around eight years ago, and when the words wouldn’t come she turned her hand to making the expressive sculptures she referred to as “the girls”.

They are the manifestations of her despair and frustration at being stifled and silenced as a child.

She had admired the work of photographer Esther Bunning and contacted her as a potential collaborator.

“I thought she wasn’t interested when she didn’t reply to my email but it had gone to her junk inbox and she hadn’t seen it.

“I love her photographs of my work - she really gets what I’m doing and I decided to keep the text to a minimum. People have enough to think about and I didn’t want to weigh the images down with too many words.”

Through her works, Daniels has started conversations that are helping others to work through childhood trauma, parental neglect, sexual abuse and mental health issues.

“I isolated myself for a long time when I started sculpting and it was amazing to see how people reacted to my work and how it resonated with them. I didn’t expect that but it has been amazing because it has allowed others to talk about abuse and trauma.”

Daniels said mayor Watson and his wife Beth, along with psychologist Elinor Seville, publishers Joan Rosier-Jones and Gayelene Holly from Tangerine Publishing had all been big supporters of her work.

“My husband Terry, my children, and grandchildren have been incredibly supportive as well.”

Seville who wrote the foreword for The Secret Keeper said a common coping mechanism for children who had experienced trauma was to disassociate.

“I think that is why people react so strongly to my girls,” said Daniels.

One exhibition visitor asked Daniels how it was possible to heal from abuse and make the bad feelings disappear.

“I told them that they won’t ever completely disappear but that you can make them small in comparison to the rest of your life,” she said.

“That is what my latest sculpture is about – the small figure inside the large one represents those feelings.”

Among the human figures in Daniels’ studio are brightly painted animals that are affixed to a merry-go-round displayed at exhibition venues.

Daniels said they are part of a “fragmented memories” series, which is about retrieving good memories that had been suppressed along with the bad ones.

“Mickey and Minnie Mouse were characters that I turned to for comfort as a child – I would become them and imagine they could shield me and that’s why they feature in my work.”

Catherine Daniels was awarded a Kiwibank Local Hero medal for raising awareness of child abuse.

Daniels recently received a standing ovation when she spoke in front of about 2000 people at the International Initiative for Disabilities Leadership Conference in Christchurch.

“I could never have imagined myself doing that 18 months ago when I started exhibiting The Secret Keeper,” she said.

“I made my sculptures because I was struggling to write what I was feeling. I didn’t imagine that they would resonate so strongly with others.”

Daniels said some people find her sculptures “scary” and “disturbing” while others like to linger and talk about their responses to “the girls” and some have inspired new work.

“A woman told me that she had worn a cloak of invisibility to protect herself and I’ve dressed some sculptures in metal cloaks in response to that.”

A partly knitted copper wire cloak sits on Daniels’ work table alongside sets of wings to be attached to some figures.

“When I first started sculpting, I didn’t like to give the figures hands because hands did bad things but my more recent sculptures have defined hands and you can see that their shoulders are no longer slumped and their legs are straighter.”

Daniels said it might be indicative of her own growing self-confidence as she has felt the strength of speaking out and the realisation that she can inspire others to do the same.

She wants to continue taking her girls on the road and sees possibilities for taking The Secret Keeper overseas.

“There has been quite a bit of international interest and I am quite blown away by how well my work has been received,” she said.

“If my work can lead to a safer world for my grandchildren to live in where there will no longer be stigma and silence then I feel compelled to keep going.”

Daniels is one of 100 Local Heroes nationally as part of the Kiwibank New Zealander of the Year Awards and the national winner will be announced in March next year.