The abusive behaviour survivors described was physical, sexual, psychological and emotional. It took a multitude of forms, including neglect, discrimination and bullying. In this section, we examine those various types of abuse, including how frequently the occurred and over what length of time.

Two points are worth bearing in mind while reading this section. First, survivors may not have reported their abuse, or reported it in full, because of factors such as their young age when abused or the deep trauma it caused. Second, different types of abuse can overlap. Physical abuse, for example, can have psychologically and emotionally abusive dimensions. Survivors may have been subjected to the first but not mentioned the second and third. Even so, it is more than likely they experienced all three.

Key insights:

• Physical and sexual abuse were the most commonly reported types of abuse. Forty survivors described physical abuse, 40 described sexual abuse involving contact, and 33 described both.
• Survivors also commonly reported neglect, psychological and emotional abuse, and bullying.
• Most Māori survivors experienced disconnection from their whānau, hapū, iwi, tikanga Māori and te reo Māori, which they regarded as a form of abuse
• Most Pacific survivors also experienced disconnection from their culture, which they too regarded as a form of abuse.
• Most survivors reported experiencing many forms of abuse, and only a rare few experienced just one form of abuse.
• Survivors described home lives and institutions where the environment was volatile and dominated by a culture of violence.
• Survivors commonly experienced abuse at numerous institutions from more than one person for lengthy periods of time.

Physical abuse

Forty of the 50 survivors reported physical abuse. They described, among other things, beatings, the threat of physical abuse (discussed more fully below), the forced taking of medication, and being dragged by the hair. Thirty of the 40 said they were beaten, making it the most common form of physical abuse they reported. Beating included being slapped, punched, kicked and hit with objects such as whips, belts, canes or convenient objects to hand such as kitchen utensils. Beatings happened in State and faith-based institutions.

Survivors commonly reported living in homes where the atmosphere was volatile and physical abuse a regular occurrence, only to be removed to institutions where they found the same volatility and violence. One survivor who experienced extreme physical and psychological abuse at home was removed to a State boys’ home where he encountered violence from staff and other boys. He felt his only option was to run away. He described how he took a car and drove it over a cliff in a suicide attempt. No one recognised his call for help or gave any support:

“I didn’t wanna live any more. I went over a cliff and smashed head-on into a bank. Again, if anybody just stopped and looked at why, they would have figured something out, but they didn’t. Instead, I got a boot up my arse, the strap, bashed, beaten, forced to do thousands and thousands of press-ups, running around with 44-gallon drums, locked under our arms.”

PETER, MĀORI, 50

Survivors frequently described institutions’ culture of violence, particularly in boys’ homes and psychiatric institutions, and this violence was meted out by staff and residents. In boys’ homes, physical abuse would typically include “welcoming parties” in which boys were beaten up on their first night, followed by regular and continuing physical abuse, and sometimes sexual abuse, too. Older boys or groups of boys often “dealt out” the former, a practice staff condoned or encouraged. Staff frequently delegated authority to senior boys, which enabled this practice to flourish.

In psychiatric institutions, survivors spoke of the forced taking of medication (tablets and injections), the threat of such forced medication, and the use of ECT without anaesthesia – all of which had a significant impact on survivors’ physical, psychological and emotional wellbeing. One openly gay woman was taken into a psychiatric institution in 1979 for “treatment”. She was 17 when given drugs and ECT:

“Sometimes I’d have shock treatment twice a day… the records [said] I went blind and then they gave me shock treatment again that night.”

ANNE, EUROPEAN, 66

Many survivors’ recollections of forced medication or ECT were also associated with physical and sexual abuse. Drugging residents and extensive use of ECT also made it difficult for individuals to disclose their abuse to anyone because it left their minds “groggy” or “destroyed”:

“I was bedridden ’cos I was so sick. They never gave me the eighth treatment, that last treatment … It was too risky for them to give me another treatment ’cos I could’ve died. People did die from it.”

RHONDA, EUROPEAN, 63

Sexual abuse

Forty survivors mentioned sexual abuse, which, for the purposes of this analysis, includes sexual abuse involving bodily contact (such as rape, masturbation and fondling) and without bodily contact (such as grooming, sexual harassment and threats of sexual abuse). The former (with contact) was more common, and most who experienced this type were raped. Other forms of sexual abuse included fondling, oral sex, masturbation, penetration (sometimes with an object) and forced examination of genitals. Survivors were either forced to perform these sexual acts on someone and/or someone performed these acts on them. One survivor recalled being raped in a faith-based institution:

“And in that time I was raped by the priest there. He had a room, I think, a corner of the vestry. They have a little room where they change and where, you know, and remember him saying he had to cleanse my body after I told him of my rape by [perpetrator]. And they gave, ‘Just shut up and God will sort it’. I remember that word.”

MARK, EUROPEAN, 71

Many survivors described frequent instances of sexual abuse from numerous carers or people associated with carers (such as friends and family members). Some said they were made a ward of the State and placed in the care of a family member, such as an aunt or grandmother, where they were sexually abused by uncles, aunts, cousins or even older children either living there or known to someone living there.

Sexual abuse happened in foster and adoptive homes, State institutions and faith- based institutions. One woman described how she was moved from family member to family member, and from care home to care home, from a very early age. In one, a faith-based institution, she experienced physical, sexual, psychological and emotional abuse. She and her brother ran away. At nine, she was placed in a foster home, which she said felt like she was with a kind family – until the father started regularly raping her:

“I thought I’d met some really kind people … And the dad started raping me, and it never stopped even when I complained. I told my mum. I wrote a letter to [name], who was in charge of Social Welfare. They came, the newspaper, and told everybody I was telling lies … My mum didn’t believe me and said I was making up stories because I wanted to get away ... When they left, he carried on raping me and wouldn’t stop.”

NICOLA, MĀORI, 60

Survivors commonly reported that staff in State and faith- based institutions would take advantage of their authority over them to sexually abuse them. The abuse was accompanied by threats of being moved to another home, loss of privileges or other punishments if an individual did not comply.

A survivor at a boys’ home in the 1970s said he was told:

“You won’t be going to the pictures unless you let me get my way with you … It was quite known because I’m not the first one that made complaints … And if any accusations about them are made to other wardens, you’re then classified as being a disruptive person and then you’re placed in [an]other boys’ home.”

NICHOLAS, EUROPEAN, 60

Survivors in psychiatric institutions described frequent sexual abuse, including rape or sexual assault by psychiatrists and nurses. Often, after being forced to take medication, including by being held down and given injections, they would regain consciousness to find people sexually assaulting them. Some survivors said female patients were regularly brought to male areas of an institution where they were restrained and/ or drugged and raped by male staff. Sometimes male patients were encouraged or forced to rape them as well.

Survivors also reported sexual abuse during transitions between institutions and in short-stay facilities. Some would seize the chance during these transitions or short stays to disclose their sexual abuse. Rather than offer support and report the matter, however, some carers or guardians would take the opportunity to sexually abuse them. In faith-based institutions, perpetrators sometimes did this under the guise of a medical examination or “cleansing of the body”. Places with examination rooms or washing facilities in a private area or office increased the opportunities for such abuse.

Survivors described how the first sexual abuse opened the floodgate for other abusers:

“Once you’ve been raped like that, you’re open to other predators because the fence has been broken. You don’t know it’s broken but the predators can see that it’s broken and they walk in.”

RHONDA, EUROPEAN, 63

Non-contact sexual abuse described by survivors included being naked in front of others, being exposed to an adult engaging in a sexual activity such as masturbating, witnessing the sexual abuse of others, and grooming. One survivor described both being stripped naked and forcibly examined:

“I felt very belittled, because they stripped us down to nothing. We were tested for sexual diseases with the guy, the doctor standing there and grabbing your personal parts and testing you for sexual disease, which I couldn’t understand at such a young age. Not only being stripped down. Then they were checking for drugs in private places again, I mean I’m only 12, turning 13. And I couldn’t understand what for. They really make you feel like a criminal straight off the bat.”

JOHN, MĀORI-EUROPEAN, 52

Neglect, psychological and emotional abuse and bullying

Stories of neglect, psychological and emotional abuse, and bullying were common. Neglect was physical, psychological, emotional, and educational.

Examples included a failure to receive shoes or suitable clothing in winter, a lack of food, removal of bedding, being forced to sleep outside, or being kept home from school without a valid reason.

Neglect occurred in foster care, adoptive homes and State and faith-based institutions. The following survivors were in the care of adoptive or foster parents:

“All the receipts would have been handed in … But the clothing or whatever they’d bought was handed to somebody else, same with the pocket money, never saw that, yet we were always promised this would be part of it.”

JOHN, MĀORI-EUROPEAN, 52

“I always remember the second family that was in the same home that I was in before, because they would eat inside and sometimes, we were told to eat outside because we weren’t part of the family [crying].”

ROBIN, PACIFIC, 32

Neglect of education was particularly prevalent among survivors in State institutions. Instead, survivors were told to finish chores or do other labour- based activities:

“When I was in this care, my education just went from A down to D. When I was in [institution’s name], although they had a school there, I was taken from that school to go out and make boxes.”

BRIAN, EUROPEAN, 68

Psychological and emotional abuse was a significant component of abuse, both in homes and institutions. This form of abuse often involved instilling fear in victims and asserting power and control over victims. The following illustrates psychological and emotional abuse at a boys’ home:

“Other kids would hang themselves or kill themselves and one of the other boys would find them. And then we’d hear the scream echo through and knew what had happened, and that’s just a scream you never forget. It’s just ... I never actually found one myself, but then the staff used to take you along and show you the body and tell you that this is what happens to the weak.”

DARREN, UNDISCLOSED ETHNICITY, 56

Psychological and emotional abuse often went hand in hand with humiliation. Survivors described being stripped naked and having their genitals examined – a form of physical and sexual abuse, too. Survivors often described feeling belittled, humiliated and confused by what was happening to them. Many noted the huge psychological and emotional reverberations of such experiences, both at the time and over the long term.

Survivors frequently experienced bullying, which was closely connected to physical, sexual, psychological and emotional abuse. They commonly connected the experience with a sense that “no one wanted them”:

“I was getting beaten up by my teachers because they reckoned I was a dummy and I was a criminal. And they go to me, “That’s why – that’s why you’re put in foster care, because nobody wants you.”

HEATH, MĀORI, 45

Bullying also took the form of being singled out by teachers for humiliation in front of the class, being teased for having a medical condition such as seizures, and being tormented about one’s sexuality.

Witnessing abuse of others

Almost half of survivors described witnessing the abuse of others, whether of siblings or peers. This happened in foster homes, adoptive homes and State and faith-based institutions:

“Imagine judging your carer’s mood by how much milk he put in his whisky and then knowing what was coming, watching your sister being thrown across the room and then going to sit on [name’s] knee trying to keep him sweet so you wouldn’t be next.”

TANIA, EUROPEAN, 57

Survivors found it distressing to watch the abuse of others, and some tried to protect siblings or peers from perpetrators. The usual result was to be themselves abused or restrained in some way. One survivor in a psychiatric hospital described how he tried to stop the sexual abuse of girls there:

“They were crying, but they couldn’t fight back. I mean, even ourselves, a couple of times, I got up and tried to pull people out of the way, to try and help them and we were just punished. You were given a swift kick in the backside and told to sit down or have a piece of string tied around your private parts and tied to a chair so you couldn’t move.”

BRIAN, EUROPEAN, 68

Abuse related to ethnicity and cultural identity

Māori and Pacific survivors frequently described abuse they were subjected to because of their ethnicity or cultural identity. A Māori woman in a faith-based institution said nuns physically abused her because she could not speak English well. A few survivors described physical abuse to “cleanse” them of their cultural identity. This happened mainly in faith-based institutions or at the hands of religious carers:

“I remember being taken to church and having hands laid on me to get rid of Māori spirits. I was educated very much that Māori were – they talked to the dead and were quite evil, all those types of things that happened in that setting.”

SARAH, MĀORI, 49

Māori survivors frequently spoke of being  removed from their whānau, hapū, iwi. Pacific survivors also spoke of being removed from their birth family. Carers told them they were of another ethnicity, and discouraged them from connecting with their cultural identity. One survivor who was in a children’s home in her mid- teens described the regular discrimination she experienced by virtue of being Māori. She was referred to as dumb, discouraged from going to school and forbidden to engage with tikanga Māori:

“They would say things like, ‘You’re not going to make this place look like a bloody marae, you Māoris’ and really dismissive and disdainful comments about us as Māori.”

SARAH, MĀORI, 49

Māori survivors described a feeling of location disconnection from their whānau, hapū, iwi, tikanga Māori and te reo Māori, which eroded their sense of self-worth. Pacific survivors also described feeling disconnected from their culture. But some Māori and Pacific survivors also described the healing power of their eventual reconnection with their cultural identity. Sometimes, perpetrators from their own ethnicity carried out the abuse, making it harder for survivors to value and identify with their cultural identity because of that experience.

Forms of abuse

Nearly all survivors described forms of abuse in which it was difficult to untangle one from another, especially when overlaid with psychological and emotional abuse, neglect or bullying (typically as a way of gaining control over individuals). Sometimes, perpetrators gave survivors alcohol or drugs, making it difficult for them to recall specific details of abuse – although they would invariably recall waking up feeling sore. The following from a man in a psychiatric hospital in 1974 highlights the frequent overlapping forms of abuse:

“They locked me up in pyjamas for a whole month. But in that whole month they didn’t give us food. Well, they gave us food, but they threw it in the door. You know, anybody who’s in solitary, that’s how they used to do it. ‘Oh, we’ll just throw it in the door, they’re animals anyway.” We slept on the floor. I used to have to sleep on the floor, no blanket. That’s how vicious they could get with you. And they didn’t care. We were just, like I said, their property.”

TERRY, UNDISCLOSED ETHNICITY, 64

Duration and frequency of abuse

By analysing the transcripts, we tried to work out the period of time over which the abuse lasted (duration) and how often the abuse happened (frequency). Survivors, however, seldom spoke in such precise terms. Some survivors gave numerical estimates of either the number of incidents of abuse or the number of years during which it occurred, but many others did not. The latter used descriptive terms such as “relentless”, “ongoing” and “part of everyday life” that, although less precise, conveyed in many ways a more vivid picture of the abuse they experienced.

Key insights:

• Abuse took place from the 1960s to the early 2000s.
• The peak of the abuse reporting was the 1970s and 1980s.
• Most survivors were abused between the ages of five and 17, although the range was from nine months to age 20.
• Survivors were repeatedly abused in many placements and settings, making it difficult for many to recall their exact age when abused.
• Most survivors were abused over a period of five to 10 years.

When abuse occurred

Fourteen survivors mentioned the years when abuse happened. These references ranged from the 1960s to the early 2000s. They mentioned the 1970s and 1980s most frequently. Abuse may have taken place in other decades because nearly three- quarters of survivors made no reference to years.

Age when abused

Survivors were, however, more likely to remember their age when abuse occurred than the years when it occurred. Thirty-three remembered their approximate age at the time, although some found it hard to remember their exact age when the abuse began, especially if very young at the time.

Most were abused between the ages of five and 17, with the abuse continuing into the mid to late-teens. The peak period was between 10 and 13. One was as old as 20 and one as young as nine months. In the latter case, the individual’s memory was aided by records.

Repeated abuse in many placements and settings made it difficult for many survivors to recall their exact age when abused. The following survivor, who was in faith-based institutions and subjected to physical and sexual abuse by numerous perpetrators, illustrates this point:

“I think I was around 13-year- old when I started … I’m having a bit of a brain fog at the moment ... while being a student at [faith-based institution] I was sexually abused and physically abused and subjected to a lot of bullying – from students and from staff.”

DANIEL, MĀORI, 35

Duration and frequency of abuse

Every survivor bar one described repeated instances of abuse, the exception recalling just a single instance of abuse. Seventeen mentioned the specific duration of their abuse. Some of these 17 were abused over very long periods – between five and 10 years. For some, the abuse exceeded 10 years. Some were abused for about six months, and some for about a year.

The 33 who made no mention of the duration of the abuse were probably abused over quite lengthy periods, given the repeated abuse in many forms described by other survivors.

Most survivors said they were regularly abused. Some mentioned a specific frequency, such as being sexually abused on a weekly basis. Many found it hard to recall the frequency of the abuse because it was so sustained.

Abuse was so common in many care contexts that survivors frequently witnessed the abuse of others, which is a form of abuse in itself. One survivor described how, as an eight-year-old, he and others regularly witnessed abuse in a children’s home:

“Looking at it now, it was probably isolated cases but there’s 16 of us so if I’m not getting the bash, someone else is getting it, you know what I’m saying. So to me, it was like regular because if it’s not you it’s someone else and you always see [the abuse].”

MATTHEW, MĀORI-PACIFIC-EUROPEAN, 52

Perpetrators

Survivors said perpetrators included:

• foster and/or adoptive parents, who were sometimes members of an individual’s birth family
• other family members, whether by birth, fostering or adoption
• staff at institutions, such as housemasters, guards, teachers, priests, psychiatrists, nurses and police officers
• peers at institutions.

Survivors named or were able to give the gender, ethnicity and role of 84 perpetrators. Fifty-two were male (or assumed male), 16 were female (or assumed female), and 16 were of unknown or unstated gender. Survivors identified 42 more perpetrators whose name, gender and role they could not recall. In 10 instances, survivors identified types of perpetrators, such as teachers, security guards, peers or staff, rather than individual perpetrators, so the overall number of perpetrators identified was considerably more than 126 perpetrators who abused them.

Survivors in foster and/or adoptive homes described abuse from foster or adoptive parents. Some suffered abuse at the hands of foster siblings, too. Most involved sexual abuse by a foster brother, although one survivor described how a foster sister sexually abused her and her brother. Sometimes members of a survivor’s family, such as grandparents, were the foster and adoptive parents. These primary carers would often abuse them, as would other relatives such as uncles, aunts or cousins.

Survivors frequently described perpetrators, such as housemasters, priests, teachers, and nurses, abusing them in a multitude of ways. One described physical abuse by police officers after being picked up for running away from a boys’ home. He felt their authority and standing enabled them to carry out such abuse. Another survivor echoed the same sentiment about the power and control of perpetrators in institutions:

“I was then sent back to [name’s] house where he continued to rape me against my will, but was told I’m a ward of the state and I do what he says and Welfare just didn’t listen to me, so he got away with it."

MARK, EUROPEAN, 71

Survivors said peers were encouraged or forced to abuse others. This took various forms, including “institutional traditions” such as “welcome parties”, where newcomers were beaten by peers on their first night, as well as the group- rape of individuals by peers and staff, and the encouragement of senior boys to use their authority to abuse others. This culture was particularly evident in boys’ homes where punishing peers and fighting with peers was entertainment:

“The boys that ran away were placed at the end of the gym and we all had to go and put a boot or punch, even though you may not want to do it. We had no choice, we felt like we didn’t have a choice at all. If we didn’t do it you can imagine how it looks, not only to the boys, but to the guards.”

JOHN, MĀORI-EUROPEAN, 52

Survivors in psychiatric institutions spoke of how those charged with providing medical and psychiatric care were the abusers. They said psychiatrists and nurses enforced unwarranted medical treatments such as ECT or administered unwarranted drugs. These resulted in drowsiness or “brain fog”. Survivors described extensive physical, sexual, psychological and emotional abuse and neglect at these institutions. They said the culture of abuse was strong in these institutions. Many staff were involved, and those who weren’t, including other staff and managers, did nothing to stop it.

Next: Causes and contributing factors