Executive summary

1. Te Whakapakari Youth Programme (Whakapakari) was started by John da Silva in 1977 on Aotea, Great Barrier Island funded by the department of Māori Affairs. Although he was not Māori, it was promoted as a Māori Outdoor Pursuit Programme Adventure using the environment and outdoor activities to de-programme youth from drug abuse, develop self-esteem and learn skills, Māoritanga and gain confidence.

2. It was a geographically isolated ‘boot camp’, with harsh conditions[1] that emphasised survival skills, military style discipline, subservience, self-sufficiency and hard physical labour. The young people on the programme endured what has been described as cruel and inhumane treatment.[2] This environment which permitted abuse to occur was not kaupapa Māori and placed rangatahi Māori at risk.

3. In 1989 John da Silva established the Whakapakari Youth Trust which in 1990 was approved by the Department of Social Welfare and its successors, and the Community Funding Agency, as an approved Child and Family Support Service under section 396 of the Children, Young Persons and Their Families Act 1989. It became a social welfare care and protection or youth justice sentencing option at a time when ‘boot camps’, including later discredited sentences such as Borstal and Corrective Training, were seen as the solution to criminal offending by young people.

4. Children and young people in the custody of the Director General of Social Welfare were sent there by social workers or sentenced by judges in the Youth Court. Many had significant emotional and psychological problems but were not assessed for their needs such as disability or neurodiversity. Staff estimated that 80 percent of them were Māori, 14 percent Pākehā, 5 percent Pacific Peoples and 1 percent ‘other’.’[3] Most were male but some were female. They were mostly aged between 14 and 16 years old but some were as young as 12 years old. They were sent to the programme for between one and six months. Although the young person or their guardian’s consent was required, this was not always obtained. Children and young people were housed in substandard tents, with long drop toilets and little or no hot water for bathing. The daily emphasis was on physically demanding work, such as chopping and moving firewood, hunting and gardening. [4] Supervisors had guns, ostensibly for hunting, but these were also used to instil discipline and, at times, to facilitate sexual assault.[5]

5. Survivors described extreme psychological, physical and sexual abuse at Whakapakari causing severe mental and physical pain. They were also physically, educationally and medically neglected. There is evidence to suggest physical and sexual abuse were used as punishment as well as to intimidate. Instead of being rehabilitated, survivors suffered immense harm from their experiences there. Its geographical isolation made it was almost impossible for children and young people to escape and difficult to alert their whānau or social worker to what was happening.

6. The State funded the programme until its closure in 2004 but failed to monitor it or to safeguard the children and young people in its care at Whakapakari. It failed to respond to the repeated disclosures of abuse by children and young people sent there.[6] There were numerous but inadequate investigations into complaints. Reports and recommendations to close or improve the programme were not acted on.[7] The State’s failure to respond to the allegations of abuse and its willingness to continue to support and fund the programme in the face of these reports meant that children and young people continued to be subjected to physical, psychological and sexual violence, including rape.[8]

7. Research demonstrates that ‘boot camps’ and other harsh ‘short sharp shock’ interventions for youth are ineffective at reducing repeat offending. In 1983, before Whakapakari was approved as a provider of State care, Department of Justice research found that 71 percent of young people reoffended within 12 months of release.[9] In 1988, reconviction rates of young offenders in these settings were 92 percent, the highest of any sentence in that year.[10] This was finally recognised by the Department of Child, Youth and Family in 2004 when it ceased funding of Te Whakapakari Youth Trust, citing research that ‘boot camp’ type environments do not effect positive change, especially to reduce reoffending.[11]

8. Survivors of Whakapakari suffer from long term conditions such as PTSD and terror of meeting their abusers. Many were dislocated from their families, whanau and communities. Almost all have experienced drug and alcohol addiction and every one of the survivors has been in prison since they attended the programme. Some survivors remain there to this day.

9. The former Minister of Child, Youth and Family, Hon Ruth Dyson, said in a televised article in 2017 exposing the failings of the boot camp at Whakapakari:[12]

“A lot of government money was put into that programme and in the end it resulted in the State funding violence and abuse towards children and young people. That’s how horrific it was.”

10. Oranga Tamariki told the Inquiry that enabling children and young people to go into a:

“residential care facility is sometimes referred to as a fully funded failure model”.[13]

Boot camps such as Te Whakapakari Youth Programme are extreme versions of this failure.

11. Young people were sent to Whakapakari to be ‘straightened out’. Instead, their lives were ruined from the abuse they suffered there.

Boot Camp

This name was gifted by survivors who were sentenced to boot camps and youth programmes of the 1990s.

Survivor acknowledgement

The Royal Commission thanks all survivors who so bravely shared their experiences of abuse and neglect in care. We also acknowledge those who were not able to come forward, for whatever reason, we send you aroha and understanding. Our hope is that this case study shines a light on your experiences and echoes your calls to ensure such atrocities are never allowed to happen again in Aotearoa.

Footnotes