Sister of woman abused in care institution wants acknowledgment

The sister of a woman abused for 44 years inside a home for intellectually disabled people says forgiveness can only come once the inhumanity of what her sibling faced is acknowledged.

Margaret Priest's sister, Irene, was at the Kimberley Centre, from age six to 48. Their parents had placed her there, under the impression that this would give her the education and care she needed.

Instead she was abused for most of her life. The progress she'd made as a child living at home quickly regressed over the years of institutional living.

"My anger will not go until I'm able to forgive, and I won't be able to forgive until there's an acknowledgement of the inhumanity towards Irene and others in her situation," Margaret said. "I weep for the fact that for 44 years she did not enjoy this right [of a happy life], the pain it has caused her, her parents and me.

Irene's story is being told now, by her older sister, as part of the ongoing Abuse in Care - Royal Commission of Inquiry. The next set of inquiry hearings opened in Auckland on Monday. Their focus over the next two weeks will be on those with disabilities, the deaf, and those with mental health issues who were commonly institutionalised up until the 1970s.

Families in the early part of the 20th century were frequently sold the idea that this was the best place for their disabled children. But Margaret says if her parents had known the reality of the "hellhole" her sister was placed in they would never have allowed it.

It wasn't till after their death that Margaret realised the full extent of the abuse her younger sister faced.

She describes her sister's life while at the school as devoid of love, or personal things.

"Most of the time the staff I met did not see my sister as a child who needed love and care," she said. "She did not have her teddy bear that she had taken with her."

She says her sister was given limited education, often restrained and put into seclusion, force-fed, over medicated and was repeatedly injured.

"I'm just grateful my parents aren't alive to have heard this," she said. "They didn't know...we had no idea at all."

She says her family was kept entirely out of the loop when it came to her sister's care. Taking her home was never seen as an option.

Counsel Assist Ruth Thomas says such institutions had "categorically failed" those people with disabilities repeatedly. She says in the early part of the 20th century there appeared to be a practice of eugenics that sought to prevent the "contamination of the gene pool" by segregating disabled children from mainstream society.

"The Department of Education was clear about the place of disabled children in its schools and in society at large, stating, and I'm using the language of the day, 'the ordinary community holds no place for the feeble-minded child.'"

And while New Zealand's gone through a process of de-institutionalisation she says issues remain. She says these stories being told here are particularly important at a time where the country is looking to transform the disability sector.

"It's really important for people to hear... for people to listen and to ensure that issues in the systems that we have investigated don't persist."

Irene is now being cared for in a home and by caregivers her older sister knows and trusts.

But Margaret is still fearful that could change at any time.

"I've spent my life fighting for Irene and I'm just tired. I'm really tired of fighting for New Zealand citizens to have happiness in their lives, and to be able to realise their potential."

It's her hope the Royal Commission of Inquiry will finally bring nationwide change, so that no-one else has to go through what her family, and thousands of others have.

"The true measure of society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members, and if we reflect on how how Irene and her fellow survivors have been treated we can't be very proud of it."

She says the only acceptable apology has to come not with words alone, but with real change.