Gwyneth Beard, also known as Piwi is 59 and went into care from the age of 11.
Gwyneth Beard.
Photo: RNZ
Most of the time was spent at the Strathmore Girls Home in Christchurch, but she also spent some time in the Kingslea Home in the same city and a short time at Weymouth in Auckland.
She ended up in care after running away from home.
She describes her time in the secure unit at Strathmore as incarceration. It was like I have been locked up. I was only a child. I look out at my mokos now and wonder if anyone locked my mokos up at that age. There s no nationality behind it, that you should be locking children up.
Warning: This story discusses graphic details of sexual violence.
A woman who was raped by a welfare home staff member and became pregnant has outlined her ordeal before the inquiry into abuse in care.
Neta Kerepeti.
Photo: RNZ
The 59-year-old was first sexually abused by her father when she was about 7.
She came to the attention of the Social Welfare Department at 12 years old.
On one occasion after running away she was picked up by a police officer and raped.
Her ordeal continued in the first foster home she stayed in and then at the Bollard Girls Home.
The first humiliation was the mandatory internal examination by a doctor checking for sexually transmitted diseases.
Photo: RNZ / Patrice Allen
Known to the Royal Commission as Ms T, she was physically and sexually abused by her father.
Ms T told the inquiry that her father started sexually abusing her at the age of 4 or 5. In later life she discovered he had been abusing her other siblings as well.
At the age of 13, she ran away and told Social Welfare about what was happening at home.
She spoke to a woman at the Lower Hutt office. She wouldn t have a bar of it, she wouldn t listen to me, she told me to get the hell out. She said I was a liar.
Warning: Graphic content in this story might be distressing to some readers.
Locked in cells, physically, sexually and emotionally abused: a man tells the Royal Commission of Inquiry about his life in state care from ages nine to 15.
Kohitere Boy s Training Centre in Levin was one of the main welfare institutions that has been the subject of complaints.
Photo: Aaron Smale/RNZ
A Samoan man, X, 63, has given evidence to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care at its hearing in Auckland this week focusing on abuse and neglect of children in residences run by the state, such as homes for boys and girls, and in family homes where children were fostered.
Data released to RNZ s
Checkpoint under the Official Information Act showed the rate of anti-depressants prescribed to Māori, and Pasifika was up to 34 times less than other ethnicities.
That was despite Māori and Pasifika having higher rates of mental health difficulties.
The data from the Ministry of Health looked at the number of anti-depressants prescribed from 2017-2020.
On average other ethnicities were given antidepressants at eight times the rate of Māori, 34 times the rate of Pasifika and 16 times the rate of Asians.
That was despite research which showed one in three Māori, and one in four Pacific people experienced mental illness compared to one in five for the total population according to the latest mental health report from 2018.