Source: Radio New Zealand
At age 14, Valiant Overcomer climbed into the back of a truck as it drove out of Gloriavale towards what he believed could be hell.
The Christian community, on the West Coast of Te Wai Pounamu, was the only place he’d known. Gloriavale, he’d grown up to believe, was the only path to salvation.
And yet he’d decided to leave, alongside two of his sisters. Coming from one of only a handful of whānau Māori in the community, he’d had enough.
“We’d made this decision … [we] would rather go to hell than be in there at this point in time,” Valiant says.
Valiant Overcomer was born at Gloriavale but fled the community as a teen. Mata Reports
Eleven years after that dramatic departure, Valiant has spoken to Mata Reports about his life in the community, as well as some racist attitudes and psychological tactics he endured.
However, he is using his voice not in anger, but with compassion and consideration for the community he still feels connected to.
He still has aroha for the people there. “Absolutely, they’re my people,” he says.
And he still believes the community has a future.
While changes need to be made to address problems, including sexual abuse, Valiant says it needs to come from inside Gloriavale.
Government agency-led impositions won’t work, he believes.
“When I look at history, I don’t know if I’ve found a system that has been destroyed from the outside, so to change it must change from within.
“We have to surrender to the fact that we’ve gotten something wrong here along the way and … we need to make dramatic change.”
Gloriavale was the only path to salvation, Valiant was raised to believe. Mata Reports
He believes a tikanga Māori approach may be a way forward. “It’s a safe option for people, both in there and [for] people that would like to live there.”
Mata Reports approached Gloriavale for comment, but a community spokesperson said they were unable to respond before deadline.
Valiant was born at Gloriavale, the ninth of 12 siblings to a Ngāi Tahu mother and Pākehā father.
He says he remembers how Hopeful Christian, the late, disgraced founder of Gloriavale, would treat Māori members of the community differently to Pākehā.
“He was putting us on a level below him, or below white people,” says Valiant. “We were getting the message that we’re second class citizens.”
Despite that attitude, he and other family members were able to thrive in some ways.
As a teenager, he’d achieved NCEA level 1, 2 and 3 and was working on the community farm. “At 14, I can run a small dairy farm, I can build a shed, I can drive a tractor … I can slaughter an animal from pasture to plate.”
Meanwhile, one of his brothers, Elijah, was being singled out for a leadership position. However, things began to unravel when Elijah started to raise questions over abuse within the community.
Eventually, he and his wife Rosie left. Under the rules in place at the time, that meant they were effectively disconnected from their whānau and banned from coming back.
Mata Reports
Around the same time, Valiant says he too started to become uncomfortable about some of the practices in the community.
Senior leaders, known as the shepherds and servants, would enter as of right the private accommodation spaces of whānau, including his own. He started to think: “Why do they have that right?”
And then there would be meetings he would see his siblings called to, in front of shepherds and servants.
“They would come out … three, four hours later, and they’re just distraught. You can see them going through this process of trauma.”
His tipping point came one day when he was in one such meeting with two sisters. He says they were being made to feel “extremely small” and subjected to “manipulative treatment”.
But then one of his older sisters entered the room and told the leaders that their brother who had left, Elijah, had arrived at the community, even though he wasn’t allowed to.
Valiant and the sisters he was in the meeting room with left to go and see Elijah who was being surrounded and told “we don’t want you here, you need to leave”.
Valiant started to cry and told him about the meeting. Elijah told him to get in the back of the truck, and within 10 minutes they were leaving.
“Driving down that drive was probably one of the hardest and slowest drives I’ve ever been on. It was very emotional.”
After the turmoil of that day, life settled down as he initially moved in with Elijah and his family, and enrolled in school.
“You need to start this whole process of living in the outside world.”
Mata Reports
Eventually, his whole whānau moved out of Gloriavale, strengthened by the aroha and kaha (love and strength) of their mother.
“She’s our unconditional love portal to our family … the backbone of our whānau.”
Now married, Valiant and his wife Jaegar have two tamāhine (daughters), and they live on a farm near Gloriavale’s property.
Another significant part of his life has been reconnecting with his iwi, Ngāi Tahu.
“In te ao Māori and te reo Māori and on this haereka (journey) … I’m starting to get closer to my life’s purpose.”
He feels a relationship with the whenua, including the land upon which Gloriavale stands, at Haupiri.
These days, the rules around former members have loosened up a bit. Valiant sometimes goes back to the community for work reasons – for instance getting farm machinery fixed.
“So that’s my relationship right now with Gloriavale, a working relationship.”
He hopes that a new way of thinking can take hold in the community, and that people will be allowed to have more freedom.
“It’s okay [to have] out of the box thinking. Me mau tonu ki tēnā – hold on to that … don’t let it be programmed out of you.”
Made with the help of Te Māngai Pāho & NZ on Air
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand