Tell Me About You: A life story approach to understanding disabled people's experiences in care (1950 - 1999)
Project Details
- completed
- 2022
- To learn more about this study, please contact:
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Assoc. Prof. Brigit Mirfin-Veitch
Kaiuruki Matua
Director
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About this Project
As part of the New Zealand Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care the DBI designed and conducted a research project that was inclusive of and accessible to people with a learning disability and neurodivergance.
Drawing on a long history of inclusive, narrative-based research, the DBI crafted an approach that supported people with a learning disability and neurodivergence to tell their stories of care in their own way. This included living in institutions, group homes, girls' and boys' homes, foster care and church-based homes or schools between 1950 and 1999.
Even though many people with a learning disability and neurodivergance lived in state care between 1950 and 1999, some were unaware the Royal Commission of Inquiry was happening, while others did not feel comfortable engageing with the Inquiry's processes. This research was designed to document their stories in their own words, so that the Royal Commission could draw on their experiences as evidence during the Inquiry.
This research contributed directly to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care in several ways. The report was presented and accepted as evidence at the Deaf and Disabled People Hearing and referenced in the final reports of the Inquiry. The findings have also been used to show what life was like for many people with a learning disability and neurodivergence who lived in care between 1950 and 1999. We have used what people told us about abuse and violence in the past to help disabled people and their family, whānu, aiga and close supporters, and disability services to understand how to recognise and respond to abuse that is happening now, and to help prevent it from happening in the future.
For this project, DBI story gatherers (researchers) worked with 15 storytellers (participants) to tell their stories. Some of the researchers identify as disabled, and others have worked with disabled people in research for many years. They come from a range of cultures, ages, gender identities, intersectionalities and backgrounds.
Project Outputs
Full Report
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Executive Summary
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"Happy Times"
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"One thing that I know Stand up for your rights"
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"I was only 9 years old"
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"I still have a fear of the dark"
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"It might be all houses there now"
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"She said things about my parents which were not good"
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"Two Brothers in State Care"
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"The Psychiatric hospital"
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"Freedom is Acceptance of who I am"
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"When I was Small"
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"I don't know how I got there"
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"I don't get locked up here"
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"I longed to be a Firefighter"
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"Father and Son"
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It might be all houses there now - Allan & Nathan
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One thing that I know stand up for your rights - Graham
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When I was 9 years old - Jabert
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When I was small - David
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Freedom is acceptance of who I am - Lusi
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Funders
This research was funded by the New Zealand Government.
