Abuse in Care inquiry: Foster father shot at, beat and whipped survivor
Saturday, 11 June 2022
A man who was the target of daily abuse and death threats in foster care said improvements needed to be made to the foster system to ensure children’s safety .
The whānau of Hemi McCallum spoke on Monday, on the first day of a week-long inquiry, by the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State Care, into the treatment of survivors in the foster care system from 1950 to 1999.
McCallum died in March, and his statement was read by his niece, Tania.
McCallum (Ngāi Tahu, Ngāpuhi) said the state took him from home at the age of two, due to his “Once Were Warriors” life at home.
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“My father was very violent towards my mother and my siblings, but he never touched me,” he wrote.
While the first families he lived with were not abusive, that all changed in 1969, when he was moved to a family in Southland. The abuse continued until he was removed urgently by a social worker in 1973.
The foster father beat him regularly and daily with fists, steel cap boots, hunks of steel, pipes, straps, vacuum cleaner rods and dog collars, the inquiry heard. He also shot at him with firearms to scare him. All this added to the idea that he could, or would eventually kill him.
He also made McCallum watch as he abused and killed animals on the property.
“A lot of people knew about my foster father. If an animal came onto our property he would take it over to their house, knock on their door and slit the animal’s throat. So when they opened the door, they would find that their beloved pet had been killed.”
“He would never use my name, he would always call me the c word, or black ass. Not being called my name added to the feeling of being worthless. My frame of mind while living there was one of terror,” he said.
After leaving foster care at 15, his transition into adulthood was plagued by violence, alcohol and prison stints.
McCallum decided to turn his life around while in prison, and completed stopping violence programmes. He became a successful self-employed painter for years, meeting and working with “successful and nice people”. He stopped working after a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer.
“The impact on me of being placed with abusive foster parents as a nine-year-old was devastating,” he wrote.
McCallum said while he understood why he had to be removed from home, the impact it had on him was significant.
“To take someone off their mother, as bad as my home situation was, is like taking a kid’s heart and throwing it out the car window, and letting trucks drive over it.”
McCallum said while he lived in a loving and caring family after he was removed, the influence of the abuse he received from his foster father was significant.
“My learning through my formative years at the foster home was the daily violence inflicted on me, fear of death, threats, abuse and neglect. It was what I carried through my relationship with women. I drank a lot for a long time and that only made things worse.”
The hearings continue until June 17.