Gloriavale women trapped in India still under investigation
A woman who is fighting for her sister trapped in Gloriavale’s Indian community without access to her passport says the battle is still a “work in progress”
Theophilia Pratt’s sister Precious is one of five women who were born in Gloriavale on the West Coast but who now live in the community set up in India in about 2009 by Hopeful Christian, founder of the West Coast sect.
For the documentary Escaping Utopia, Pratt travelled to visit her sister and six nieces and nephews and found poor conditions in the gated community. The New Zealand women had no access to their passports and some of their children had no birth certificates.
Police and Immigration New Zealand are investigating but have no update a year on about what, if any, action will be taken.
“It takes time to fully investigate a case and achieve an ideal conclusion. To protect the integrity of our processes, we are unable to provide further detail on any ongoing investigations,” Immigration NZ’s National Manager Immigration Investigations Jason Perry said.
Pratt said she was still fighting and human rights lawyer Deborah Manning was still working on it.
“At the moment there hasn’t been any process of bringing her back. It’s still a work in progress. It’s a slow process,” she said.
She said her niece – who clung to her before she left India – has become her “why” for continuing to fight to bring Precious and her children home.
“Leaving was very hard. It was hard knowing how they were living and they can’t just leave like I could leave,” Pratt said.
Pratt was told to leave Gloriavale because she would not sign a commitment document binding her to a life of arranged marriage without education or career opportunities.
Pratt, who was born Honey Faithful in the Gloriavale Christian Community on the West Coast, now has a degree in occupational therapy and lives with her partner Kevin in Auckland – something that would have been impossible if she had signed that piece of paper nine years ago.
Pratt has written about her experiences in a book, Unveiled, which will be launched on March 29 at Tūranga library in Christchurch.
Pratt said the launch would be an opportunity for people to hear about why she wrote the book and to ask questions.
“I think the process of writing my book was very therapeutic. To write things down helped me process things, at the same time it brought up triggers,” she said.
She said it had been a journey of healing since she was left at a bus stop in Greymouth aged 18 with only $200 and no idea how the outside world worked.
She caught the bus to Christchurch where she boarded a flight to Auckland, staying with old friends of her mother – who lived in Auckland until she joined the community at 17.
She said Gloriavale’s fear-based controlled environment was completely different to being in Auckland where she had so many choices and decisions to make.
The book was about abuse, she added, but it was also about everyday life in the community.
“People expected it to be really angry. I have got things in there that are very graphic but I write it in a way that it’s my life and it was shit but I also bring humour into it. There was a lot of little things I did to rebel like spitting into the leaders’ ice cream,” she said.
She said the book talked about mental health and the triumph of being able to get an education in university. The only educational opportunities for women in the community are midwifery or teaching.
She is now happily a homeowner with her partner Kevin and working as an occupational therapist for youth.