Gloriavale Christian Community on the West Coast, taken when it was visited by the Employment Court's chief judge on 25 February 2023. Photo: RNZ / Jean Edwards
On a winter morning six years ago to the day, Anna Courage left Gloriavale, packed off to Australia and a totally foreign world. At 17 and deeply unhappy, the Christian community's leaders sent her to live with grandparents she had never met.
"It was my first time on a plane, first time in a different country, first time in an airport. It was 12 hours of constant firsts just bombarding me in the face," she said.
Courage returned to New Zealand three months later and settled in Timaru, from where she is leading legal efforts to compensate leavers who say they were exploited and treated like slaves.
She is one of four former members who have filed a multimillion-dollar class action lawsuit against Gloriavale and five government agencies, claiming they were held as slaves from birth by the community's leaders.
Anna Courage, Pearl Valor, Gideon Benjamin and Hosea Courage are also seeking a High Court declaration the government has breached international treaties by failing to protect girls and boys from the worst forms of child labour, according to a statement of claim obtained by RNZ.
Representing other Gloriavale leavers, the four plaintiffs are each seeking damages of $2.5 million.
Anna Courage worked with her mother in Gloriavale's kitchen from the age of about six, and began working full-time on the domestic teams when she left school at 15.
"There was always work to do, it just never, ever stopped. There were never enough people to do it. My entire life, I was conditioned to think this is how the world works," she said.
Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon
Courage said she had no choice in life and was taught she would not exist without Gloriavale.
"As a child I had no bodily autonomy. As soon as I was born, I was Gloriavale's property," she said. "If you only exist because of the community, you are the community's property. The community then owns you."
The statement of claim said Gloriavale's founding document What We Believe and the Declaration of Commitment signed by the plaintiffs' parents were "instruments of slavery" for anyone born into the isolated West Coast community.
Leaders' "absolute control" of community members resulted in a "master/slave" relationship, in which they were held as property and deprived of free will, the document said.
Courage was one of nine former Gloriavale members found to have been community employees, rather than volunteers, in two landmark Employment Court cases.
She told the court she did gruelling work, once fell asleep at an ironing board and burnt her arm, and described exhausted overworked girls on the teams as "zombies".
'It's not going to stop'
Courage now wants Gloriavale shut down.
"You have people in there with sexual abuse charges against them, people who are physically abusing children, children who are working, they don't have the right medical care. People are overworked and starving," she said.
"It's not going to stop unless it's shut down. The leaders are still in control of Gloriavale, they're still controlling those people. If the government isn't going to step up and do their job, we're going to make them. We are going to push this, we are going to get results."
The leavers were suing the attorney-general on behalf of the Ministries of Social Development, Business, Innovation and Employment and Education, Department of Internal Affairs and Oranga Tamariki, as well as Gloriavale's overseeing shepherd, seven other senior leaders, and the trust behind Gloriavale, the Christian Church Community Trust.
The statement of claim said New Zealand was a signatory to two International Labour Organisation (ILO) conventions and a protocol obliging the country to stamp out forced labour and the worst forms of child labour, including slavery, and to ensure victims had access to remedies such as compensation.
In addition to a High Court declaration that they were held as slaves from birth by Gloriavale's leaders, the former members also sought a declaration that the government had breached the ILO treaties, and that the Christian Church Community Trust should not be registered as a charitable trust.
Liz Gregory. Photo:
Gloriavale Leavers' Support Trust manager Liz Gregory said the class action could affect more than 700 people.
"This is actually about love, it has never been about money. They are looking to free their families who are still in there."
Gregory said she was waiting for the outcome of a police investigation into allegations of forced labour, slavery and servitude at Gloriavale.
"How long do you leave people sitting in slavery, unable to make decisions, restrictions of movement, communication, freedom of thought? There have been no charges laid and people are still sitting there asking us, 'When are you going to help free us?'"
Gloriavale, minister decline to comment
A Gloriavale spokesman said the community was aware of the legal proceedings but it was too early to comment.
Gloriavale has previously said the community has always worked to comply with New Zealand law and denied members were employees, rather than volunteers.
Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden said it was not appropriate to comment because the matter was before the courts.
The fresh legal proceedings follow separate High Court action alleging five government agencies knowingly allowed abuse to happen at Gloriavale.