Four years of hell at the hands of his foster father. This is the evidence of a man, who is now deceased, which has been shared at the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care being held in Auckland.
Its focus this week is on state foster care.
Warning: This story contains details of abuse.
Photo: 123RF
Hemi McCallum was born in 1963 and died from pancreatic cancer in March 2022.
He was made a state ward at the age of two and moved from one foster home to another.
In 1973, at the age of nine, he went to a placement in Southland and for him it was the start of his worst nightmares.
He wrote his evidence before his death and it was read to the hearing by his niece, Tania Tonga.
"I would refer to my foster father as an alcoholic, gambling, nut case."
McCallum said he was hit regularly by his foster father.
"He would use his fists, kick me with steel-capped boots, hit me with hunks of steel, wood, chains, deer antlers, pipes, straps, the vacuum cleaner tube, and dog collars. Anything he could get his hands on.
"He would often hit me with objects on the legs, shoulders and collar. He would save my head for his feet and hands."
The beatings were on a daily basis.
"If he grew tired and was panting from beating me he would get his wife to beat me. If she was too tired or not around, he would get his daughter to beat me."
McCallum said he lived in fear of being killed by his foster father.
One time the man was showing off to a group of hunters and he and the family's son were down on a bank putting blocks up so he could fire at them.
"My foster farther was shooting them out of my hand from 300-yards away with his high-powered rifle.
"He would sometimes fire his shotgun at the ground near my feet. That was really very frightening and added to my belief that he would eventually kill me."
McCallum said he was a glorified slave for the family.
His regular day was getting up at 6am, lighting the coal range, cooking breakfast for them all. Afterwards he did the dishes, cleaned the house and then did his chores, which included feed numerous animals. That was before heading off to school.
After school, more chores like chopping wood.
"My chores were endless."
He also had to repair numerous bullet holes in the house caused by his foster father's violence towards him.
The foster father never called him by his name, always referring to him using the c-word, or blackarse.
"Not being called my name added to the feeling of being worthless. The verbal abuse was constant and being threatened with death happened on a regular basis.
"My right of mind while living there was one of terror."
He said while school was his sanctuary six hours a day, he could not think of concentrate because he was always worried about what was going to happen to him when he got home.
"Am I going to die today?"
His life was eventually saved by a social worker who visited the home and saw for herself what was going on.
After she spoke to the foster father, something set him off against the boy, right in front of her.
The foster father leaped up, swearing and threatening to kill the boy.
"She jumped in and intervened. She stood in front of me to protect me and tried to calm things down. Then she got me in her car and we left."
McCallum was then placed with a family and spent a happy time with them for three years, but later, as an adult, his life went off the rails due to alcohol and violence.
This he attribute to the four violent years in that one earlier foster home.
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