Like many New Zealanders, Fergus Grady knew about the disturbing stories that were coming out of the Gloriavale Christian Community.
This secretive group, located in one of the most isolated parts of the country, has long made headlines there, with numerous allegations of abuse and exploitation surfacing in recent years.
But when Grady started to make a documentary about Gloriavale, he realised how little he actually knew.
"I didn't fully comprehend how brainwashed and how indoctrinated they were. [They were] in another world," he tells ABC RN's The Drawing Room.
"If they were born in the community, they had no concept of what was happening outside of the gates of the property, let alone any news or current affairs in the world."
The new film, called Gloriavale, co-directed by Grady and Noel Smyth, looks at life inside this closed community and what happens to those who leave or are forced out.
"Seeing … how they manipulated these people, and wasted or ruined a lot of lives was really difficult," Grady says.
And it's a story that begins with an Australian preacher.
'Hopeful Christian'
Peter Lineham is a religious historian and professor emeritus at New Zealand's Massey University, who has been observing Gloriavale since its earliest days.
Lineham is surprised that Gloriavale isn't better known in Australia, as it has Australian roots.
Mid-last century, an Australian evangelist named Neville Cooper travelled around his home country and New Zealand, sharing religious teachings.
In 1969, Cooper founded a Christian community in Springbank, near Christchurch, which Lineham says mixed "Pentecostal values of exuberant personal faith" and "total communal life".
According to material from Gloriavale, it would involve "sharing and caring for one another, while keeping separate from a world that was becoming more ungodly".
Along the way, Cooper decided to change his name to 'Hopeful Christian'. The rest of the community followed — changing their first and second names to biblical, aspirational terms (more recent examples include 'Charity Love' and 'Willing Disciple').
By the 1990s, the community had outgrown its Springbank property so it moved to the Haupiri Valley on the South Island's West Coast — which Grady describes as "one of the most isolated parts of New Zealand".
This new settlement was called Gloriavale, after the founder's late wife, Gloria.
But the group's early utopian vision didn't last, with ex-members now speaking out about a dark and exploitative existence inside the community.
ABC RN contacted Gloriavale for comment for this story, but the group did not directly answer a list of questions, instead pointing to its website for information.
A woman's life in Gloriavale
Today, around 600 people live in Gloriavale.
Nestled among picturesque mountains and waterways, it's almost entirely self-sufficient, with farms, hostel-like dwellings, a school and other community facilities.
Gloriavale is currently run by a small group of men called "Shepherds".
"The Shepherds exercise absolute autocracy over the community, they have final say in decisions about marriage, about dealing with church discipline and operating the financial aspects of the community," Lineham says.
There are strict gender roles — with a woman's life largely mapped out from birth.
Material from the community says: "Children are reared to serve God in stable families where husbands love their wives, wives obey their husbands, and children honour their parents."
According to Grady, women can "start their day anywhere from 3am to 6am, preparing the breakfast meal, and then throughout the day, they prepare meals, cook, clean, do the laundry".
But perhaps the most important role of women is growing the community.
Gloriavale material says: "As we trust God for our needs and do not practise birth control, a married couple may have 12 or more children. This natural increase helps us keep our living standards realistic and prevents us from becoming self-indulgent."
In the 1980s, the group decided to "standardise the type of clothing … to prevent the expression of vanity as much as possible", with men, women and children almost always wearing distinctive blue outfits.
The group claims that: "Since making the change we have found that the women are more content to all have the same standard."
'They live in fear'
The community has a history of sexual abuse — going all the way to the top.
"From the early 1990s, there were increasing stories about, perhaps, childhood marriages, or improper behaviours within the group, and this led to the prosecution of the leader," Lineham says.
In 1995, Neville Cooper/Hopeful Christian spent almost a year in prison on sexual abuse charges.
"On his release, he was reabsorbed, he went back into the leadership of the movement, and remained there until his death," Lineham says.
Neville Cooper/Hopeful Christian died in 2018, aged in his early 90s, with a New Zealand media outlet calling the Gloriavale founder and convicted sex offender "one of New Zealand's most controversial figures".
Police and the New Zealand government have investigated the community, with a number of sexual abuse cases going to court.
Stories of abuse at Gloriavale have also emerged in New Zealand's Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care, which was established in 2018.
"We heard countless stories of sexual abuse, and how family members wouldn't testify about their own daughters or siblings or cousins, or aunts or uncles, because they were just in fear. They live in fear," Grady says.
"They don't want to speak against the community that they've given everything to."
It's not just sexual abuse, with several other cases going to court.
Earlier this year, New Zealand's Employment Court ruled that a group of ex-members had been employees, not volunteers, meaning employment standards needed to be enforced.
The judge found the work undertaken by members of the group, since the age of six, was "strenuous, difficult and sometimes dangerous".
"This was extremely significant because it seemed to establish that people had grown up in the community and never had a chance to choose to work voluntarily," Lineham says.
With more people leaving Gloriavale, the Gloriavale Leavers' Support Trust was founded "to enable [leavers] to become independent and to integrate into local communities".
Millions of dollars
The Christian Church Community Trust, the trust behind Gloriavale, is a registered charity, which means it enjoys benefits like tax exemptions.
At the same time, the community's business ventures, such as dairy production, are making millions of dollars each year.
"In lots of ways, it's a really significant economy," Lineham says.
According to its latest annual return to Charities Services, the Christian Church Community Trust made a profit of around $NZ2.3 million ($2.1 million), with net assets of $NZ43.3 million.
In one of the ongoing legal cases, a court heard that Gloriavale received $NZ4.8 million in government funds in the 2021 financial year, such as $NZ2.3 million in 'Working for Families payments'.
A public apology
Recent developments triggered a public apology from Gloriavale leaders earlier this year, for "our role in failing to prevent and protect victims of labour exploitation and sexual abuse".
"Much has changed at Gloriavale since 2018 when, at the passing of our founder, the leadership mantle passed to a new leader. During this period we have revised our governance and charted new directions for our community," a letter from the leadership said.
"We are seeking to reach out to those no longer in our community and encouraging them, along with our current members, to speak to us openly if they have experienced harm in any way."
Regarding sexual abuse, it said, "we have put in place extensive measures to ensure such events cannot reoccur. This includes establishing a Child Protection Leads team that answers directly to Oranga Tamariki [New Zealand's Ministry for Children], led by a senior external adviser appointed by Oranga Tamariki".
An uncertain future
Lineham says he's "very cautious about guessing what's going to happen" at Gloriavale in the years ahead.
But he offers one observation.
"When Neville Cooper died [in 2018], there was an option of getting a new-look leadership. And they didn't choose to do that. They went for very traditional people within the community," he says.
"Of course, they have been shamed by what has been said about them … [and] at the evidence of [historical] sexual abuse, but generally, profound change requires profound change in leadership."
Harrowing but rewarding
Grady says the process of making the film, specifically reliving some of Gloriavale's darkest moments with members past and present, was a challenging one.
"We spent countless hours sitting down and going through their witness statements and their life, and recounting some of that trauma, which is harrowing," he says.
"But I think, having seen how strong and how beautifully their personalities have grown through the process, it's been a really rewarding project for everyone."
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