Kei aku nui, kei aku rahi, rarau mai ki te whare korero o te hui. Ko Mihingarangi tenei e mihi atu nei ki a koutou katoa. Welcome to The Hui ` Maori current affairs for all New Zealanders. E taro ake nei ` She was the girl with the taekwondo world at her feet,... - Each training ` it made me stronger. I just loved everything about it. - ...until the unthinkable happened. - He just kept making these noises, like grunting. He kept making thrusts on me. - We meet the brave 16-year-old speaking out against her coach and taekwondo master,... - I put my full trust in him. My family put my full trust in him. Everybody did. -... and learn how she found the strength to reveal the truth. - I think it was my ancestors, my tupuna, you know? I just heard a voice saying, (SNIFFS) 'It's time to let go. It's time to say it'. Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. www.able.co.nz Copyright Able 2020 Karahuihui mai. Later in the show, we'll be speaking to the Maori Party's new MP, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. Engari matua ra i tenei ata, the identity of a 59-year-old taekwondo master found guilty of abusing a 13-year-old student has been shrouded in secrecy for two years. But in June 2020, Andrew Salton lost his appeal for name suppression. Now the heroic young woman who exposed his abuse has applied to the court to have her name suppression lifted. She's done so in the hope it will encourage other rangatahi to speak out against sexual abuse. Her name is Janae Whakarau, and this is her story. And a warning ` it contains content that some viewers may find disturbing. (ETHEREAL MUSIC) - When I stepped into Taekwondo, I really felt the family vibe. I really liked the disciplines that we did, like breaking boards. That was my favourite. I loved it. Each training, it made me stronger. I just loved everything about it. We have to call our instructor master, if they are master, or sir. We can't just say their names at all. We have to say, sir or master. (GRUNTS) - Janae Whakarau started taekwondo at 9 years old, and by 16, was the world's number one power breaker. - It feels so cool. It feels really cool. Like, World Champs in Germany, when I realised I won the gold, it was indescribable really. It was so nice. And going up that podium with my flag around me and then putting the medal around my neck ` it just felt really cool. And then hearing the national anthem go on ` it was really cool. - The black belt was at the pinnacle of her fighting career, Bringing home two gold medals from the World Championships in Germany last year, adding to her already impressive collection. Taekwondo was a family affair. Her six sisters and their mum, Corrina, had all been part of the Shannon Taekwondo Club over the last decade. - Having girls, so many girls, for me it was a requirement to get them into self-defence. Learn to keep themselves safe. So we decided that taekwondo was the place to go. - And they'd all been students of this man ` taekwondo master Andrew Salton. A veteran of the martial art and an internationally renowned trainer who'd reached one of the highest levels, 7th dan. Just 2 belts under the most esteemed position of grandmaster. - He was like a second father. He was always supportive. He always helped me with things I needed to improve. To me he was a good guy. I didn't think any bad of him at all. No one did. - The married father-of-two was welcomed into the large and loving Whakarau whanau. - You know, we invited him into our home. You know, he even come along to one of our girls' 21sts. - Wedding. - Wedding ` yeah. He was` - Out to dinner. - He was part of the whanau. - And once he was in, he worked to gain more access to Janae, who would ultimately become his victim. - We couldn't afford to go away on tournaments and things like that with all of us. So he would go, 'Well, I've got to go because I'm their instructor'. So he goes, 'They can come with me'. - But the dedication to his star student was just a ruse. Behind closed doors, Salton's private lessons with Janae were taking a sinister turn. - I think it started when I was 13, and I said to him, 'Oh, why do we need to do massaging for?' And then that's when he said, 'Because you'll seize up if we don't massage you. You need to recover.' And I was young, so I was like, 'Oh, OK. Yeah, that's fine'. I didn't think anything, you know, of it. - Did it feel a bit weird? - It did. He started massaging on the legs, and just the calf area. And I saw him, what he was doing, so I was like, 'OK, this is fine'. - And you trusted him? - Yeah, I did. I put my full trust in him; my family put my full trust in him. Everybody did. - The unwanted massages became increasingly intrusive. - He always pulled down my shorts very low. And he always rubbed down the pubic area. And I said to him, 'Why do you need to rub down the pubic area?' And he was like, 'because it is connected to your hips'. Like, all these medical procedures that didn't make any sense to me. But, because I was young, it just went out of my mind. I was like, 'OK, yip, sweet'. - And you let it go? - Yeah, and I let it go. I felt uncomfortable, but I just had to, you know, think it's fine,... - Mm. - ...he knows what he's doing. Every time when Mum picked me up, he would run over to Mum and then he would say, 'I massaged Janae's calves'. And Mum was like, 'OK, sweet'. But I was looking at Mum, and I'm just like, 'Yeah, but that's not what he did. 'He didn't just massage my calves, he did other things'. But I didn't tell Mum that. - Unable to speak up, Janae used extra clothing to try to protect herself. - I started covering-up more ` started wearing skins and starting wearing hoodies. When my mum was confused, because I was wearing them in the summer, and she was really confused. 'Why are you wearing that for?' And my excuse was 'to lose weight', that's why. - There's real vivid memories of her not wanting to go to trainings, and I always remember her fighting, and always being sick, always having stomach upsets, vomiting, headaches ` constantly. But at the time, she's a teenager, she's 13 years old. She's going through that rebellious stage; she's become lazy. And that's what we put it down to. But unbeknown to her parents, Salton's abuse was escalating, even forcing Janae to fend off simulated rape scenarios. - We always do self-defence, because in grading we have to practice our self-defence. So he always wanted to do ground stuff with me. And what he did was he was always on top of me, and he was like, 'Right, you have 30 seconds to get up as fast as you can', and then he was like, 'OK go'. And I was trying so hard, cos I felt uncomfortable. I had a man on top of me ` all of this weight was on top of me. I couldn't breathe. I was hyperventilating. I wanted to cry, but I couldn't. So, I was like, 'Janae, OK, you just gotta stop crying. You need to get up, really fast.' I was trying so hard to get out. And then as we were doing it, he just kept making these noises, like grunting. he kept making thrusts on me, and I'm just like, 'What is he doing?' And I was getting` I was shaking, and I was getting so scared. And as soon as I got up, that's when he had that situation with himself and he had an incident. And then` In my head, because I was young, when he had the incident, I had to pretend I didn't know what that was. - Mm. - Sorry. - It's all right, darling. What she means by incident is that Salton had an erection. - Yeah. - Yeah. - I had to pretend. I just told him, 'Oh, I don't know what that is. it's fine'. But what he did is he just looked at me, he had like a little smile, and then he pulled down his shorts, and he exposed himself. And then I didn't know what I had to. I was frozen. I didn't know if I, like` I was, like, to myself, 'Should I run away, or should I just stay there?' And then in my head, there was something telling me, 'No, you need to stay. Don't run away'. So I stayed there. And then when he pulled down his pants, I'm just, you know, I quickly turned away cos I didn't want to see it. So I turned away from him. And then he was like, 'Oh, I'm so sorry Janae,' and I'm like, 'Just pull your pants back up, please'. And he wanted to give me a hug afterwards to you, know say, how sorry he was. And I didn't want a hug from him. And that day when he did it, he had to take me home because Mum was out, so she couldn't come pick me up. So we were driving home, and as soon as he dropped me off he said to me, 'Don't tell anyone about this, or me and you will be in the shit'. And because he put that thought in my head, that's why I didn't tell my family. - Janae's mother, Corinna, began to notice a change in Salton's behaviour towards her daughter. - When we got back from World Champs and his behaviour was so erratic, and in fact, it was erratic at World Champs. And people had actually said to me, 'Is Master Salton OK? What's going on?' I went, 'I have no idea'. - And they kept saying, 'Why is he picking on you? Why is he bullying you?' And I'm like, 'I don't know why'. I knew why. But I'm just like, 'I don't know why'. - Finally, after months of abuse, Janae had reached her breaking point. Do you remember telling your mum? When you'd had enough? - Yeah. It was one night at training. He was again picking on me, bullying me. He was yelling at me in front of the whole class. We were driving home, and then Mum was just like, 'I think you need to go up to him, give him a hug, and say how sorry you are and say that you're sorry'. And I looked at her, and said, 'Mum, stop the car'. And I know it sounds weird, but I felt something touch me, and I think it was my ancestors, my tupuna, you know? (SNIFFS) And I just heard a voice saying, 'It's time to let go, it's time to say it'. After the break ` a whanau left reeling,... - I just felt this wave of anger and sadness, and how was I not able to protect my little sister? - And International Taekwondo New Zealand responds. - We're learning from this. This something that we were shocked about to have happened. - Auraki mai ano. 16-year-old Janae Whakarau is a sexual abuse survivor. She was just 13 when she was preyed on by her taekwondo coach, Andrew Salton, a trusted friend of her family. After Janae revealed his abuse to her mother, the police were alerted and Salton was charged and found guilty on three counts of doing an indecent act, and sentenced to home detention. In this next part, the Whakarau whanau discuss the aftermath of Salton's abuse. Wow, this is like a whole corner of your room. How many medals do you reckon there are? - I actually counted them. I think there's, like, 94 medals in total. - Wow. - So, yeah. Most of them are (CHUCKLES) gold. - Yeah, they sure are. And some really big trophies. What's your favourite? - The Maori trophy. Yeah, that's my favourite one. - For Junior Maori Champ? - Yep. - Yep. Last year? - Yeah. - Mean. Janae Whakarau is a taekwondo champion, but she gave up the sport after being abused by her instructor, Andrew Salton. Janae's older sister, Kaysha, a trained social worker with Oranga Tamariki, Says it's unbelievable how Salton convinced them all. - I just felt this wave of anger and sadness, and how was I not able to protect my little sister? She had been abused by a man that we trusted; abused by a man that we loved and cared for as an extended whanau member, and for him to do that and break our trust ` I was just in disbelief. But the reality was he formed a relationship of trust, and he built on that to a point where we accepted him for who he was. And then that's when those behaviours started, so of course, we're not going to think, 'Actually, you're a creep now,' because the reality is we had already formed that close bond with him. So, yeah, despite my experience as a professional, it still happens. And that's something that I find that I do struggle with from time to time. How did I not see that? How did I not protect my little sister? - Salton first appeared in court in 2018, but it would be two years before his identity could be made public, finally losing an appeal for name suppression in June this year. During that time, Janae endured threats and attacks by his family, and total denial by her abuser. - M. Salton has never admitted his offending. How does that make you feel? - He's a piece of trash, you know, what he's done. He's overstepped the line. And, you know, back in the day, we might have done things a little bit differently. But, as we know, we've got to let the law take its path and let justice sort of, you know, do its thing. - What was the court case like for you guys? - (SIGHS) Oh, God. The hardest thing about the court case was not being able to be in the courtroom when Janae gave her testimony. because she was a minor, her own parents couldn't even be there. I think for Janae though it was a bit of saving grace for her, cos I don't think she wanted us` I know she hasn't told me everything about what happened. She did say. 'Mum, I don't want you to hear everything'. The only question I've ever asked Janae is, 'Why didn't you tell me sooner?' And she said, 'Because I didn't think you'd believe me, because of his position', I mean, he was a master. - Mr Salton was found guilty and sentenced to one year home detention, But for the Whakarau whanau, it's not over. Not only are they dealing with Salton's betrayal and abuse, they also feel abandoned by the sport they'd invested so much in. - I suppose one little thing I'm disappointed with is the Taekwondo Federation of New Zealand and the non-support that we've had from them. No one's even contacted us or got in touch with us or anything like that. - They did briefly send a message through the New Zealand team manager to say all the best. - What do you think that Janae deserves from the Taekwondo Federation? - Oh, definitely an apology. Definitely an apology of some sort. Support would be great. There's been nil support from any one of them from that community, especially of the hierarchy. So it's just disappointing, because how many years have we been involved in it? - Mm, yeah. - Spending money to go away to local tournaments, national tournaments, and basically supporting taekwondo for the last 7-8-9 years. - International Taekwondo New Zealand which represents 3000 members, has since introduced a child protection policy. - We are developing a programme where it will be a requirement for our instructors and assistant instructors and people of influence to basically conduct an online test ` an online paper, go through the paper, make sure they understand the paper, answer a few questions to make sure they've understood that, and that will be done on a yearly basis ` on an annual basis. - So, I guess Nick, what have you done to publicly condemn him on your website? - Um, I'm` I don't think we've actually done a lot, and hindsight is something that we've thought about. - Would it have made sense that when the name suppression lifted that you then publicly let your members know? - I think you're absolutely right. - Board chair Nick Lourantos says the organisation was told by police not to make contact with Janae and her whanau. - But I do want to take the opportunity to apologise to the family. I do also want to reach out to our members. If there is anyone else that has been impacted by this. Just because they haven't reached out to as yet ` it's never too late. I do urge them to contact police, they're the right people to handle these things. If they don't feel comfortable doing that, please reach out to a senior member of our organisation, our executive, our board, me ` we will do what we can. Thank you. - For Janae, her dream of being a taekwondo master is over. But the former world champ has never been stronger or more courageous. Why do you want to share your story? - I want people to know who this man is. I just want people to know that you're not alone; you are brave. If you tell your parents and they don't listen, you keep telling them. You scream at them. You just keep telling them until they hear you. - What are you going to do with your life now? - I think it's time for me to let go of taekwondo and just move on with my life. Become an advocate, and I'm hoping to get a job either in the air force or the police force. - You know, you started when you were nine, and you would have been a white belt, just starting out, and even though you are, kind of, giving it up, you're not going to do it anymore, you must be proud of where you got to. Look at that, what does that mean, second dan? - Oh, it's amazing. Like, the biggest accomplishment that I could have done. Even though I am stopping taekwondo, I did finish off with a high note. So, winning two gold medals at Germany. So, that's what I'm proud of ` that I finished off good. Yeah. - And you will always be a second dan? - Yup. Always. - E mihi ana ki koe Janae me to kaha. Hei muri i nga whakatairanga ka korero ahau ki te mema paremata hou ki a Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. - Auraki mai ano. Ka mate ka mate, ka ora, ka ora te pati Maori. Well, the special votes are in, and the Maori Party has been given a new lease on life. Yesterday it was confirmed that co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer will also enter parliament on the party vote, joining new Waiariki MP and co-leader Rawiri Waititi. Noreira hei matapaki i nga mahi kei mua i a raua kua hono mai a Debbie. Tena koe e te mareikura me nga mihi nui ki a koe. - Tena koe, tena koe e hoa. - E pihi ana te wairua i tenei wa. - Oh, ka nui te hari kei te koa. You know, he tino pai rawa tu toku wairua me ta tatou whanau ahua i tera nei. - How did you find out? Were you` I mean, you were obviously surprised. But did you have any inkling that it might be possible. - We'd had` Actually, to be honest, Whaea Tariana said on the night, and she predicted and was right on the mark, to be honest, and I've had a couple of analysts around me, but, you know, we've had to fight for every little step we've made. My focus was purely on Rawiri and supporting the call, the awesome decision that Waiariki had made. So, no, I personally didn't have my eye on it. I was just overwhelmed with excitement. And I actually heard from media accidentally first, so, yeah. - History repeats itself. Marama Fox was also in the same situation and had to wait for those final special votes two election cycles ago. You know, you'll be going into parliament with Rawiri Waititi. What have the discussions between the two of you been so far? - Oh, I mean, I think that, first of all, the discussions are one of huge excitement. Rawiri's a formidable member of parliament; he's got such a lot to offer, and we need to continue to grow the confidence around the rest of the motu as we've seen through Waiariki. From a perspective, you know, we've talked about how we want to work with Labour and our tono is to be there to work across party on multiple kaupapa that we know that are affecting our whanau, and so that tono is there, and then, you know, we also have to hold these big, big parties to account while we can with them, so it's a good tension, but both him and I are excited and talking about some of the kaupapa that we know and we're really passionate in our policy platform to advocate and to push through. - You've had a little bit of time now to take in that new cabinet line up, which politicians are on which portfolio. You know, can you see any ins there? Would you like to work alongside any of those people in those particular portfolios, to support them from the crossbenches? - Yeah. You know, I think from our perspective, and I think we've been really open our whanau have big expectations of some of the kaupapa that are pressing on them, so there are ministers that are carrying portfolio that are about how our whanau are going to be affected in health and inequities. I think most of the portfolio that are affecting Maori are where we will be leading, but we are also` No, and again, I was disappointed to hear, so far, that the Minister of Oranga Tamariki hasn't seen fit to do a review. We'll be trying to put another view through as we, sort of, hearing from multiple audits and reviews, we'll be wanting to make sure that housing and a lot of the mahi that Marama is doing, we've got a great relationship with the Greens, is able to be talked about as well. And we'll also be wanting to ensure, you know, for us and we've got a big kaupapa coming before us with seabed mining. So we're wanting to make sure that we have discussions with the Minister for the Environment. So there's our bread and butter grassroots kaupapa that we want to make sure are going to take some ease and some pain out of our whanau, be able to help them live better. Also, we're really mindful of what COVID is doing, and we're still seeing the pain that's going to be realised in our whanaus. So big, wide scope of kaupapa, but mainly anyone that's making decisions our whanau, on our whenua and on our wai, we want to be all over them. - So, who fills your shoes now? This is the problem with Maori going into parliament. They often leave really important jobs. - Yeah. For matau kei in Ngati Ruanui, we're really lucky. I mean, there's always been intergenerational spread, so I've got probably more rangatahi in our office, so there's been a` one moves, the next one lifts up, just as how I got in there in the first place. So we've got the probably the youngest chair within the iwi world and within Aotearoa. And that natural progress within the office and around the marae will continue. The thing though too is what we want to do is make sure there's a whole lot of my whanau here with me at the moment to make sure our rangatahi are turning up into Parliament and seeing these kaupapa, and we continue to grow our leadership on the paepae, within the iwi, on the ground, but also in this parliament sense as well. So, yeah. - Have you heard from any other MPs? - We have. I've heard from the co-leader of the Greens ` from Marama, which has been really awesome. I haven't heard from Labour, and we're hoping to be able to go` Rawiri and I are focused on trying to convene a hui with our equals next week. So that'll be some of the first agenda that we have to talk to and sort out next week as well, so. - I believe you make it the 27th Maori MP in parliament now. So nga mihi nui kia koe ite ma rei ku ra. Tena koe. - Tena koe. - Hei tera wiki ` - The crash left eight passengers seriously injured. - One staff member has permanently lost the use of a left arm. One broke her arm, collarbone. Nine months later, they still haven't fully recovered. - While most were able to walk away from the accident, mother-of-four Kay Tai was told she'd never walk again. Were you angry, Kay? - Yes. So much anger. It's not good to have so much anger. - Her anger would eventually be replaced with an extraordinary act of compassion. - It takes a real, real person to look us in the eye and see the results. - No one wanted anything punitive to happen. What would that do? Ruin a young man's life? - Kua hikina te hui mo tenei ra. Pai marire ki a tatou katoa. Captions by Joshua Tait Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. www.able.co.nz Copyright Able 2020