Liz Gregory: Gloriavale Leaver's Support Trust manager says women at hearing want to see change

KEY POINTS:

• Group of ex-Gloriavale women claiming they were subjected to life of servitude
• Women seeking ruling in Employment Court that they were not volunteers
• Case follows similar proceedings by group of ex-Gloriavale men earlier in 2022
• Court to hear "scandalous" evidence of forced labour and "abuse" at Christian community

The first woman in a group of Gloriavale leavers claiming they were subjected to a life of servitude and forced labour says there were two options in the community - "work or get in trouble".

"We had no choices … none, we went to work every day," said Serenity Pilgrim.

"You just sucked it up … There was never an option of being sick … you just got used to it and that's what you did.'

Pilgrim is one of six women taking their case to the Employment Court seeking a ruling that they were employees and not volunteers during their time at the secretive West Coast Christian community.

Pilgrim was born at Gloriavale and spent her life there with her parents and siblings until she was 16.

"As far as I can remember, I always had to work," she said.

"I always had jobs."

She said she worked at least 90 hours a week while at Gloriavale and her parents "had no say" in what she did there.

She said work included helping with dinner, washing and cleaning and had to be done before and after school.

"We would always be up around 4.30am or earlier to complete the jobs that were assigned to us before breakfast," Pilgrim said.

"We had to keep working after dinner if we didn't get the jobs finished.

"As I got older there was more work, more responsibilities, you were expected to grow up, be an adult… even if you don't think you have to handle it, you just have to do it.

"There was no downtime, no time for me to do what I wanted to do … There was just work all the time."

Pilgrim said girls had constant chores to do outside their "teams" - groups of women tasked with various domestic work in the laundry, kitchen and the like.

There was no "downtime" and even if she did have any time off, she had nothing to do.

"Because everyone else was working," she said.

"I was expected to look after younger siblings because mum was always working … that was my downtime.

"If I wasn't working then mum would be … there was always a baby so I always had to look after the baby because mum was working. I guess that was my downtime.

"I looked forward to having to look after my siblings because that was a little break."

Pilgrim explained that breaks were unheard of during the working day and she often went without food and water for most of the day.

She was simply too busy doing her chores to stop and eat or drink.

The women running the kitchen calculated what each person needed to eat each day and it was "measured out".

There were three set meals a day from Monday to Saturday and nothing was provided in between.

Chief Employment Court Judge Christina Inglis. Photo / George Heard

On Sunday people aged 5 and older were not given any food until the evening community meal.

"Half of the time I did not get proper meals because I had to work … when I left Gloriavale at age 16 I weighed 38kg. Two years after I had put on 15kg," said Pilgrim.

She said there was little to no education for girls and most "scraped through" until they could work full time.

"I had no option … It was just expected I would leave school and go and work on the team," she said.

"They pushed us through our schooling so we could get onto the teams as soon as possible - there was no other option.

"I don't know of any girl asking to do anything other than what was expected."

Pilgrim said she wanted to be a midwife or teacher but was too scared to ask.

"I hinted at this to my grandfather … but I gave up … I just had to accept I would work on the teams every day.

"I remember I would go home to my mum and cry … I knew I did not have another option."

"You were scared of being told off because you were thinking on your own … I knew that asking for other jobs just wasn't an option."

Pilgrim said whenever she did hint at wanting to do other things she was lambasted by her team leaders and told "you should be happy, you should do what you are told".

Pilgrim spoke of "pretty much cleaning all day" through most of her life at the commune.

On "cooking days" when she was on the team ta