Iluka
Content Warning: These stories are about violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation and may include references to suicide or self-harming behaviours. They may contain graphic descriptions and strong language and may be distressing. Some narratives may be about First Nations people who have passed away. If you need support, please see Contact & support.
Iluka is a First Nations man in his 50s who lives with early onset dementia.
‘When I'm talking here and now it's fine, but you ask me what I said 20 minutes later, I won't be able to tell you,’ Iluka told the Royal Commission. ‘I can remember all the old stuff that happened to me, no problem, but short-term I'm gone.’
Iluka’s mother was a member of the Stolen Generations. Iluka lived with her at a convent until they sent him to a boys home ‘for not going to school’.
‘All my life I have been bashed by, like, boys homes and all that, raped, all that sort of stuff.’
Iluka said he ‘kept escaping and escaping’ and was sent to prison when he was a teenager.
‘For escape from [the boys home] … shaved head and scabs all over me head.’
Later in life, Iluka developed early onset dementia and a few years ago was granted a government aged care package. Iluka has little control over the package, which a service provider oversees.
‘They'd never give me things that I really require as an Aboriginal person. I need to go to the country, like I asked to go to a place [that] just has four cabins on it where there is no alcohol, no smoking … It's $140 a night and I wanted to stay there for four nights and they said, “No, you can only stay with us at a thousand a night.”’
Iluka said the church-based service provider is expensive and insists he use only its services.
‘And that's one of the problems I have completely had is finding out why can't I … get proper respite that me doctor writ letters for, and stuff like that because of me mind.’
Iluka said the service provider once charged him for a shopping trip on Good Friday.
‘These are the sort of things they have been charging me for. Going shopping when there are no shops open, and stuff like that. I'm sure they do it to a lot of people.’
Iluka said another time, when he needed new tiles in his house, he found a quote for $1,800.
‘[The service provider] charged me $4,000 … but three times they took the $4,000 out, so they took $12,000 for an $1,800 job.’
Iluka said when he complained, the provider retaliated.
‘Every time I made a complaint against them, they would do something drastic to me, like just not turn up, not ring me and say no-one's coming today, and I would be waiting, and waiting, and waiting, and no-one come … And I had an appointment at the hospital, and it took me three more months to get in, stuff like that. And they don't ring you and confirm, and they were just so bad, all they wanted was money. They weren't caring about me and my needs.’
Iluka said during COVID lockdowns the service provider abandoned him for weeks.
‘It's not good. Like I don't sleep for days when they do things like that to me, like just forget to come and don't ring me. For four weeks I sat here depressed. I didn't have a shower for two and a half weeks. I just sat in the lounge and ate from the [local service station], and I would starve for the last two days of the week because I was buying from the garage, which is, you know, $6 for two sausages and stuff like that.’
Iluka said he would rather self-manage his care package, but he’s ‘got no way of filling out forms’.
‘I don't understand the words. I understand old language, but not the new wordings they have changed around to today.’
Disclaimer: This is the story of a person who shared their personal experience with the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability through a submission or private session. The names in this story are pseudonyms. The person who shared this experience was not a witness and their account is not evidence. They did not take an oath or affirmation before providing the story. Nothing in this story constitutes a finding of the Royal Commission. Any views expressed are those of the person who shared their experience, not of the Royal Commission.