Nazra
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.
‘They were terrible. Jail would’ve been better. That’s where I wanted to go if I didn’t get out of the boarding house.’
Nazra is in her 60s and uses a wheelchair or walking frame to get around.
From her early teens, she was in and out of psychiatric hospitals.
‘I’ve been some horrible places,’ Nazra told the Royal Commission. ‘I've got schizophrenia they did say a long time ago, but not anymore. They said I had manic depression too.’
At one hospital, doctors gave Nazra electroconvulsive therapy dozens of times and ‘drugged’ her.
On her release, Nazra moved into a boarding house where she was physically and sexually assaulted.
‘We were treated horrible and there were people there that used to hit me and – and they’d rape me. And they used to drug us up on medication. The owner would hit people. He didn’t care who he had live there as long as he was making money … Every fortnight we’d sign a withdrawal form and he helped himself to everyone’s bankbooks.’
Staff were stealing from residents and ‘shut them up’ with medication, Nazra said.
‘They take your clothes. They took everything.’
Nazra had a job in a workshop, but often went hungry.
‘One of the girls that worked in the kitchen there, sometimes, depending on how she felt, you wouldn’t get breakfast going to work, or lunch to take with you. And every time I got paid, she’d be down the station waiting for me to take all my money from me. The girl would take all my clothes. Everything I had, she wanted. And if I didn’t give it to her, she’d hit me.’
Nazra said the residence was filthy and dangerous and she lived in fear. The front door was left open all night. Once she saw another resident ‘get stabbed and die’.
‘The bathroom and toilets didn’t have any doors. You had to wear thongs in the shower because you didn’t know what you were going to tread in. The food was horrible. There were mice in and out of the pantry. There were mice everywhere.’
At one point, an ex-boyfriend of one of the staff sexually abused Nazra.
‘They split up, then he needed a slave, so he took me to his place and he used me.’
Nazra fell pregnant.
‘They made me have a termination and I had no choice … I hated the boarding house so much, but I had nowhere else to go.’
Nazra eventually got a room in a share house through work.
‘And when I got there, it was like heaven.’
A few years ago, she had an operation.
‘That’s when my mobility went back, and I lost my independence.’
Nazra applied to the NDIS.
‘They transferred me to a disability place. And ever since then, it felt good.’
Nazra has extensive at-home care. She wants mental health services to stop suggesting that she goes into ‘supported accommodation’.
‘That gets me upset. I know what I want and I want people to listen to me. If I fall over and break my hip, I want to go to rehab and then come back home.’
She thanks the NDIS for her autonomy.
‘If it wasn’t for NDIS, I’d be in a nursing home because I couldn’t afford the care that I get now. I hate that idea … I’d die of a broken heart. They remind me of the boarding house.’
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.