My letter to the Prime Minister

I have just sent the below letter to the Prime Minister. It speaks for itself. If you are in New Zealand and you want to live in a country where people are not denigrated because they are blind or are disabled in other ways, please share this, let your local MP know, and let us use this as a teachable moment.

This abuse in care process is tough. It is draining. I am a tenacious person but recent events have left me demoralised, disillusioned and utterly exhausted. But giving up doesn’t get us the change we need.

Thank you for your support and understanding.

Here is the letter.

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Dear Prime Minister

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Ableist slur in your apology to survivors of abuse in state and faith-based care

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I am a survivor of abuse, and testified publicly to the Royal Commission of Inquiry about my experience. I am blind, and my abuse occurred for the most part at the school for the blind, Homai College.

For many years, I have dreamed of a day when the Government would apologise unreservedly for the harm that it caused and the abuse it overlooked. My dream turned into a nightmare, when I had to sit in silence in the Public Gallery, unable to respond to the ableist slur in your speech. I never dreamed for a moment it would be like this.

I want to explain in as clear and dispassionate a manner as I can under the circumstances the harm you have caused and the impact it has had on me.

In your speech, you said, “I am sorry that many bystanders - staff, volunteers and carers - turned a blind eye and failed to stop or report abuse.”

The phrase “turned a blind eye” is one of several ableist phrases that are so commonly used that people do so without considering the ramifications. However, as New Zealand grapples with acknowledging the harm that has been done, and strives to build a better country, we are coming to terms with the fact that things we said and did in the past without a second thought perpetuate prejudice and exclusion. Using a phrase like “turned a blind eye” is one such example, along with others such as “falling on Deaf ears”, and people being “crippled by indecision”. There are too many of these demeaning phrases to list them all.

I acknowledge that voicing these concerns risks backlash. Some people push back strongly, saying that it is a well-understood expression that doesn’t pertain to actual blind people, and that people need to stop being so woke/politically correct. I implore you to consider the perspective I am sharing with an open mind, free from these instinctual responses, as we work towards healing for survivors and a more inclusive society.

Broadly speaking, there are two things that hold blind people back from achieving our full potential. The first is access to quality training and blindness services, and the second is other people’s perceptions of blindness. They are related, because if people’s expectations of us are low, we will not be considered worthy of resourcing.

Using phrases like “turn a blind eye” reenforces perceptions of blindness at a subconscious level. It implies that if you can’t see, you’re ignorant, perhaps incapable or immoral, you ignore what is going on around you either deliberately or otherwise. The phrase, and others like it, depict blindness as a negative. When people are exposed to a lifetime of low perceptions of blindness, it means that they are less inclined to employ us, value us, treat us as the capable people we are.

It is no more justifiable to use the word “blind” in a pejorative sense than it would be to make insulting comments about someone’s sex or race. Indeed, I can recall a time when “behaving like a girl” was an often used derisive phrase. Thankfully, if you had used that phrase in your apology, it would be headline news.

The lack of reaction to this phrase in your speech reflects how few journalists there are who know any blind people and understand blindness. There are no working journalists in New Zealand who are blind that I am aware of, unlike other western countries. We have to break the cycle, and a key part of doing so is ditching the ableist language.

In your speech yesterday, you said, “words do matter”. Yes, Prime Minister, they absolutely do. It is troubling that one of the most important speeches you will ever make in your political career appears not to have received any vetting from disabled people who would have picked up on the inappropriateness of using this pejorative phrase any time, let alone at this particular time.

I left Parliament yesterday distressed, sad and angry. I slept little last night. I feel like, as the only minority you insulted in your speech, I was denied my right to a meaningful apology and that I have been abused by the Prime Minister who was meant to apologise to me. The apology that was supposed to provide healing has instead set me back a long way.

In saying this, I do not believe for a moment that this was your intention. I believe you to be decent and sincere, and I hope this letter touches your heart, because it has been written from mine.

I am respectfully requesting that in a future media conference, you acknowledge the inadvertent harm that was done and that you apologise for your use of ableist language at such an historic, difficult time.

I also urge you to use the tremendous influence you have for good. Educate New Zealanders, and advance the view that we can still communicate clearly without the need to deride vulnerable minority groups. There are plenty of phrases other than “turned a blind eye” which would have conveyed the message just as effectively.

Thank you for reading. I wish you well with the complex but urgent task of righting the wrongs of the past and building a better nation.

I consider this an open letter, because the damage done has been done publicly, and because I want other survivors to be encouraged to continue to speak their truth.

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Yours sincerely

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Jonathan Mosen MNZM

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CC: Erica Standford, Minister for the Government’s Response to the Royal Commission’s Report into Historical Abuse in State Care and in the Care of Faith-based Institutions

Rajesh Chhana, CE, Crown Response Unit.

Paula Tesoriero, CE, Ministry of Disabled People,

Peter Reynolds, CE, New Zealand Disability Support Network,

Mojo Mathers, CE, Disabled Persons Assembly

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