A former Gloriavale resident has told the Employment Court in Christchurch there was a culture of bullying and mocking inside the community.
Virginia Courage is one of six women fighting to prove they were employees rather than volunteers at the commune.
Courage's life outside the isolated West Coast community is so different to how it had been on the inside.
"Bullying and mocking people in Gloriavale is such a part of the culture. I was a part of it when I was there, you are desensitised to it and you don't realise how wrong it is," she said in court.
During cross-examination, she said it was a life of being controlled by men.
"When I was a child Hopeful decided what colour our underwear was, what style it was, it was all decided day-to-day by these people. The systems have been going for decades."
Systems like one around washing.
"When I was single Hopeful got with Miracle and wrote out a list of how much washing people should put out into the laundry and how often you should change your clothes so there wasn't too much washing to wash. I would call that a Gloriavale system," she said.
But her family's safety was something Courage tried her best to take control of.
"I refused to go to sleep without the door locked, and in the window next door with my kids' room, even in the heat of summer, the window was either locked or I had my husband cut boards so we could put it in between the space where the window had came back, so the window was only open that much and no one could get their head through it and climb in."
That reach didn't extend to work. Courage said at one point her daughter was put on six months of duty, which is considered the most gruelling work. It got so bad she told her mother she thought the leader who'd assigned her to the work was trying to kill her.
The mother of 11 said life at Gloriavale was built around work, even when sick.
Current members deny any work is forced, and Gloriavale lawyer Philip Skelton pushed back on Courage's claims.
"Mothers who were sick or had sick children were entitled to stay at home and look after their children. That's the true position isn't it?" he asked.
"I went to work repeatedly unwell. I went to work throwing up in the toilet, I went to work with serious migraines. I could barely stand up. I went to work with bladder infections. I went to work with a kidney infection," she responded.
"There's a lot of focus put on work in Gloriavale and everyone feels like they are obligated to work."
That is the basis of this court case - to decide if the work was voluntary or not.
