Kia ora koutou.
Adam Dudding and Eugene Bingham here. We’re reporters with Stuff, and over the past couple of years (with a few breaks here and there, thanks Covid …), we’ve been working on a podcast documentary series about Centrepoint. You possibly already knew about it, as the project has been mentioned a couple of times on the Centrepoint Restoration Project blog over that time.
Caroline was one of several former Centrepoint children who helped get the word out through their blogs, or Facebook groups, or personal networks, as we began the slow process of finding people who could talk to us about the history and legacy of Centrepoint, and trust us to treat their stories with the care they deserved.
In the end, we made contact with dozens of ex-Centrepointers, with representatives of every stage of the community’s journey. Some briefly made contact with us, but decided to take it no further. Others talked at length, but declined to do an on-the-record interview. And quite a number agreed to talk to us, on the record, using their real names, sharing an amazing range of stories. Sure - many of those stories were very dark, and tough to hear, but also we heard more than a few accounts of adventure, friendship and joy.
Eugene and I are truly grateful to all those people who helped us, and this site seemed as good a place as any to say thanks to you all. Every one of you helped give us a richer, more detailed, account of Centrepoint. We think the result is one of the most comprehensive tellings of the commune’s history yet.
But we also wanted to take this as an opportunity to give a bit of advance notice to anyone connected to the history of Centrepoint who might follow this website. Inevitably, the podcast contains frank discussion of sexual and psychological abuse. It contains some personal accounts of events within the community that haven’t been publicly revealed before. We imagine many former Centerpointers will be interested to listen to this podcast, but others will feel the exact opposite, which is only reasonable.
So, whether you treat this a heads-up, or as advance warning, here are the details: The podcast is called The Commune. It’s a 12-part documentary series. And it will appear on the Stuff website – stuff.co.nz – and on podcast players including Apple Podcasts and Spotify, from June 6. There will also be a series of related feature articles released from that date. In addition, there will be some pre-launch publicity about the podcast, starting the week of May 30.
So that’s it. Thanks again for everyone who’s helped us out, and we hope you feel we’ve done this story justice.
Eugene Bingham and Adam Dudding, May 25 2022 (photo courtesy of Chris McKeen @ Stuff)
Editors note: for people who feel in need of extra support during this time, there are support options on the "Support" page. In addition, if this topic has created a need to connect with a real person, please consider making contact through info@centrepointrestorationproject.com