00:00:05
there were a lot of people on Instagram that um posted questions for me to ask you and um a a lot of those um I don't
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know I suppose they're kind of trivial on the big scheme of things or like Curious you know like music related pop
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culture related about you know the outside world versus glor ofil so I thought maybe we'll um we we'll get them
00:00:24
done first yeah and um then we'll unpack um some of your story someone said um
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uh if if you were writing like an outside Survival Guide for people leaving Glory of alale like what would
00:00:37
be some of the key things in it you know so like an instruction instruction manual so they drop you off at the the
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bus stop they tell you you're going to spend the rest of your life burning in
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hell um what would have been helpful information to have um I think more like money
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management and then just like social skills knowing like how to introduce yourself and that sort of just how to
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have a conversation with someone what do you mean in there you you only had conversations with people you've ever
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like grown up with and you've NE you don't introduce yourself to anyone or
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say hello or things like that and like and MoneyWise I only had ever seen a $5 note before leaving I didn't know what
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$200 meant in the scheme of things um and knowing how to go to the supermarket and things like that like choosing what
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to have for dinner like that sort of thing is probably just the really everyday life sort of
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stuff does it take you long uh once you leave Glory of able to get you hit around that
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stuff I mean you learn the hard way for a lot of it like it's trial and error um
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but I think just a lot of it comes down to being able to make choices and if you
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can learn that skill then you sort of everything else becomes easier yeah there's there's some stuff in the book
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that um you only sent it to me yesterday so I haven't read the whole thing I've
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just had a Fleck throw but some of that's um I mean yeah it sort of touches your heart it's kind of cute in a way
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it's like you leave Glory Veil they give you $200 yeah and you think you're rich
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you get to you realize oh okay $200 ain't going to get me far no pretty much
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yeah love that someone else said um what are the most positive and most negative
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things you learned from growing up in glor of veale um anything good about it probably more like the life skills
00:02:43
stuff but then also just I think my favorite thing in glor was like being a child and being in nature and like the
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bush walks and like that part of it um like I don't think I would have gotten
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through my childhood if I didn't have the nature around me to like disappear
00:03:03
into the bush for a few hours um that's probably the best thing and the thing I
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missed most about like the West Coast yeah that's quite telling a so it's more
00:03:14
like um scener based really than anything else yeah yeah definitely and when you disappeared in the bush for a
00:03:20
few hours what was that for like just a process thoughts or process thoughts and
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like I did a lot of writing and reading um and just sleep as well like you couldn't and just piece
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like a moment just to realize I don't know like process things and hide from the meetings on
00:03:45
Sunday um yes thanks J uh from Instagram uh what did Theo know about the outside
00:03:58
world that it was a bad evil place and that everyone was going to hell um that was pretty much
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it is she still religious I believe m in higher power I believe in like the universe in the
00:04:15
environment and connecting to nature but that's about it so if there was not
00:04:20
religion so if there was a scale and there was like um religious agnostic atheist where would you be some probably
00:04:26
in the middle yeah yeah okay um within Glory of vale uh what do people say about those that have
00:04:33
left so when you're in there and someone leaves like I does everyone sort of
00:04:38
gossip about them does everyone talk about them do they pray for them um like the word goes around that people are
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lefted and it's like they've damned their souls to hell and they didn't have
00:04:48
like faith in God and they didn't trust the leaders and pretty much you just
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think that they've gone like they've disappeared like I remember when my best
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friend when I was 11 her whole family just disappeared and you just think that she's gone to hell and that's
00:05:05
all and that's that and then like they have burnings like when I was younger that you'd have
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to burn um any like thing you had like photos or anything to do with them like your their names can't really be
00:05:18
mentioned again that like it's like they never existed that's terrifying yeah yeah so
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you're not aware that it's that it's happening so your friends don't say hey
00:05:30
you know in the next couple of days I'm going to be leaving not always no you
00:05:34
don't tell anyone cuz then you could be stopped how did you know it was the right decision to
00:05:41
leave I knew from like the age of 14 that I had to get out of there but I think when I got to 18 it was just like
00:05:50
a lot of questioning and then I pretty much got told I had to sign the commitment or leave so that was sort of
00:05:58
was the last thing last straw yeah the again these are the questions from Instagram we're just scratching the
00:06:03
surface on some of the stuff and we'll get into that in in more detail when we
00:06:07
get through these um some of the some of these are quite serious but some of them
00:06:10
are quite trivial so once we get through these we'll um go through your story in
00:06:14
sort of a more chronological order um who decides the baby names the mothers get to say what's your name honey my
00:06:21
name yeah was honey faithful yeah um the parents chose them but they have to be biblical and then they have to run them
00:06:28
past the leaders first so where did um theop come from theop Pratt um when I was 16 I changed
00:06:39
my name in glor um and it had to still be religious so I came up with theer um it came from a cow to be honest I was I
00:06:51
was illegally milking cows with my cousins down at the deir and one of the cow's names was theop and then I just
00:06:57
remembered that when I was going to change my name right honey Faithful is a great name it sounds like it could be a
00:07:04
pop star to it sounds like it could be a stuff's name st's name I wouldn't know
00:07:08
about that sort ofil it didn't it didn't work I mean having that sort of name in
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there all the guys just had on year and like I don't know it was just like a
00:07:18
mocking thing in terms of like woman and having that name it was like confusing and like a lot of bullying Rel to it
00:07:27
yeah by me and like boys my age yeah what is the uh typical day for a glory of old woman or for you I suppose
00:07:38
like a young woman like like a teenage girl yep probably waking up at 4:30 to 5: and either going to work on one of
00:07:46
the teams so it could be going to make the breed for the community so like 100 Loaves and then going to
00:07:53
school finishing at like 2:30 back to work and then finishing maybe at 7 at night
00:07:59
yeah starting again seems to be a life with like very little Joy it's feels like it's a life
00:08:08
with um sort of like purpose and structure and discipline but maybe very little Joy no joy and no like moment to
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like have a laugh or have a conversation with a person next to you it's like just
00:08:20
go go go cuz if you have a moment to think then you might start questioning you do you yeah within none
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of those moments that you can like even snapshots where like you're having a
00:08:31
laugh or a happy moment with there's a few moments but a lot of it's like
00:08:36
moments of in their moments of things that could get you in trouble so like running away and like going into the
00:08:43
bush and like that sort of thing but it was always on terms that it was against the
00:08:50
rules Yeah you mentioned mentioned before that you were um illegally milking um theop the
00:08:56
cow what what happens when you when you break the uh law of Glory ofil you'll
00:09:01
end up in a a Shepherds and servants meeting on a Sunday afternoon and questioned and like you'll get be sent
00:09:09
into a room with like 12 of the leaders and questioned for a few hours for a few
00:09:16
hours yeah and the leaders are all are all mean yeah all mean and sitting around in a circle and your Center
00:09:22
what's sort of age oh 40s to 70s right so you're 13 14 15 16y old girl yeah and like are they raising their
00:09:33
voices or oh 100% like raising their voices just all they all take turns at like screaming at you or yelling
00:09:41
questioning you and you just sit there and wait for it to end and then you have to sort of come to an agreement at the
00:09:49
end that you're going to do something to to show that you're going to submit to
00:09:52
them so it could be apologizing or it could be you get put out like I was put out a couple of times um what does that
00:10:00
mean could mean a range of things but when I got put out I was sent to work in the sewing room every day when I was 15
00:10:08
and like I wasn't allowed to talk to any girls my age and not allowed to attend
00:10:12
things that everyone else attended so I just went to the sewing room every day sewed then went
00:10:18
home yeah so so when you're in when you're in when you're in trouble when you when you
00:10:24
break the law yeah break in milking a cow say that happens on a Wednesday um are you just
00:10:32
waiting until Sunday for the disciplinary meeting sometimes you're like oh is it going to happen or
00:10:37
sometimes if it's serious you'll get called into like a meeting that night so
00:10:43
like if someone from the outside that's left comes in and you're seen talking to
00:10:48
them I've I was called into a meeting at like 2:00 in the morning woken up and
00:10:54
was in a meeting with the leaders for a few hours and then to work at 4 so they can't it can happen at anytime
00:11:03
they can be knocking on your door at midnight what's the anxiety like like leading up to these meetings like if you
00:11:11
know a meeting's coming like are you sheding yourself yeah sheding yourself and disappearing up up to the bush
00:11:20
hiding that's why you like your you know you're eventually going to have to face
00:11:24
the music you you do you know you are you just I guess hope that something else someone else does something bad so
00:11:31
they take over yeah yeah pretty much yeah well I can't imagine how how stress by does it get
00:11:40
easier though like those those those telling offs you're like oh I'm in trouble again it's another one Whatever
00:11:45
Yeah you sort of just like oh well you and you sort of know learn the lines that they like so you learn the lines
00:11:52
that will get you out of it so you learn to like say sorry and say what they want
00:11:58
you to say so you just keep them in rotation and get through it and carry on say praise God and bless your brother
00:12:06
and hope that does the truck say all the right things and then just go back to milking the cows yeah pretty much um a
00:12:14
good friend of mine Clint uh he's a very funny guy he said um did she have a good
00:12:18
role in the concert or was she put in the background oh no I didn't have any
00:12:22
role didn't why were you too much of a renegade yeah were you yeah was that like a a like a a privileged position to
00:12:32
get 100% Only The Chosen how much prep went into those concerts months like six months before the concert like months
00:12:41
and months of prep making all the costumes long hours yeah was that a um like a good position to have because
00:12:48
it's a I don't know I suppose a bit of Joy yeah it was fun cuz you're doing
00:12:53
something different and you're and and you're excited about who's going to turn
00:12:57
off at the concert were you not motivated to change your evil ways to get a SP no and I didn't I couldn't
00:13:04
think of anything worse than representing nil Copa yeah um someone you might know um who
00:13:13
Instagram name is man doton says I went to school with the I don't have a question I just want her to know that
00:13:18
she's an inspiration oh nice yeah how does that make you feel yeah great I think I think yeah it feels good
00:13:30
yeah yeah since you've been out so what is it now like eight years yeah it'll be
00:13:35
nine years next month yeah how many how many conversations have you had with people have yelled at you H not many
00:13:43
might be the other way around are you yelling at Kev your partner maybe yeah could be yeah but it's strange though
00:13:50
isn't it because this is all you know and this is this is what you think life's all about and then you get out
00:13:54
there and you realize that it actually isn't No Ex very abnormal you wait often
00:13:59
like I'll be waiting for someone to yell and it doesn't happen it's like oh it's
00:14:05
not normal like and what the circumstances like can you think of any that come to mind um probably more just
00:14:11
like within the work life and like I don't know and stressful situations that
00:14:16
you expect people to lash out at you when they're stressed oh and just when you makeing mistakes yeah yeah
00:14:23
yeah I'm please you don't have to put up with that anymore yeah so uh what has changed for her in the
00:14:29
past year or so since the escaping Utopia documentary came out um I think it's been a great conversation stter but
00:14:38
it's also it's been a journey and it's I guess I still just keeping on thinking
00:14:47
about my sister in India and like lots of people asking me about how that's going yeah there were a few questions
00:14:55
about that on Instagram but yeah we're going to get to that later um biggest
00:14:59
struggle after leaving glor about just the self-confidence and knowing where you fit in and knowing who
00:15:08
you connect to and like what is life and knowing what you believe in yeah I can't imagine that cuz it must
00:15:17
feel like um yeah you were born there you leave at 18 so you know you leave as soon as you become an adult so you're
00:15:24
having these adult conversations with people and you must just feel like I don't know like you you you just can't
00:15:30
relate to what's going on and you really struggle to fit in yeah a lot of that a
00:15:34
lot of like while I was studying like knowing we to fit in I didn't know what
00:15:38
half the conversations were about um a lot of Googling a lot of um wearing um yeah just trying to fit in yeah a lot
00:15:52
of wearing what um wearing um what's that what's that brand with the um the ears now I can't
00:16:04
even think of it oh Playboy Playboy I I took a Playboy tail to a Christian Camp and had no clue what it
00:16:13
was oh Playboy bu there but Playboy was popular for a while was that like the the peak s of popularity thing when you
00:16:20
came out of glor Val no someone gave it to me I think they did it as a joke and I thought it was cool and I took it to a
00:16:27
Christian can um besides family and friends does she miss anything from her glory OFA life
00:16:35
you may have covered off that before with the scenery yeah not really nothing um how frequently do people
00:16:43
leave and does everyone else in glory of our gossip about them feel like we covered off that last bit earlier um but
00:16:50
yeah how frequently do people when I left it was every few like every six months or so every year but now like
00:16:57
pretty much every day there's some leaving wow do you know what the population is there now still must be
00:17:04
like like 500 something right yeah um Theo left Glory of Val in 2016 which was um Peak Bieber Fever did she know who
00:17:14
Justin Bieber was absolutely not really so yeah what were you okay so when you in there so 15 16 17 18 until
00:17:24
you left um yeah what were you were you aware of in terms of pop culture and music I I knew of the
00:17:35
Kardashians like you know what you know about pretty much nothing really but like just photos of them like I don't
00:17:41
know would look through all the magazines and like um all like the modeling stuff and would look through
00:17:48
the pictures that way what magazines like when you're in Greymouth for a visit or no like would get all the old
00:17:53
newspapers and go through them um and just like when we're lighting the fire
00:17:58
at 3 :30 in the morning just scroll through wrap papers out yeah so and in terms of Music nothing we like had the
00:18:09
illegal like wiring radios together and like listened to a few like songs like Katie per songs but other than that not
00:18:18
really anything yes so what radio did you listen to I would I would have been on
00:18:24
the radio when you were in yeah you I think you were yeah I think the edge and that sort of stuff and then like sports
00:18:30
like I remember when the All Blacks played and like when I was making cheese I had a a guy come and tell me the score
00:18:36
and I'd write it in the cheese book for the the World Cup right in the cheese
00:18:41
book why the schore the game I don't know I just did Cheese book like a diary
00:18:46
or yeah well like when I made cheese we would have to record like all the acid and how you what we did how much milk
00:18:52
and at the bottom I'd just like write messages for just for yourself yeah and then I I always thought that cuz
00:19:01
other people they would be kept in the kitchen and I always thought like it would be cool once I left the other
00:19:07
girls getting to read it seeing if I left them any messages like I don't know
00:19:12
to make them think about where they live i' I've never been to Gloria Valley
00:19:19
and I've never been to prison either but like what your describing sounds like
00:19:23
sounds worse than prison yeah a little bit um first time she had McDonald's or
00:19:32
KFC first time I had um KFC I went through with like a drag queen what went through the drive-thru like it was a
00:19:40
friend uh like a friend of a friend though like oh I'll take you to CC and then yeah they were telling me about
00:19:47
their life and yeah so this is after you left glor of Valen we're living in Oakland yeah yeah yeah and um what were
00:19:54
your thoughts on KFC soed we had in gloral it was like nille Cooper's biggest thing oh really
00:20:03
yeah right he so you okay so you'd already had KFC yeah yeah yeah yeah what about McDonald's I think we used to go
00:20:11
through the drive-thru for the 50 scene ice creams but I didn't know what it was
00:20:15
cuz we never went in and shops like Kmart or brisos nothing there's no shops in gr
00:20:24
yeah no but the first time you like went to one of those um after leaving Gloria
00:20:29
now yeah I don't I think it was all just a blur like Sylvia Park was my closest
00:20:34
mall that was overwhelming but yeah that's syia Park is probably like about the size of the
00:20:42
whole Glory of our compound yeah um does she have any favorite swear words now just e
00:20:50
word did you ever swear in glory of Al uh did you know those words or does anyone use not those words but like
00:20:57
saying [ __ ] was like the worst thing ever and if someone overheard you you you'd get in trouble for that right yeah
00:21:05
right um uh what was the coolest little um little things you found out after you
00:21:14
left don't know there's nothing after you left that like just blew blew your
00:21:20
mind really impressed you I just think like you think in a way but like just that woman could have an education and
00:21:30
like that woman were CEOs and like running the place like that sort of blew my mind did that seem like unfathomable
00:21:39
fathomable to you and 100% that's such a cool answer yeah like that sort of thing
00:21:44
like literally and that I could do that if I wanted and here you are you got a degree
00:21:51
yeah like like it's it's like I don't think I can um just emphasize enough
00:21:55
just how how cool that is so you had sort of limited education while you were growing up yeah then you leave at 18 you
00:22:02
you don't know anything about the outside world and you've you've you've
00:22:05
accomplished so much in the last you know eight years since you've been out it's really cool hope you're proud of
00:22:11
yourself yeah definitely proud of myself um what was the first movie she saw after leaving glor of Val hunt for the
00:22:16
worlder people oh yeah that's B you enjoy it not bad you loved it five stars
00:22:22
yeah then again you had nothing to compare exactly uh first concert she went to Pink
00:22:29
all right okay yeah um your friend Rosie Overcomer who I had on last year she said the Pink as well did you go
00:22:34
together no no no um yeah why did you yeah did you like pink yeah it was good yeah she's a very good performer that
00:22:42
sets the bar very high for for other concerts I love Sam Smith though I've been to his all his concerts in New
00:22:47
Zealand have you yeah yeah why what's the appeal with Sam Smith just being different and being who he is like just
00:22:55
him being himself yeah um in terms of Technology uh what was the hardest things to
00:23:02
learn like is it weird when you first get a phone very weird I think I used all my minutes up like on the first
00:23:10
day I don't know who I was talking to but yeah that's thing yeah someone
00:23:17
wanted to know about clothes and fashion like um you know I suppose what they mean is um when you wear the same blue
00:23:24
dresses your entire life and that's all you're knowing uh when you can start
00:23:28
making clothing choices for yourself what do you what do you get you're wearing jeans today that's um that's not
00:23:33
allowed step up yeah are jeans comfortable oh so comfy no but I mean when you when you go from
00:23:40
not wearing jeans your entire life to wearing them for the first time as an adult I think these a PA I'm wearing
00:23:45
jeans as a woman like for me I mean I talk about it in my book like I think it just gives you like a sense of control
00:23:52
and like oh wearing men men's clothing but it's not and just I I just find like a power in
00:24:01
it and in the beginning when you when you started like wearing Jewel have you got ears you got your ears pierced or
00:24:08
anything yeah you got your ears pierced when you got your like piercings and your tattoo um like was there like a
00:24:13
default sense of guilt or anything no no no not at all noos are addictive yeah when you're getting them it does it
00:24:22
sort of feel like the middle finger in a way yeah yeah yeah okay that's great
00:24:27
thanks fing those questions oh good