WWhen Loto * saw police arriving on rural New Zealand property where he had been held for almost two years, the man who had imprisoned him told him to flee. Instead, Loto quietly waited to be discovered by the police.
Loto had spent 17 months in detention as a slave on property in Hastings on the North Island of New Zealand. He was never paid for his work and was subjected to cruel beatings by Joseph Auga Matamata, a 65-year-old Samoan chief, or matai.
Nine days before the police arrived on the property in January 2017, Loto had begged another Samoan whom he had met while working in a nursery to report him to the police for exceeding his visa.
Before his deportation, Loto told the police his story, unleashing one of the largest and most complex immigration investigations ever undertaken by officials in New Zealand and Samoa. Finally, the authorities discovered a network of crimes committed by Matamata spanning 25 years.
On March 16, more than three years after Loto escaped control of Matamata, following a five-week trial, Matamata stood silently on the dock of the Napier tribunal de grande instance, because he was found guilty of 13 heads of slave trade and 10 heads of human beings. between 1994 and April 2019. This is the first time that a person has been convicted on both counts in New Zealand. His oldest victim was Loto, at 53 years old, his youngest victim was only 12 years old.
Tasks, abuse and beatings
Despite their cases spanning decades, the stories the victims told during the five-week trial were similar: they met Matamata in Samoa and he paid for their flights and visas for New Zealand, promising them work or studies. But when they arrived, they found themselves working 14 hours a day in the fields, because “bags of money” were given to Matamata, a horticultural entrepreneur, but were never transmitted.
After working in the fields all day, they did household chores until late at night and were brutally beaten if the job was not finished to his liking. They were not allowed to leave his property without permission, speak to anyone at work or church, or speak to their families in Samoa.
Crown attorney Clayton Walker told the jury that all of Matamata’s victims “trusted him completely” because he was a matai, a Samoan chef.
“This confidence was out of place. He abused his matai position. “
Loto, who arrived in New Zealand in winter 2015, says he has often been punished for working too slowly, having to “offer” the head to Matamata to strike with a piece of wood, a cord of feed, pruning shears or broom.
At the start of the trial, Matamata often wore a ’Ulafala, a bright red pandanus key necklace symbolizing his main status on his suit and tie. Over the weeks, he has given way to a black hoodie. He sat quietly, sometimes smiling, often bored, while his victims testified against him. None of them looked back.
A middle-aged woman, shielded from him by a screen, sobbed as she described how, as a 15-year-old girl, she tried to flee Matamata’s house in 1995, but that he had hunted her down , tied her wrists and ankles and pushed her away.
He had promised his parents in Samoa that she would study in New Zealand, but ended up cooking, cleaning and looking after his children. Her day started at 4 a.m. and often didn’t end until 11 p.m.
A 15-year-old boy, who was adopted by Matamata and brought to New Zealand at the age of 12, described how his adoptive father threw him a pair of pruning shears so hard that they were lodged in his arm.
When Matamata finally took the witness stand, he denied everything, claiming that he had not assaulted anyone, his visitors did not have to follow strict rules and the fence around his property was there to “protect his family” in a dangerous neighborhood. He claimed that he had brought people to New Zealand for “holidays”, not for work, and that he was out of his control if they fled and became stay-over.
“I am a matai. I help people, ”he said.
“I’m glad it was taken”
Many Matamata victims come from the village of Falefā, just 20 km east of the Samoan capital, Apia. With a population of almost 5,000 people, the village is a collection of colorful European style houses and traditional Samoan fales (houses) surrounded by lush gardens, overlooking the sea.
Despite his connection to the village, the first that the village mayor, Fanualelei Tominiko Purcell, heard of the Matamata trial was when his family presented a substantial sum of money. in traditional excuses (ifoga) to the village council. Purcell has not confirmed the exact amount.
“We were all surprised when [Matamata’s] the extended family came forward and offered the traditional apologies, ”says Purcell.
As part of Samoan culture, anyone found guilty of wrongdoing or of shaming the village in one way or another is condemned by the council, especially if these defendants occupy a prominent position within the village.
Interactive
Next to Falefā is the native village of Matamata, Faleapuna, which has about 1,500 inhabitants.
Some of the victims of Matamata came from this small village, and there is anger about what happened to them and the feeling that the crimes of Matamata have tarnished the reputation of their village, which is quickly turning into a tourist center .
A group of four young men hanging out on the dyke say they were well aware of the New Zealand trial and called Matamata “Le Sifi” before they started laughing. Sifi means “chef” in Samoan, but it’s also slang for the bad guy in a movie.
Si’usega Manuele, a young mother from Faleapuna, says she knew Matamata from the village and was a prominent figure in their local church.
“We go to the same room for the Mormon church or Latter-day Saints, he likes going to church every time he comes to Samoa and I can’t believe he could have done something also bad for our own people, “she said.
“I was shocked when I saw the news also on television that night, and I’m glad he got caught.”
Back in New Zealand, the conflicting image of a loving matai and a brutal slave master is something many people who know him find it hard to reconcile.
“It’s like reading a different person,” says Peleti Oli, who grew up with Matamata, attending the same church and playing rugby with his sons.
“I am shocked. He is a great man and a great father to me.”
Oli, a local counselor, does not endorse what Matamata has done, but acknowledges that some of his offenses are considered common in Samoan culture.
“It is very common for us as Samoans to be physically disciplined,” he said, adding that it is also normal for family members to work without pay.
“Even when I was a child, I worked, almost until the age of 21, and I gave all my wages to my family. This is how we do it. “
There has never been a suspicion of the flow of people who have come to Matamata’s house or who have gone to their church, a feeling that his neighbors have taken over.
No one has ever seen or heard anything strange in their home, even though some thought the large chain-link fence and the locked door around their property were strange.
In the end, the jurors took only seven and a half hours to render 23 guilty verdicts. Matamata was acquitted of trafficking charges. He will be sentenced in May.
Each charge of slavery carries a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison and charges of trafficking in human beings carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison or a fine of 500,000 New Zealand dollars. He now has to spend the rest of his life behind bars.
Matamata’s lawyer Roger Philip said his client was “extremely disappointed” with the verdicts and that he “was now taking some time to think about his options.”
‘The tip of the iceberg’
Matamata’s conviction is an extraordinary achievement since such cases are normally “notoriously difficult” to prosecute, says Natalia Szablewska, a lecturer in law at Auckland University of Technology, who is an expert on modern slavery.
“The burden of proof is often very high and complainants may be confused as to what happened to them, or even that what happened to them would constitute slavery or human trafficking.”
Prior to the prosecution of Matamata, there had been only three other human trafficking cases in New Zealand in the past decade, only one of which resulted in a conviction.
“Modern slavery is much more widespread than we think,” said Szablewska, who hopes that the conviction of Matamata will open doors to other cases around the world.
“International statistics tell us that there are 40 million people in one form or another of slavery, so it’s fair to say that this is just the tip of the iceberg and that there are many more potential cases of this kind of situation in New Zealand or elsewhere in the world. ”
None of Matamata’s victims were in court to hear the guilty verdicts, but were informed by telephone and were “delighted” with the outcome, said director of Immigration New Zealand Stephen Vaughan.
“They were very brave and courageous in presenting themselves. It was a very difficult period for the victims concerned. “
