THE ORPHANED SOLDIER

The Orphaned Soldier
A powerful true story of one boy’s fight to survive across 2 countries.

In Australia, they called it “THE STOLEN GENERATION”—The forced removal of Indigenous children from their families between 1910 and 1970 because of a barbaric government policy.
In New Zealand, between six and eight thousand children were going through their own hell. For years, thousands of NZ children suffered atrocities our indigenous counterparts did, not at the hands of the government, but instead at the hands of one of the most trusted organisations in the Pacific, the Salvation Army.
Throughout its fifteen centres between the years of 1903 and 1993, the Salvation Army housed children referred to as “THE UNWANTED GENERATION.” Children abandoned by their parents.

Daryl Te’Nadii, author of ‘The Orphaned Soldier’, was one of those children.
Orphaned as a 5-month-old baby, Daryl and his brothers fought to survive the hell on earth no child should ever have to live through or witness, let alone endure. He, along with thousands of other little children, were unwittingly left in the care of Salvation Army officers who subjected him and the other little boys to terrifying psychological and physical violence behind closed doors at the Hodderville Boys’ home in Waikato, NZ.
In his book ‘The Orphaned Soldier’, Daryl tells the TRUE STORY about his life at Hodderville boys home and beyond escaping the orphanage, as well as life on the streets at 14 years of age, fossicking in garbage bins for food to survive and sleeping on dirt covered with cardboard at night to stay warm and dry after being deserted by his mother only to become the only surviving sibling in his family.
Now a sixty-seven-year-old man living in Australia, Daryl was one of those kids you read about or see in a movie who have had such a horrific upbringing that it’s hard to believe or even assume he is alive today. “It was tough writing this book when I knew that the journey I would go on would take me back to a place I had spent my whole life trying to forget,” Daryl said.

Asked about why he wrote ‘The Orphaned Soldier’, quietly spoken but animated, Daryl said, “I really had to.
Because forgetting about it would also mean that I had forgotten about all the children—my orphaned brothers who lost their souls in the hell hole of Hodderville. Through my story, they have a voice they were never allowed to have”.

Daryl is only one voice out of the thousands of children who suffered painful atrocities and torment while institutionalised as wards of the state. The acts that occurred were so severe, so appalling that many died prematurely, cloaked in memories of horrors, which terrified and anchored them to Hodderville and their abusers.
“They would sexually assault us, beat us near to death, and take away any dignity we had left as humans, just to satisfy their sick and perverted ways. This was a normal day, and I will always remember my life under their care, the Salvation Army. " As an orphaned child at Hodderville Boys’ home in New Zealand,” said Daryl Te’Nadii.
I was left to lay in the hospital three times, trying to survive the physical attacks on me that would leave me blind for three days after an assault, recovering from a drowning at the hands of an officer and to have stitches to my finger, leg and head after an enraged attack by another officer. These would only be a small number of times the physical beatings would take place. My Story, The Orphaned Soldier, opens up about the many physical assaults I would face as a child.
Suicide was not an option for me anymore; being free from atrocities, the pain of beatings, and stolen dignity gave me the strength to take my life. In tears and memories, at 8 years of age, I would attempt suicide, only to fail. There must have been a reason, and later in life, I would learn this as I reached out for help.
From the horrors of Hodderville, scavenging the streets for food and shelter to stay alive, to severe beatings at the hands of his stepfather, Daryl showed a tenacity and determination that is nothing short of inspirational.
Today, I still wonder in my mind how Daryl asks. Joining the Army, he would return to complete his High School Certificate (HSC) at twenty-eight years of age after dropping out of school at 14 years of age and in his first year at high school.
He would later be chosen to complete the elite training course with the SAS but decided instead to attend the Army’s Physical Training Instructors course and went on to become a senior Master Coach in all sports and a Sargent in physical education (PTI) and obtain his Degree in Exercise Sport Science before triumphing, by winning twenty-nine Australian titles and two international gold medals in powerlifting and bodybuilding.
“Later in life, I learned that drugs, alcohol, depression, and suicide were among the biggest reasons many of the children from my Hodderville Boys’ home days never made it. The pain of what they went through growing up in the home from hell, or “Horrorville”, as some of us called it, just got too much to live with. I hope by telling our story, it in some way helps to heal the past.” Daryl said.

People who have experienced sexual, physical, or emotional abuse as children are two to three times more likely to commit suicide as adults. Child abuse and neglect are the leading behavioural risk factors contributing to suicide and self-harm, new research write their own future and change these statistics.
He hopes his story will shine a light on violence against children and how to overcome it and not continue the cycle. Along with this, he also feels this will inspire many men who are suffering to seek help and talk about life, hardships, and the pain they carry at this time with “Men’s Health”.