Unfortunately we did have to unplug you there for a second but we're in the process
of moving locations and there's just stuff everywhere.
If you could just see where we are you'd understand where I'm coming from.
So I do apologize from the deepest part of my heart.
Let's start again.
Now it's like an electrical slice.
It was just one of those things.
I'm not technical myself so I asked someone else to do it for me and they still did put
it in right.
So I'm glad we can hear you now.
Oh no problem.
As we were saying before, you contacted me through IPL because I put something up on
Facebook and it was the word resilience.
Is that correct?
It was and it just a very short post that says resilience, the capacity to withstand or quickly recover
from difficulties.
And it's something that really resonated with me because when you're a victim of human
trafficking and you have no choice when you're physically tortured or I've witnessed murder
on multiple occasions, then how do you compartmentalize that?
How do you move forward with your life when essentially it's like being in two different
worlds, this world where I had been drugged and if I got angry, if I voiced my anger at
all or showed any kind of emotion, then I would be physically tortured and have had
marbles put in my mouth and then smashed with a, like a mallet, like a kitchen mallet, which
then smashes your teeth.
But then in my waking everyday life, I'm functional, I go to work, I volunteer at a radio station,
I have all these other outside hobbies and interests and like going to the beach for
walks and it's something that people I think don't really understand because I was going
to work or I thought I was going to work and I was indeed going to work, but because it's
so difficult to know what's happening when you're being drugged, when you're in the midst
of that.
Was this an Australian?
It was.
Well, I was taken in and out of Australia, yes.
There's hard evidence of a passport photo of me and a different name underneath and
flight logs and police don't want to know about it.
They're not interested.
So when I tried to get a search warrant so that I could try and get justice, I was given
a referral to Alma Street and so having not a lot of trust in professionals because
in my waking everyday life when I had tried to express this is what's happening,
I'm a victim of human trafficking and the frustration levels because I'm not being heard
and tried to I guess pin me into a little hole and say I was schizophrenic.
So it really, whether it be in this drugged life or in my waking life, it really hadn't
been safe to express my feelings and express what was going on.
How do you function as a normal person after all that has happened to you?
So part of that in my early days, I started to study social work.
Now I don't think that was the right degree for me and I ended up changing midway through,
but what it gave me was the tools on communication and more so resilience.
It was one of the key things I got out of it was creating happiness and sustaining happiness.
So that's something that even though I no longer took that social work avenue, I have
created a course that is like a happiness toolkit that involves some of the things that
I've learnt along the way and what kind of areas of the brain help with your happiness
levels and really looking...
Sounds amazing and obviously it's something that's helped you along.
Oh absolutely and I think too, building that support system, so whether that's through
like doctors and counsellors or just having friends and understanding that it's letting
them know that if I don't show up for something, ring the police because the reason that it
happened to start with was because I was in a vulnerable situation.
I didn't have any family.
I had a young child and my child was go to a babysitter, go to my friend's house, but
be you know, looked after one night a week while I was working and this person and I
still don't know who they are today was ringing my friend and saying I was sick, I had to
work late, I'm not feeling well, so that they would take care of her for two, three, four
days at a time when I was being drugged and taken not only in Australia but overseas.
So I had no justice from this at all.
So thankfully when I was given a referral to Alma Street, they confirmed these details
and the evidence that was there and said sorry, I'd normally send you to police but clearly
that's not an option.
So I'm in the process of looking at ways to develop an app to not only diagnose but also
treat PTSD, so that's the bigger long-term plan and the short-term one is me doing a
podcast and getting other people in from those neuroscience, psychology, you know, doctors,
people that focus on the brain to look at different ways where like the emotions that
the brain has or the physical chemistry of the brain and how the little things that we
can do ourselves to help put ourselves in a better state.
Wow, that sounds amazing.
How long ago was this that happened to you, can I ask?
It's recent, like so it went on for 12 years.
I would say in the last six months is when it sort of started to come to a close and
I recently spoke to somebody overseas who said the person that bought her was a lawyer.
So I don't think it's, you know, specific type of person.
Do you know what I mean?
Like I feel like it's so widespread and whilst it's something that I can't prove, I do wonder
if it's linked in with some of these other bigger cases.
Yeah, it sounds like it could be because obviously if it's a lawyer in that instance, it could
be high profile people.
Wow, that's, I mean, you hear about these things, you hear about them and you see them
on TV, you read books about them, but I've never spoken to anyone who's actually been
through it and I just, my heart goes out to you because I can't imagine the trauma that
you had at the time, the trauma that you must be going through on a day to day basis having
to deal with something you're not even sure about yourself because you haven't got answers
to help you along.
Absolutely.
You can't accept what happened because you don't know what happened.
I remember bits and pieces of what happened, but I think more so, you know, people say
to me, you know, why can't you remember XYZ?
And I think, well, I think I'm so possibly hyper-focused on the murders that I've witnessed
and trying to recall as much detail as possible so that if anything does come about where
I'm able to get justice, then I'm able to be as reliable as possible.
I think when you go through trauma too, your brain switches off and tries to just help
you through by not reminding you of that sort of stuff.
It's just, yeah, it's an awful story.
You know, your nervous system is so out of whack because, you know, you've been through
trauma for such a long period.
So it's really about doing meditation and looking for ways that bring me peace and bring
me calm.
Sure.
Have you been through hypnotherapy at all?
I haven't been through hypnotherapy.
I had thyroid cancer quite a few years ago, so I'm quite focused on diet and, you know,
trying to eat organically where I can or limit bread or my rice and that sort of thing.
And just try and focus on your meat and veg and salads.
Good for you.
So how are you coping now?
How's life for you now?
It's good.
It really feels though like it's at the start of the journey and you've got to kind of rebuild.
And sometimes when others might go along and, you know, they get a little hiccup in the
road and you get a little sort of dip and then you go along on your merry way.
I kind of feel like because so much has happened that it's been such an overwhelming journey,
if I get a little bump, sometimes that can, you know, send you into a bit of a spiral
and you've got to be really focused about, well, okay, I'm aware this has happened.
And having a list almost to remind yourself like, okay, let's do X, Y and Z. Let's start
on a daily basis and see what I can do today and then look at what I can do tomorrow and
the next day and the next day.
And then after that, you start to slowly build up again so that you're, you know, feeling
a bit more confident and feeling like you're on a bit of more sort of even ground.
Yeah, unbelievable.
I heard you say that you're volunteering in a radio station.
What radio station do you volunteer for?
It is Radio Free Mantle.
Oh, cool.
And do you find that that's really good therapy for you?
Because my suffer from anxiety, depression and I feel radio is my therapy.
Has it helped you?
It really is because I bring a little bit of my podcast into the studio.
So I'll often, you know, try and have guests where we're talking about the manifestation
or clearing statements or it might be, you know, more specific to the brain and different
emotions.
I think music is such good therapy in it.
100%.
Yeah, gets you dancing, gets you happy.
Absolutely.
I always say that I have a therapist and they know his music.
That's my mantra.
I want to give that as a tattoo actually.
Oh, that would be a great tattoo.
Queen, just while I have you, Norenda, what a powerful, incredible life story.
And thank you for sharing that.
Absolutely.
The fact that you're still here, the fact that you're still walking, the fact that you're
still so positive and very true to your first communication.
Oh, thank you.
Yeah, look, I think...
And very courageous too.
I think it's really courageous to be able to talk about things that are very negative
in your life because people do judge you.
Do you have that a lot in your life?
People judge you for your story?
Yeah.
I really have had that and I think it's something that I used to be quite afraid to talk about,
but I think buried in there, there was quite a bit of survivor's guilt as well for the
people that I've seen murdered.
So when you are in those situations and you're in fight or flight and your nervous system's
all over the place, you really do need to look at those very...
What's that?
Is it Maslow's Law?
Is that what it's called?
Your survival, what you need just to get by in the day.
You just go to a survival mode.
And it's once that you've built that out and you're sort of comfortable on those levels,
then you can sort of almost look at starting to work on the trauma from there.
But I think at this stage, it's just about building out that survival space.
Yep.
So how far are you with this app now?
Not as far as I would like.
I had worked with a company, a research company called Practira, and they were amazing.
So they work with the universities and look at having the masters or honours students
to do the research, do some research for you.
So I've worked on sort of the benefits and what are some of the disadvantages of it.
But I need to do a little bit more on the practicalities of it.
And it almost goes into ophthalmology or psychology.
So it's quite involved, but I'm enjoying the process.
You're able to do it.
Yeah, absolutely.
Please keep in contact me about that because once you have got it up and going, I would
love to be able to come out there for you as well.
Thank you.
Yes, I really, it's something that I feel if it's something that can help me and can
assist others, then it would be great to be able to get it out there for the community
and also for that rural aspect where maybe people find it a bit harder to get services
because they are located a bit further out.
Definitely a great idea.
So you do podcasts as well as you said.
Do you talk about these sort of things on your podcast?
I do, yes.
How do people get hold of you on the podcast?
Have you got an address or something we can...
The podcast is Manifestation, Motivation and Passion Brain Rewiring Required, which is
a little bit wordy.
Can you send me that information on my phone and then I'll be able to promote it on my
page?
Absolutely, yeah, of course.
Right.
Thank you.
Yeah, go on.
And how many times do you go up to your podcast?
Is it once a week or...?
It has been once a week.
I've just moved it to once a fortnight at the moment because it's a little bit crazy
and a bit going on, but hopefully it will be once a week again in the near future.
Brilliant.
And do you have people contact you through Facebook, et cetera, and chat about these
types of things or you don't tend to go down the track?
Yeah, so I've got a Facebook page and Instagram page, Manifestation, Motivation and Passion.
Great, yeah.
Go and send that to me and I'll pass that on.
If anyone wants to contact, that would be amazing.
Absolutely.
I think with that survivor's guilt, it's being in a room with someone and seeing them talk
and get angry and wanting to escape and not be able to is very difficult and then seeing
someone being shot in person and I think smelling that blood.
So then it's almost like there are...
These murders that you've seen, have they been brought to justice?
Has anything happened about that?
No.
These people just disappeared?
Disappeared, yeah.
Really?
You're saying the professionals were saying you're a schizophrenic and you're going to
go to Alma Street.
Sorry, I can't hear you very well.
You're saying that the professionals were saying you're a schizophrenic and you're going
to go to Alma Street.
Is that right?
No, no.
So the police had tried to pin me as schizophrenic and referred me to Alma Street.
Oh, the police.
Yeah.
And it was Alma Street that said to me, no, we've confirmed everything and we would normally
send you to police, but that's clearly not an option.
There's still no action coming by.
So maybe there's some sort of...
And so...
...what's happening there.
Well, I've approached lawyers even and they've basically said until police do a search warrant,
there isn't anything that can be done.
So yeah.
That's so frustrating.
And I had previously made friends with a police officer and that took a while in itself because
I'm not overly trusting of authority.
But this person said, I'm a third generation cop and very honest.
If there's anything I can do, I'll look into your case.
I'll help you out.
And he came back and said, I'm really sorry, but corruption's that high up.
I'm so disgusted.
I'm leaving.
And that's in little Perth, WA.
Have you been able to find anyone who's gone through the same sort of thing that you've
gone through in a similar situation?
That people can support you with this?
You know, like maybe there was more of you females as well.
I mean, obviously there wasn't just you.
Absolutely.
And I've seen other people that have been drugged and passed out being raped.
So I know it's definitely not me.
I haven't met anyone in WA.
The closest I've come is speaking to a lady that was in America.
I don't know that it was happening through the same group of people, but she was the
victim of human trafficking.
Wow.
That's just a very sad, sad story.
I'm so sorry you went through that.
My heart goes out to you because...
And the fact that you haven't got any justice and you don't know the full story makes it
even more difficult to accept, I think.
And to move on.
It's hard to move on when you don't really know what happened.
There's so many questions you must have.
It is.
But I also think that there are two...
I'm not convinced that it's the one group of people that it was happening through.
And the reason I say that is that when I was being drugged, the feeling would be different.
So I feel like I was being drugged with different substances.
So in that case, it would be different groups of people using different forms of drugs.
Look, maybe it's not.
I don't...
And this is it.
That's just your opinion.
I just don't know.
But that's how it felt.
Like the...
Yeah.
Sometimes you would feel a little bit clearer in the head and then there were other times
that you were just so, you know, off your face that you really didn't know whether you
were coming or going.
So how did you...
Can I ask how you got out of it?
What was the end of that story?
How did you escape?
I think it was simply that I have believed in the power of the pen and kept writing to
different people.
I've written to lawyers.
I've written to politicians in Perth WA.
I've also written to lawyers overseas, prime ministers, presidents overseas.
And...
Well, sorry.
Let me change that up.
You can... what I meant was when you were trafficked, how did you get out of that situation
and get home?
No, I don't know.
Like literally, I would...
You just ended up back on the street.
I would go to bed, go to sleep.
I would wake up somewhere else and then I would be drunk and then I would wake up in
my home, in my car, in my bed.
Yeah.
Oh, I see.
Wow.
So...
And I think...
It's part of why I've never been able to get justice is because I don't have that...
I've never seen...
Only on one occasion have I ever seen someone that was...
So clearly you've had to have moved because you'd hoped for the process to happen all
over again.
Can you hear Lorenzo?
I can't hear him very well.
Okay.
So what he's saying was that because of all this happening at a particular time in your
life, you would be... you'd definitely move from that area.
For example, if you were in a home that was happening particularly in this place, if you
moved to another home, was it still happening?
Well, I was... over the space of the last 12 years, I think I've moved about five times
or more.
And it's been happening still?
So yeah, I was initially in Atwell and then I've moved to Hamilton Hill.
I moved over to Melbourne and was over in Melbourne for a few months.
Yeah, you don't really need to feel it's working.
Obviously, if anyone's listening, we don't want them to know where you are near either.
No, no, no.
Yeah, so it has actually moved with you?
So it has, yeah.
And I even at one point got a detective to look for like listening bugs in my house,
which they found.
That did.
We're good, actually, yeah.
I can't believe that.
That's almost a movie that you'd see on a Netflix channel.
It's just absolutely amazing and sad and not amazing good, amazing and terrible.
Yeah, it's just...
I don't know how you survive on a day-to-day basis.
I really don't.
So you've got a lot of support now.
You've got a lot of support as in counselling, all that sort of thing.
Not a huge amount.
It's still, I think it's always going to be sort of looking at ways, you know, you can
continue to build that support network.
Yeah.
It's trust, isn't it?
And it is.
It really is.
And especially when there have been impersonators and someone that was quite well known in the
film industry who I was an acquaintance with and they had rocked up at my door and I let
them in.
And next thing I woke up with, and sort of like in-air quotation marks, their penis in
my mouth.
However, when I then spoke to a mutual friend and said, look, is this person even in Australia
because something just felt off?
And they contacted and said, look, I'm really sorry.
Like I don't think so, but let me check.
And came back and said, they haven't even been in Australia for the last three months.
So then how do you meet a partner or trust people when you never know if the person in
front of you is legitimately them?
Can I ask, are you in a relationship now?
No.
No, I'm not surprised.
I would like to meet someone, but I just feel like it's incredibly difficult when you just
don't know if you can trust that person.
Just in regards to support groups, I'm not sure if you can hear me, still not.
I think now even refugees, have you been contacting any of those?
I don't know how to say which ones, but have you been out to support?
I didn't hear the name of the group, but there is one.
No, we're not.
We weren't going to talk about actually names of groups.
We wanted to make sure or ask if you were involved in any of that type of thing.
So over the last 12 years, I really haven't been.
It was only through doing this podcast that it came about that a lady said, oh, I know
a person that has a support group for victims of human trafficking.
So it's only really recently that I've been in contact and she had recommended that I
look it up.
Because I have a lived experience, they said that if you, obviously you've got to meet
certain qualifications, but would there be an interest of working for the company?
And have you gone with that?
That's literally, I've just got the information.
So this is sort of all happened in the last week.
Good, good.
I think that would help.
I'm really told.
Obviously you've got a lot of information there to support others in that situation.
And unfortunately it is something that is happening out there.
We can't close our eyes to it and there is to it because it does actually happen.
And yes, it does happen in Australia.
I really appreciate you coming along and being very courageous with your story.
It's probably the saddest one I've ever heard, to be honest.
More than anything, and even though I'm not coming across that way at the moment, I am
incredibly angry.
There's so much rage there that the person or persons that are responsible are not being
held accountable.
And other than sort of telling bits and pieces of my story, I don't know how to get that
message out there.
Is there anything, sort of last words that you would say to women to try and alleviate
this happening to them?
Although it's quite random anyway, isn't it?
Something you weren't aware it was ever going to happen.
Was there any red flags anywhere?
None.
It was very random, was it?
I think it was just build your support systems.
People know you well enough that if you don't show up for something, then try and find out
answers and if they can't get in contact with you, call the police.
But then, I don't even know if that's a reasonable thing to say, given that police haven't been
in your system.
The first thing we do with anything illegal happens is the first thing we're told to do
is run the police, aren't we?
I mean, that's how we're brought up.
Absolutely.
If there's something that has happened to you that you have no respect or confidence
in the police actually helping you out, then where do you go?
No.
Really?
Did you have any family that could help you out in these times?
No.
That was what made me so vulnerable was because I didn't have family.
My mum had passed away.
Maybe they knew that.
My grandparents had passed away and I had a young daughter at the time.
It sounds like they've picked you out because you're vulnerable or you were vulnerable
at the time.
You're an easy target.
That's my opinion, of course.
I don't know what happened, but that's how it sounds to me.
I'm going to leave it there, Quinn.
I'm absolutely shocked in your story and my heart goes out to you and full respect for
you bringing the story to us today.
I wish I could give you a hug because if you were here, I would give you a massive hug.
Thank you.
I'm sending you a hug now and Lorenzo's sending you a big hug.
Please keep in contact with me because we both do a similar thing on radio.
My radio is all about mental health.
If you've got people that you have into your radio, maybe I could borrow them and vice
versa.
Lovely.
That sounds great.
It sounds really good.
Have an amazing day and my heart goes out to you.
As you say, keep happy.
Find ways to keep you happy and once the app's out there, you let me know.
Thank you.
I'm going to put on my happiness toolkit.
It will be launching soon.
I'll post you all the links.
Absolutely brilliant.
Fantastic.
Please do.
You take care.
Thank you very much.
I'm going to put on a bit of a happy song now and have a great day.
Thank you again.
Thanks for having me.
Thanks.
Your edited.