A father who hasn't heard from his daughter in 13 years. A sister who watched a brilliant health-sector manager turn, in her words, into a robot. An Australian teenager hospitalised and so frail her doctor feared her heart would stop. These are the stories behind Decult, a cult-awareness conference returning to Christchurch's Town Hall on October 24-25, 2026 — with a livestream option for those who can't make it in person.
Launched in 2023 by Christchurch investigative journalist Anke Richter, the event gathers more than 50 local and international speakers, including a keynote from LA-based cult specialist therapist Rachel Bernstein. Richter estimates more than 50,000 New Zealanders are current or former members of high-control groups. The 2026 programme includes a Healing Families panel hosted by Lindy Jacomb, who was excommunicated by the Exclusive Brethren at 20 and now co-hosts the Cult Chat podcast with doctor Caroline Ansley, who grew up partly in Auckland's Centrepoint community, and Liz Gregory of the Gloriavale Leavers Support Trust.
Among those sharing their stories is Australian Liz Cameron, author of Cult Bride, who was recruited at 18 by a young woman posing as a student doing a survey in a bookstore. It was months before she understood that the small "faith community", Jesus Morning Star, was a cult. By the time her mother Catherine found her, Liz had been deprived of food and sleep as tools of control and had privately accepted she might die — fearing betrayal of the group more than anything else. Catherine's advice to other parents is stark: don't attack the group or argue logic, because neither works. Stay warmly connected. "When they come out, presuming they do come out, they're really going to need you."
The panel's timing reflects a shift in how cults operate. Cameron describes them as shapeshifters hiding behind fronts like sports clubs, art groups and modelling agencies, and notes many became highly adept at online recruitment during the pandemic. Groups such as the International Churches of Christ are known to target university students on campus. Speaking in public for the first time, an Auckland social worker (using the pseudonym Sara) described how her sister Amy was drawn into the Shincheonji church — a South Korean movement criticised in Australia and New Zealand for deceptive recruitment, alleged brainwashing and financial abuse — through "bible studies" she'd been evasive about. It emerged she'd quit her job six months earlier. After a failed intervention, a staged overseas family trip finally gave Amy the distance to leave; eight years on she remains under psychiatric care.
Why cover this on a travel site? Because conferences like this are exactly the kind of event that draws visitors to New Zealand, and because awareness matters wherever you are — a young traveller, new in town and looking for community, is a prime recruitment target. Decult offers warning signs, survivor testimony and practical guidance for families, plus a livestream if a trip to the South Island isn't in the cards.
