Robert Martin addresses an Otago Girls’ High School assembly in 2007. Photo: ODT files SIR ROBERT MARTIN Disability advocate Lived experience is a popular phrase these days, but disability rights advocate Sir Robert Martin exemplified the phrase long before it became fashionable. A tireless campaigner for the rights of the disabled, he in no way let his own intellectual disability stand in the way of achieving what he wanted to achieve.
When Sir Robert George Martin was born in Whanganui in 1957, a difficult birth left him with a brain injury. Few would have then expected that the young boy would end up a knight of the realm and a United Nations representative, but Sir Robert was no ordinary person. His childhood was mostly unhappy, and much of it was spent in institutions as a ward of the state.
In John McRae’s Becoming a Person: the biography of Robert Martin he described in disturbing detail the inhumane conditions he lived in and the ongoing abuse in places such as Lake Alice. It was stark testimony which he would later repeat when testifying at the Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquiry — a forum which he had advocated for decades to be set up. In 1972, Sir Robert was released from care and returned to Whanganui, before he left home to work in the care of IHC New Zealand.
Sir Robert soon became more than an employee. He began to educate himself and started to assert himself as an advocate for others with learning disabilities. He led protests and became a rallyi.