Ribbon Riders shine a light on suicide

RIDING FOR A COMMON CAUSE: Green Ribbon Ride founding member Raz Bashar. PICTURE / DEBBIE BEADLE

The weather didn't provide much of a welcome - a couple came off their bikes as they rode across slippery railway tracks in Kawakawa - but that didn't worry the 30 Riders Against Teen Suicide who rolled into Kaikohe on Saturday as part of the Green Ribbon campaign.

RATS were devoted to bringing the subject of teen suicide out of the dark, founding member Rory McCallister said, where it had been kept for too long.

The Green Ribbon Ride was conceived in a Waikato garage in 2011, where the six founding members were having a few beers and talking about what they could do to raise awareness of New Zealand's very high suicide rate. They were already part of the White Ribbon campaign, and decided that another ribbon would work.

Raz Bashar said green had been chosen because it represented the colour of the land, the colour of the whenua and the colour of Tane Mahuta, while RATS had also ridden with The Patriots (Army, Navy, Military Police).

"We're all riding for a common cause," he said.

Kahui Neho said there were more than 540 suicides in New Zealand last year; the youngest to die was 10 years old, the oldest 75. Eighty per cent of those who took their own lives were Maori, and 80 per cent were teenagers. Northland had the highest suicide rate, followed by Waikato.

Kahui could not understand why people would celebrate twice every year - at the Ngapuhi Festival and on Waitangi Day - but did not come out in force to address the suicide rate.

"We are here to change that," she said. "This time last year no one was talking; now we're in our second year, and it's good to see the police, Te Runanga o Whaingaroa, Kapiti Ora Ngati Hau and others on board."

Area prevention manager Senior Sergeant Chris McLellan didn't need any persuading. He said it was great to seen everyone coming together and uniting against teenager suicide, and to support the belief that 'It's not OK to go that way.'

Some of the RATS will be back in Kaikohe on Saturday for the Kaikohe Family Fun Fest at Lindvart Park.