'Everyone wants to be hard, staunch'

By Jan Corbett

Gut-wrenching photographs of battered victims such as Patty Smith provide the public face of violence.

But statistically, Pakeha superannuitants are the least likely to be attacked.

Not only do Maori and Pacific Island men dish out most of the violence, they are also more likely to be victims of it.

"The people who beat us up are about 18 and want to be gangsters," says 15 year-old Josh [not his real name], a Samoan who is himself built like a rugby prop.

"Some you know, some will be strangers. There'll be girls there cheering them on. In college everyone wants to be gangsters, be hard, own the territory, see who's the toughest, be staunch.

"Last year at school this young guy had to bring a knife to protect himself. He was always getting picked on."

Research by Auckland University's Injury Prevention Research Centre shows Maori men aged between 15 and 24 are the most likely to be murdered or assaulted.

But researcher Janet Fanslow cautions that the victim who ends up in hospital may have been the guy who started the fight.

Maori women are also more likely than Pakeha women to be murdered, and they account for half of all women admitted to hospital with assault injuries. Yet Maori make up just 14 per cent of the population.

Much of the push for Maori men to do something about their problems with violence has come from Maori women.

Although she cannot produce figures, Merepeka Raukawa-Tait, chief executive of Women's Refuge, says the number of Maori and Pacific Island women and children using New Zealand's 56 refuges is "right off the scale."

She believes violence has been part of those communities for many years.

"To a certain extent there's an in-built acceptance. It's been there in the past, it's no big deal, the women will get over it, the families cover it up. Culture, to a certain extent, is sometimes used as an excuse for abuse.

"But I cannot stress enough that people tend to look the other way in Maori and Pacific Island families.

"It is hard to deal with and will not change until we get people taking responsibility and those in leadership roles speaking out and exposing domestic violence."