Time for respect ... and no more excuses

By Andrew Stone

Ettie Pasene-Mizziebo has had enough.

"I'm sick of those excuses," she says.

"They say it's stress. Then it's because there's no money. Then it's their cultural right.

"Well, I tell them that is crap. I tell them 'enough'. Stop there.

"What about respect? What about treating people properly?"

Ettie Pasene-Mizziebo, from Niue, is one of a handful of Pacific Island family counsellors who have worked in the violence and abuse field.

Based in Mangere at a South Auckland Health clinic, she believes violence within Island families is a far worse problem than its community leaders admit.

She feels violence is partly wrapped up in cultural beliefs about male authority in Island families - a tradition that makes it hard to persuade fathers to stop lashing out.

"I don't accept it's a cultural practice. I see violence as a choice people make and perpetuate because their fathers did it to them."

Former broadcaster Tino Pereira sparked a debate in Samoan circles when he drew back the family curtain on his own upbringing, likening it to a "chamber of unrelenting violence."

Mr Pereira decided to speak out because he felt offending was "brushed under the mat."

But he ended up on the mat when outrage was heaped on him for suggesting that Samoa had a culture of violence.

Alfred Hunkin, head of Samoan studies at Victoria University, says Samoan culture does not sanction violence.

"We have a strong culture of respect."

Mr Hunkin accepts that some Pacific parents go beyond the limits of disciplining children, but strongly rejects any implication that Samoan family life is routinely violent.

Otahuhu barrister Simativa Perese says Mr Pereira made Samoans seem like "bone-breakers," and reinforced an image of violence among Islanders.

He argues that statistics showing Pacific Islanders over-represented in violent offending need to be placed in context.

Islanders comprise 6 per cent of the total population, and 4 per cent of those aged 17 and over.

But in 1997 they recorded 9 per cent of total convictions and 15 per cent of violent offences.

Most offences occurred in the Auckland region, where New Zealand's Pacific population is youthful, with an average age of only 19.

Most offending is committed by men aged between 17 and 30, says Mr Perese, so the age imbalance is bound to be reflected in crime figures.

To this big youth "bubble" he adds the stress of low incomes, unemployment and the lack of village networks that underpin life in the Islands.

The South Auckland lawyer says that despite these disturbing trends, few programmes exist to support Pacific Islanders.

Those programmes in operation suggest a great need for assistance.

A Health Ministry-financed programme uses two Samoan church ministers to deliver an anti-violence message.

But Lanuola Asiasiga, of the Pacific Health Research Centre, says many high-risk families are outside church networks, with little support and little motivation to get help.

A project she completed last year concluded that violence in Pacific families was "still very much hidden behind closed doors."

She notes that when a Samoan anti-abuse programme ran in Wellington, the community discussed the issue.

When the scheme stopped, the talking stopped.

She believes successful,community-supported programmes must be long-term and must involve entire families rather than individuals.

The immediate outlook seems bleak.

A 1998 Ministry of Justice report, Responses to Crime, forecast in a section on Pacific Island communities that an increase in offending was "largely inevitable as Pacific children enter age ranges where offending is more likely."

It said fragile support services had poor links with official agencies, partly because of language and cultural differences.

It found that one size did not fit all when it came to responding to violent offending, and suggested community-based preventive programmes aimed at family violence and parenting.

Niuean Colin Tukuitonga, who teaches at Auckland Medical School's Maori and Pacific Island health department, is involved with an anti-violence group in West Auckland.

He says the group, which provides victims' advocacy at court, is really dealing with a public health issue. But it cannot succeed because it is forever financially stretched.

The ministry report admitted that official agencies needed to improve their performance by raising awareness of violence in target communities, increasing the skills of Pacific service providers and building partnerships with groups such as churches.

Ettie Pasene-Mizziebo says there is a long way to go.

After 14 years' work in the field, she has yet to come across a programme run by Islanders for Pacific families in distress.

"When things start from the bottom upwards," she says, "then maybe we'll see some changes."