Family violence
"Definitions and their significance
The seven ethnic-specific Conceptual Frameworks highlight the complex nature of meanings and definitions within and across cultures. Meanings are multidimensional, in that no one concept or principle stands alone. To fulfil the meaning of one concept requires the active presence of others. The term wellbeing in the Tongan context, for example, focuses on achieving napangapanga mālie (balance) of atamai (mind), laumālie (spiritual) and sino (physical).6 Each of the constituents of napangapanga mālie needs to be understood within the Tongan frames of meaning to glimpse the Tongan ideal of ‘wellbeing’. Ethnic-specific concepts address the whole person, whole familes, villages, communities and countries. The challenges around understanding meanings across cultures also extend to how issues of family violence for these communities are languaged in government documents; “perceptions and meanings of violence will differ in ethnic communities from the constructions of meanings in Western societies”.7 When attempting to name realities that are meaningful to an ethnic-specific community’s lived experiences, including family violence, commonly used terms such as ‘Pacific’, for example, sit in a conceptual vacuum. There is no frame of reference for the term Pacific in ethnic-specific cultures.
'(Pacific) … was a creation which has never existed in practice … Pacific Islands community … is a collection of distinctive groupings which have occasionally formed coalitions to pursue interests in common … a unified community was, and is, unlikely to emerge.' (Macpherson, 1997)"
Peteru, C. (2012). Falevitu: A literature review on culture and family violence in seven Pacific communities in New Zealand. Ministry of Social Development.
(See the associated Pacific Conceptual Frameworks here.)
Sexual violence
"With regard to identifying risks and vulnerabilities for Pacific communities, research findings showed that sexual violence is mostly perpetrated by family members, acquaintances and people within the community. This is consistent with research by Siaosi Sumeo (2004) whereby, in Samoan society, sexual violence was found to be perpetrated by those in the immediate circles of a victim (family members, acquaintances of family members and others in the community).
Perpetrators, often span the range of male relatives, including uncles, grandfathers, and cousins. There may be multiple incidents of sexual violence by multiple perpetrators within the family. In addition, sexual violence is usually not reported to authorities even if disclosed. This may be attributable to a victim being coerced not to take any further action by the extended family, and to be quiet about the offence (Auckland Sexual Abuse HELP 2002).
Research undertaken by Auckland Sexual Abuse HELP (2002) found that there were a number of restraints, which prohibited disclosure of sexual violence particularly amongst young females across all ethnic groups. However, for young Pacific females, it was discovered that the notion of having been taught to obey and respect adults was a factor in underreporting (Auckland Sexual Abuse HELP 2002). This research also included perspectives of staff of an Auckland based non-profit organisation - Pacific Island Women’s Health Project (PIWHP) who work with Pacific victims of sexual violence.
PIWHP maintained that there is much fear around disclosure. For instance, it may cost a woman’s reputation to disclose that she has been sexually violated. She may be re-abused, disowned and disassociated by her family, as well as made to feel ashamed and guilty. Upholding the family name is important. Often there is more concern for the family name than the reputation of the victim, and often sexual violence remains unreported to the police and therefore statistically under-represented (Auckland Sexual Abuse HELP 2002).
It was also suggested that disclosure for Pacific adult women takes time. An example given was that women who phoned in or were in counselling, would initially talk about how they could not manage their finances, or were worried about housing issues and with ensuing months would then be comfortable to discuss sexual violence issues. This indicates that often other issues have to be dealt with first before the underlying issues are addressed (Auckland Sexual Abuse HELP 2002).
Other issues to emerge from the research include:
- Topics of a sexual nature have traditionally a “tapu” subject - there are differences in levels of acculturation and how comfortable people are about information sharing around sex. Observation suggests that generally parents are not comfortable in talking about sex with their children. On the other hand, women and men will talk about sex within their own peer group, in their own language. They will talk about sex in a humorous way.
- Prevention and education - In addition to humour, messages are also conveyed through falea’itu (Samoan comedy). Strong messages about rape can be presented in that medium. A further example of a way for raising awareness is the use of Fa’agogo (Samoan bedtime story). This is a metaphorical way of conveying the message. It is easier for communities to say that sexual violence is a sensitive issue than to speak openly about it. The PIWHP acknowledges that, but do not shy away from talking about the issue of unwanted sexual approaches.
- Language - There is an issue with language and the need to translate and create Pacific discourses of understanding to convey meaning. There is no one word for rape. For instance, the Niue words that have been used in relation to sexual violence include, fakapilo and takiva (to dirty something). Samoan words include fa’amalosi (to force).
- The church - where a Pacific male’s reputation is important, especially if they hold a leadership role within the church. Where there is offending sometimes there is conspiring when a minister may ask or suggest that an allegation should not be taken any further. Ministers have the power to assist with change."
Note: This page was created as pre-reading for the Auckland Regional Networking Meeting, Family and Sexual Violence held at Western Springs in September 2012.