Cycling 700km in Te Waipounamu to raise awareness of sexual abuse and violence was one of the hardest things Gisborne’s Tricia Walsh has ever done.
Tricia (Ngāti Porou, Te Whānau ā Pokai) is the Māori community engagement lead for the survivor experiences services. She goes into communities to speak with survivors of abuse in state and faith-based institutions and meet with services who engage with them.
But her overall mission is about trying to activate whānau, hapū, hapori (communities) to become more okay with having conversations about childhood abuse, sexual violence, and sexual abuse within communities.
April was sexual assault awareness month and, over the past three years, Sam Troth, the founder of the Facebook page Road to Healing Aotearoa, has done a hīkoi with others to raise awareness.
In 2022, he walked the whole of Aotearoa, from Bluff to Cape Te Reinga.
In 2023, Sam walked from the East Coast’s Mt Hikurangi to the West Coast’s Mt Taranaki.
This year he cycled 2000km around Te Waipounamu, the South Island.
Sam started in Blenheim heading towards Bluff. During this stage of the journey, Tricia joined at Queenstown.
“It was one of the hardest experiences of my life because there was a headwind, we had to bike kind of sideways as the wind wanted to blow us over and the trucks going past. I was angry and swearing, I had to pull my energy from places I didn’t know I had,” Walsh said.
Tricia is 58 years old and didn’t do any training as she was busy going across the country with her role.
She said the beauty of it was having her two mokopuna following along in the van yelling out support.
“They would say, ‘Go, Nanny, you can do it.’ I did this for them, to show that nanny can do anything so they can too and that you can support kaupapa in all sorts of ways.”
The mission to raise awareness and create action comes from her own experience of sexual abuse.
“I know the impacts the abuse can have on your life trajectory. It’s a kaupapa really close to my heart.
“For me, I would never want anyone to live the life and childhood I had. My mokopuna and their safety is really important to me.”
When she heard Sam was going to cycle around the South Island she thought about how she could help, or koha to it.
So she decided to join in.
She was “blessed” with an e-bike donated by Tūranga Health for her to join in the mission.
The New Zealand Crime and Victims Survey estimate that more than one in four New Zealand adults (27 per cent) reported being the victim of at least one act of sexual assault in their lifetime.
“My role is to share my experience so others who have had that experience feel safe to share their own or at least acknowledge it so doesn’t become unspoken shame.”
Sam said the reason he does these events is because of the people.
“It’s about connecting to people and the communities. Nobody knows how bad it is unless they have been through it.
“I love when people jump on the kaupapa with me as there is power in numbers.
“One person walking down the road might just look like a crazy fella who has lost his car keys, but if you have a group of people, it becomes a movement.”
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