This year Te Puni Kōkiri staff were asked to support a community crisis HOPE hui after several rangatahi from Raureka in Hastings committed suicide.

Thirty five people took their own lives in the Hastings coronial region in the twelve months to September 2012. When he released the statistics Chief Coroner Judge Neil MacLean told the media it’s time to bring the issue of suicide out from the shadows.

“Significant is the jump in teenage suicide numbers and the continued rise of Māori suicides, in particular: young Māori.”

Te Puni Kōkiri contracts adviser George Mackey worked alongside the Raureka families and says their decision to hold the HOPE hui was not taken lightly.

“They were clear: they wanted information to support their whānau. They also wanted to identify their own goals and aspirations as whānau and as a community.”

Kia Piki te Ora runs suicide prevention programmes and their team helped focus mahi on increasing awareness and identifying services and support. The HOPE session saw members working together to identify collective strengths and to also work out what wasn’t working well.

“We are a small tight-knit community, made up of whānau who know and understand each other well. We want strong, healthy families who will grow strong, healthy tamariki and rangatahi; we want our mokopuna to grow up ‘tight’,” says Mr Mackey.

Raureka locals are building on the HOPE session’s success and are hosting regular information sessions and community events – a basketball team’s been launched, pot luck dinners are being hosted as well as camps in local parks - with support from local councils as well as the Ministry of Education. Organisations helping Raureka on their journey to wellness include Te Taiwhenua o Heretaunga, Kia Piki te Ora, Hastings District Council, Hawkes Bay District Health Board, Minister of Education, NZ Police, Te Taitimu Trust and Te Puni Kōkiri.

Whānau Ora Minister Tariana Turia addressed a Kia Piki te Ora hui earlier this year and said investing into whānau and drawing them together to take control of their future is a key part of healing. “It is utterly and completely natural to have days of sunshine and days of rain; to be swept by the breeze and to sit quietly in the calm. Our challenge lies in how we navigate the passage through, to grow with the flow, and to reach the rapids, proud and strong, as positive, living iwi Māori.”