‘She Is Not Your Rehab’ today launches the #HakaAgainstViolence social media challenge, a nationwide online campaign for families to stand up against family violence through haka.

She Is Not Your Rehab, founded in 2019 by Christchurch barber Matt Brown and his wife Sarah Brown (Ngāpuhi), is a movement inviting men to acknowledge their own childhood trauma and to take responsibility for their healing so that they can transform their pain instead of transmitting it on those around them.

100 whānau from throughout New Zealand have already accepted the #HakaAgainstViolence challenge, learning the specially written haka ‘Taku Aronga’ (Our Purpose) by Komene Kururangi (Tauranga Moana, Te Whakatōhea, Ngāti Porou), and filming their haka during Level 3 & 4 of lockdown. These families’ videos will be posted on their own Facebook pages, while they challenge their followers to join in.

The #HakaAgainstViolence challenge is supported by the Ministry of Social Development’s ‘Its not OK Campaign’, The Warehouse Group and Facebook.

Prime Minister Jacinda Adern comments that "We have to change the way we confront domestic violence – not just through our services but also through the way we seek to address domestic violence as a nation, and the way we encourage conversation and an entire culture change."

Originally planned for White Ribbon Day 2020, Matt and Sarah brought the #HakaAgainstViolence challenge forward in response to the pressures of COVID-19 on mental health and wellbeing, and the expected rise in violence within the home.

“The #HakaAgainstViolence challenge is a refreshing innovative approach. Family violence affects so many people and finding new ways that speak to people to help them open up isn’t easy. We can’t keep doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result, so lets all get behind this great initiative and show our support” says Minister Poto Williams, Associate Minister of the Ministry of Social Development (Family & Sexual Violence).

Komene Kururangi, a Kaiako Māori and a longstanding client of Matt’s, believes “Haka has always been an emissary which, with mana and passion, convey ones thoughts and feelings about a given kaupapa.”

Matt says “COVID-19 has been mentally tough for many whānau and now it is more important than ever for men to talk and reach out, rather than to respond in violence to those pressures. I invite men to show their friends, workmates and whānau that violence is never okay by standing with us to #HakaAgainstViolence.”

To join the #HakaAgainstViolence, join the Facebook Group here , learn the haka and post a video of your whānau doing your haka to Facebook. Tag three other whānau to follow your lead. Any participating whānau using the #HakaAgainstViolence hashtag will go in the draw to win one of three $500 Warehouse shopping vouchers.

Chief Executive and White Ribbon ambassador Pejman Okhovat says The Warehouse has a long history of supporting Kiwis affected by family violence, including a shielded portal on its website where people can seek help confidentially, and a leave policy and programme for its 12,000 employees.

“We’re proud to have been the first organisation in the country to introduce a paid leave policy for our team members impacted by family violence and we hope to continue to bring about change through our ongoing work with Women’s Refuge and White Ribbon. Now more than ever it’s important for Kiwis to look out for eachother and to stand up against family violence. We’re pleased to partner with She Is Not Your Rehab, The Ministry of Social Development and Facebook to get behind this campaign and show that violence is never okay.”

The #HakaAgainstViolence social media challenge runs from 1st May to the 15th May.

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