Breaking the silence

A group of Northland motorcycle enthusiasts made another contribution to breaking the silence on suicide last week.

Clad in black leathers and straddling classic Harley-Davidsons and Triumphs, they roared off from Broadway, Kaikohe, on Friday morning bound for Opotiki. They were planning to pick up more riders at Ruakaka, Auckland and the Waikato, stop at kura kaupapa in Huntly and Ngaruawahia, and spend the night at Houmaitawhiti Marae, near Rotorua.

The ride was Ngapuhi's way of carrying on the kaupapa set by the Riders Against Teenage Suicide (RATS) and the Green Ribbon Trust, who travelled en masse to Kaikohe from the Waikato last summer.

For one of the organisers, Arthur Harawira, the issue was deeply personal. He lost his teenage son to suicide 18 years ago.

Just a few years ago no one was willing to talk about Maori suicide and victims were still buried outside cemetery gates, he said.

"It was like it was tapu. It was a big thing to stand up and make a noise about it."

Making noise was the aim of the ride, Mr Harawira added.

"We're trying to make the biggest noise about suicide and get the message out that it's not okay to go that way."

He also hoped it would focus the minds of iwi and social agencies to improve co-ordination and stop people "slipping through the gaps." He urged people to write to newspapers, contact politicians, and speak to schools about suicide.

"We have to do everything in our power to stop this," he said.

The riders were led out of Kaikohe by Maori tourism and hapu leader Hone Mihaka, who said 547 New Zealanders, almost 200 of whom were from Northland, took their own lives last year.

"There's just not enough people talking about it," he said.

The ride would show Ngapuhi's, and Northland's, support for the rest of the country, he added.

The riders were accompanied by Far North police, Green MP David Clendon (on his Triumph) and Green Ribbon chairman Eru Whare, from Ngaruawahia. Mana Party leader Hone Harawira was to join the ride in Rotorua.