Hikoi cause gathers steam

Eleven people of varying backgrounds came forward following last week's anti-child abuse hikoi in Kaitaia, offering to help organise on-going events and initiatives in the town.

National spokesperson Anahera Herbert-Graves said the new group hoped to meet this week to strategise and plan its next steps. Future initiatives could include workshops and making the hikoi an annual event. Future hikoi, however, would focus more on celebrating children than on speaking out against child abuse.

Wednesday's march was timed to coincide with a court appearance by former Pamapuria School deputy principal James Parker, who has admitted 49 charges of sexually abusing boys between 1999 and 2012, and has yet to plead to 25 more.

It has already spawned a national movement, with similar events taking place simultaneously in Whangarei, Auckland and Hastings.

Mrs Herbert-Graves said child abuse was still happening, and she hoped the shock and hurt felt by the people of Kaitaia after Parker's crimes were revealed could be harnessed to effect changes. At a national level, she wanted to see the government legislate for the mandatory reporting of child abuse.

The publicity the Kaitaia hikoi received showed the rest of the country that Parker and his crimes were not representative of the town, she added.

Meanwhile, the former Oturu School principal who spoke out about Parker's behaviour more than a decade ago was at last week's hikoi, and recalled the gossip and back-biting she experienced as a result of her actions.

Fiona Lovatt-Davis, now working in education in the Nigerian city of Kano, said she had raised her concerns regarding boys' sleepovers at Parker's home with police early in Parker's career, and had refused to support his re-registration as a teacher. The only police response had been to rough Parker up a little.

"As someone who endured the gossip of this town, end the gossip and back-biting. Speak about what is good, what is truthful," she said.

She also urged that more support be given to Parker's 20 known victims, and commended the courage of the boys who had taken their complaints to the police despite the disbelief that greeted the complainants in 1999. And she suggested that supervised camps be organised so children, with their families' involvement. could experience the kind of outdoor adventures that Parker used to entice boys into staying at his farm.