'Manning up' to elder abuse

Award-winning actor Pete Smith has a great deal of sympathy for Pineaha Murray, the 73-year-old Te Hapua man who said he and his wife were being driven from their home in the community where he was born by abuse from a critic of Ngati Kahu's signing of its deed of settlement with the Crown (Kaumatua driven from his home, Northland Age, February 20).

Mr Smith, who was raised in the Far North, and still lives there (at Takahue), said the fundamental problem was a lack of respect on the part of some members of younger generations. And he had been a victim of it, at the hands of three young men in Kaitaia's main street one night last year.

He had removed his wife from the scene then returned, with a support person. And while he admitted throwing the first punch, after extreme provocation, it was he who ended up in hospital.

"I had just had a heart operation. I was a sick old man," he said, "and they picked up on that."

He was twice admitted to Kaitaia Hospital with three broken ribs and a collapsed lung. Told after his second discharge that he was fit enough to go to Auckland, he was later admitted to Middlemore Hospital, where he was in a coma for three days and a patient for four weeks. A doctor had told him that he was lucky to be alive.

His physical health restored, he suffered post-traumatic stress for months, to the point where he could not face going into Kaitaia.

"I had to get help, and I got it, but I've only just come right," he said.

His experience was hardly unique though. That sort of behaviour was seen regularly, in the streets and at gatherings, Mr Smith said. And the fundamental problem was that a lot of young people did not recognise the values of their elders.

"They need to learn respect. They need to learn to love this town, not treat it like a rubbish bin," he said.

"The way things are now we take six steps forward and they take us 20 steps back. They enslave us with their behaviour."

Mr Murray had been told the incident at his home would 'blow over,' but Mr Smith was determined not to let that happen.

"It'll just blow up again if we don't do something about it," he said.

"Older people are precious to our society and we need to protect and embrace them."

For their part, many young people had been let down by those who should have taught them how to behave. No one was teaching them, no one was leading by example, and the consequences of that were obvious. Mr Smith had plans to change that via the Man Up Movement (MUM).

"These young people have to man up, and so do the people who have failed them," he said.

'He would be calling a public meeting shortly to devise a strategy that would enable the community to face its issues.

"We have to work with the people who are causing the problems. We have to surround them, support them and awhi them," he said.

"It's time everyone in this community started to man up, and I intend to give them the chance to do that."