Te Whakaruruhau Waikato Women’s Refuge
Creating positive pathways to healing, resilience and empowerment for whaanau impacted by violence is key to breaking cycles of intergenerational violence and preventing intimate partner and family violence from occurring and reoccurring at a community level.
Te Whakaruruhau Māori Women’s Refuge first opened in 1986, through the efforts of a group of local Māori women, to save lives and reduce the harm caused by domestic violence. Led by two strong, passionate and committed Māori women – Ruahine Albert and Ariana Simpson – Te Whakaruruhau set about to meet the identified gap of culturally appropriate services, specifically for Maaori waahine and tamariki impacted by intimate partner and family violence.
In those early years, the service provided a 24-hour crisis response team and safe housing in a one bedroom flat. Te Whakaruruhau safe housing has now grown into 2 crisis/safe houses, 4 transition houses and 4 community transitional houses across Hamilton City. Their service has also transformed into one which provides support to all waahine, tamariki and whaanau affected by domestic violence in the Waikato region. They believe that working with the whole whaanau is a way of creating long-term change with domestic violence. This is why, where possible, they also work with taane who are committed to change.
Ruahine and Ariana have vigorously maintained the vision of Te Whakaruruhau and worked tirelessly over the years to bring about an awareness of the issues for Maaori waahine living with violence. They have fought hard to provide a local and national response to domestic violence in Maaori whaanau, and continue to challenge a system that refuses to hold perpetrators accountable for their behaviours and abusive actions towards their families. Along with many others, Ruahine and Ariana have been relentless in their efforts to transform New Zealand's legal and social systems to respond proactively to victims of domestic violence.