Upstanders stand up to sexual violence in Pasifika communities

Ake Felix and Holly Walmsley support Le Va’s Atu-Mai Upstander movement to help raise awareness about preventing sexual violence and child sexual abuse, especially in Pasifika communities.

“I was interested in being an Upstander because, like I say in our culture, it can be quite a taboo topic to discuss,” says Ake, who is of Samoan and Māori descent.

“I wanted to be part of that shift by building that space to have the knowledge and confidence to speak about these topics and understand it is not a taboo topic, and it can be normalised, and people can feel confident speaking about sexual abuse and sex in general and helping and assisting other people in their families as well,” she says.

Holly, whose career has largely been in the sexual harm space so far, is a huge fan of Le Va’s programmes.

“Oh, I love Le Va, and I did the LifeKeepers [suicide prevention] course and thought it was awesome and thought this is going to be cool, I just know it.

“You really want to prevent it from happening in the first place – I mean there’s a lot of amazing work being done in this space and I’m excited to be in the prevention space with all these awesome people.”

Both women work as Community Health Promoters for Sexual Wellbeing Aotearoa and both are interested and supportive of the work Le Va’s Atu-Mai team is doing in the primary prevention space. Upstander Ake is also keen to engage the Pacific community more.

“I’d love through this mahi to engage our community in these types of talanoa, through workshops and social platforms as well,” says Ake who also wants resources to be easier to access by community as well.

She says it’s also about changing perspectives.

“One of the goals for me is to give the tools maybe our parents and generation before did not have,” says Ake.

“And setting up the scene to build new paths for others in the community to take steps as well.”