Cry for help: young Asian students in Aotearoa

Young Asian sexual violence survivors’ experiences and need for support within New Zealand schools has been the focus of a two-year project with a report just published.

Lead researcher, Dr Ying Wang, a research fellow at the Centre for Arts and Social Transformation (CAST) at the University of Auckland, says that despite Asians making up 17.3 percent of our total population, and being one of the fastest-growing groups in the country, this issue had been largely unexplored.

“I believe addressing this gap is crucial for fostering inclusivity and equity within New Zealand society,” she says.

The qualitative study included interviews with seven young Asian people affected by sexual violence, as well as six educators/school counsellors with relevant experience and one survivor’s caregiver. Participants were from Indian, Chinese, Korean, Filipino and Pakistani backgrounds.

Recommendations focus on improving the cultural competency, sensitivity and integration of support services within the New Zealand education system.

“What we found was an obvious lack of knowledge and training in this area and in particular, when it comes to the needs of young Asian people and their caregivers,” says Wang.

“Support arrived too late if at all, friendships became strained, parents tried to do their best but were trapped in shame, fear and stress, and there was a lot of concern about the family name and honour.”

She says strongly delineated gender roles in Asian societies, pressure to be the ‘model minority’ in a New Zealand cultural setting, advice to ‘just move on’ and feeling burdened by blame all conspired to create the sense that survivors must suffer in silence.
 

Feeling culturally misunderstood was a key barrier, says Wang.

“Survivors definitely felt a cultural disconnect, so even if they’d said something at school, and teachers and other staff wanted to care and do the right thing, without that specific knowledge of the cultural context, they didn’t really know what was needed.”

She says some of the responses from care providers, after survivors had reached out for help, put them off trying again.

Wang says survivors wanted to be heard, believed and understood, and to have support that “brings hope not fear”, with family and care providers walking alongside them, rather than taking over.

She highly recommends arts-based methods, like poetry, painting and music as both a novel interview technique and a path to healing.

“What we found is that creative expression, which is what I encouraged in these interviews, and is part of my own professional expertise, has a way of not only revealing the truth about someone’s distressing experiences, but also of helping with healing.

“Creating poetry for example, can be a way of restoring power and hope. And in fact, we made some lovely short videos based on our [anonymous] survivors’ words and paintings in these interviews.”
 

Incorporating arts-based approaches into support systems will offer safe spaces for creative expression, foster healing and amplify marginalised voices, she believes.

In an ideal world, Wang says, all schools in New Zealand would have comprehensive and consistent training specific to supporting Asian students and their families.

“This training should build trust, improve parent-child communication, and alert families and survivors to available support systems.”

She says family and caregiver education is crucial.

“We need to be providing culturally relevant education programmes to allow these parents and caregivers to challenge their cultural norms about sexual violence and their unwillingness to seek help. They need to know what’s available and how it can benefit them.”

Community collaboration is also key, says Wang.

“We should be engaging with community leaders and organisations to address cultural barriers, build trust in support systems, and improve access to resources for this group.”

The young people she spoke to wanted to be involved with their own care, so support services should prioritise their wishes, she believes.

She says sexual violence within peer relationships was also key finding, although peer support is important and often undervalued.

“We can improve peer assistance programmes in schools by training peers – often friends of these young survivors – in cultural sensitivity and empathetic support by fostering healthy conversations about sexual violence prevention,” says Wang.

Removing barriers and streamlining referral processes to ensure timely, continuous and reliable support is the ideal, she says, as well as collaboration between the legal, health and education systems, which often operate in isolation.

Continued advocacy for educational policies that prioritise inclusivity and culturally responsive access to sexuality education and support services in the way forward, says Wang.

Royal Society fellowship and HRC grant

Dr Ying Wang has recently been awarded an $820,000 Royal Society Te Apārangi Mana Tūāpapa Future Leader Fellowship to address issues identified by this report, as well as a Health Research Council Activation Grant specifically aimed at the need for an integrated support system for young Asian survivors of sexual violence.

Launch event

The Asian Sexual Violence Survivors Research Report will be launched on Thursday 28 November from 10am to 12.30pm at Lecture Theatre 201-440, Level 4, Building 201 (new Human Sciences Building) at 10 Symonds Street, City Campus. It will involve a presentation and panel discussion, with refreshments provided. All are welcome but registration is required.

This study, which has resulted in a full report and two summaries for young readers, was funded by the Lottery Grants Board with a health research postdoctoral fellowship.