Cook Islands - Pacific Prevention of Domestic Violence Programme

Cook Islands
Our approach and methodological framework
We saw it as important to employ a Pacific research framework (see Anae, et al 2003; The
Health Research Council, 2005). This gives priority to relationships and informed community
participation to ensure ‘meaningful engagement’, relevance, validity and ownership of the
research process and outcomes.
The first feature of the team strategy was its emphasis on partnerships. To achieve maximum
involvement and sharing of ideas, we partnered one national NGO throughout the planning
and implementation of research activities. This had the dual aim of empowering Pacific
communities by fostering enquiry and debate on domestic violence, and consolidating ongoing
partnerships for future PPDVP activities. Partner NGOs were given an honorarium in
acknowledgement of their expertise and support.
• In the Cook Islands the NGO partner was Punanga Tauturu Inc (PTI); in Kiribati it was
the Kiribati Association of Non-Governmental Organsations; in Samoa it was
Mapusaga o Aiga; and in Tonga the NGO partner was the Centre for Women and
Children. These partnerships proved an invaluable strategy, ensuring knowledge
sharing, ‘open doors’, relevance and ownership of the information, as well as
downstream sustainability gains.
• The team also built on the work done by the PPVDP mentors. We worked closely with
the mentors to develop the research approach and timeframes. This included, where
possible, coinciding the fieldwork with the mentors’ in-country deployment. Again
there were wonderful mutual benefits in this strategy. In Kiribati, the researcher worked
with the mentor for the duration of the fieldwork. In the Cook Islands, the researcher
worked with the mentor for one of the two weeks of fieldwork. For Samoa, the mentor
provided key documents and information for the review. On-line support was received
from the Tonga mentor.
Secondly, our approach was premised on the understanding that no single research strategy
would fit the four countries: that, although there might be commonalities of experience, local
domestic violence-related perceptions and practices would be influenced by factors such as
physical, economic, social and cultural norms, and the nature of colonial and post-colonial
influences, including access to education, IT, increasing aspirations and new recreations,
poverty related factors and integration into global networks. There were likely to be
differences in:
• customary views of domestic violence and ways this should be addressed;
• the strength and capacity of domestic violence local movements, such as NGOs;
• police capacity and policing, law and justice systems;
• physical constraints, including the way in which the spread of the islands which make
up Kiribati, Cook Islands and Tonga influences people’s knowledge of laws and access
to policing systems and/or justice; and
• national commitments and understandings of regional and international agreements
such as CEDAW and the Pacific Platform of Action.
Thirdly, it was important to keep in mind that findings were set against a context of rapidly
changing times. Clearly, the interplay of different views on domestic violence – both
traditional and legal, for the police and the community – would feature strongly in this
review.
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