Punch With Purpose 6 suicide prevention

Choosing suicide prevention as our kaupapa isn’t something we just picked, it’s something we’ve lived through.

In Aotearoa, suicide takes hundreds of lives every year. It’s not rare, and it’s not far away from us. It’s happening in our communities, to our people. But numbers don’t really explain it properly. Behind every number is someone’s son, daughter, brother, sister, friend. Someone who was loved, and a whole group of people left behind trying to make sense of it.

For Māori and Pasifika, it hits even harder.

Māori are overrepresented in suicide statistics, especially our rangatahi and young men. The rates are a lot higher compared to non-Māori, and it’s something we see and feel in real life, not just on paper. Pasifika communities feel it deeply too, especially with young people. Even if the numbers look smaller, the impact isn’t. Our communities are tight, so when we lose someone, it spreads. It affects everyone.

That’s the part people don’t always understand.

When someone passes from suicide, it doesn’t just stop there. It ripples through whānau, through friends, through whole communities. It shows up in empty seats, missed calls, and moments where you think of them and realise they’re not here anymore. It changes people.

There’s also bigger things behind it. Stuff like trauma passed down, pressure, not always having the right support, or feeling like you have to hold everything in. Thats why we want to step in the ring to raise awareness for our community