On Friday after morning tea, our Social Studies class headed down to Tippet park to prepare for the Family Violence march around Glen Innes shopping centre. We were the first to arrive then later on, other organisations joined us waiting for the march to start. Some of the organisations were SHINE, Te Aroha, Police Officers and more. As we were waiting, my social studies class and myself gave out white ribbons to those who arrived and asked people to sign big white ribbons. Then at 12:00pm, everyone was ready to march. All the men and boys stood in the front holding the banner that we created, this was to show that men are also promoting this message and by doing this, its affective. We marched around GI yelling different kinds of chants like “FAMILY VIOLENCE!.. IS NOT OK!” or “HONOUR THE WOMEN!... IN OUR LIVES!” while the police officers stop cars and let us cross streets safely. Ozzy and Kieren called and we responded. Along the way, Beyonce and I handed out white ribbons to those who were nearby and watched us march by delivering our message.
Our march stopped once we reached the middle of the town center. All men who were apart of the march joined the stage to have the opportunity to talk about their experience and what they have taken from the message. These men were great examples of men who should be taking good care of their families. Women were invited on the stage too and had their say as well. When most of the speakers were done, Beyonce and I walked into stores all around the middle shopping center giving out white ribbons and promoting the message. It was really good to see and hear shopkeepers and public people look interesting and asking question about our promotion. It was really good to see a lot of people taking part of our social action… including people who were interested in accepting the ribbons along with our explanation about our promotion. I was really happy to see most of our student leaders for 2019 turn up and support us although they were on student leave.
It was nearly 2:00pm in the afternoon, everyone started to leave so we started to pack up. We collected the signed big ribbons and put down the barbecue and tents. We were all starving by then because we didn’t have lunch and were too busy with our roles so some of us put our money together and bought pizzas for lunch. Miss Robertson was really kind to buy drinks and hot chips. It was a really good way of ending off our day.
One of the positive things from the social action, is being able to see people in the community standing and watching our march. They smiled while we walked past and I believe this was a good thing. It's a sign that they have an idea of what we are doing and also agree with the message we are promoting. Another positive thing from Friday's social action was seeing many people (especially men) from different organisation participating in the march. People who also believed in the same thing as our year 11 SOS class did. But something I didn't like about our social action was when I gave white ribbons out and promoting the message and some people didn't accept it. But I knew something like this will happen because many people have their own points of view about every message.
One of the positive things from the social action, is being able to see people in the community standing and watching our march. They smiled while we walked past and I believe this was a good thing. It's a sign that they have an idea of what we are doing and also agree with the message we are promoting. Another positive thing from Friday's social action was seeing many people (especially men) from different organisation participating in the march. People who also believed in the same thing as our year 11 SOS class did. But something I didn't like about our social action was when I gave white ribbons out and promoting the message and some people didn't accept it. But I knew something like this will happen because many people have their own points of view about every message.
From the social action that we prepared for and took part of, I never had any regrets of becoming a part of this action. In year 9, 10 and starting year 11 now, I have learnt a lot about social action and really wanted to be part of one. Well, I have now! It was a such great experience for myself because I have also learnt a lot about the message and about social action by being part of it. I felt happy to march alongside with people who believed in the same thing as I did about family violence. To also see how effective the community was when they saw our march and our promotion. Something that I think I could’ve done better with, was getting to know people from other groups more and why they were there. They must have had different reasons to why they turned up and participate in the march. Besides from that, I think that my Social studies class did an awesome job on the day, we approached people using our school RISE values and I think we represented Tamaki College great! It was a great way of starting my year 11 social studies!
