The idea that violence should stay within the family is therefore driven by this need to maintain harmony and over time this has led to a culture of extensive victim blaming, shaming and other devices which ignore the impact on a victim to ensure silence is achieved. “There are common Samoan characteristics to be seen as a perfect person – trouble free. That is the reason why people do not report many of these cases. Goes back to feelings of shame and pride. This is particularly the case with incest. I think there are lots more cases than we hear of. They do not report out of fear and shame as it trashes the reputation of the family so they try to resolve it internally.” Police Outpost, Inquiry public hearings A pertinent example of ways in which the family name is often protected at the expense of the victim by resolving matters internally is the ifoga (traditional apology) where the families of the perpetrator and victim come to an agreement on a fine or punishment in exchange for an agreement to keep the peace. Often this happens without any involvement of the victim themselves, thus prioritising the maintenance of peace between community groups and their leaders over a woman’s well-being, and suppressing her right to access justice. A more calculated and sinister mechanism to ensure silence is the emergence of victim blaming and shaming, and can even result in further violence just to prevent matters being reported. Across all of the Inquiry consultations, women spoke generally of experiences of violence but when asked to give individual evidence in the Inquiry hearings, even in the closed sessions, they were reluctant to do so. This was for various reasons including the belief that women are at fault for violence, for fear of not having support from family, or causing disquiet or that it was not viewed as a serious or ongoing problem. All of the reasons cited by victims for not reporting violence amount to the veil of silence that allows it to continue and the gender hierarchy to remain. Shame and privacy as contributing factors of family violence are in no way unique to Samoa. This is a key characteristic of family violence anywhere in the world yet it can be argued that the Fa’asamoa strengthens these falsehoods which manipulate the principles of family harmony and honour to justify, excuse and hide all forms of family violence. “There is an existing misconception that issues of domestic violence should be treated as personal matters or internal family matters (mataupu-fa’a-loto-i-fale) and it does not warrant public intervention (e le aiāia e le to’atele).” Vaipou Fetuliai Lagaaia, Lawyer , Inquiry public hearings The current approach of treating family violence as a private matter, and creating a culture of victim blaming and shaming to enforce that, is not working and the Inquiry agrees with Vaipou that it is a misconception and actually brings greater shame onto the family and Samoan society in the long term.