“We can sit here and talk about it but if our Members of Parliament and our own Prime Minister say otherwise how do you expect members of the public to engage? They do not take it seriously. You need to take this to Parliament and the Prime Minister before anything else because people take guidance from the top.” Matai participant, Inquiry public hearings The Inquiry found it is not just politicians who remain silent on the issue of family violence, but all of those in power within the traditional village governance structures and the churches. When family violence remained a taboo topic it required brave survivors and victims of family violence to come out into the open and speak about their experiences. Mata’afa Keni Lesa told the Inquiry of the need for these champions because “if we bring it down to a more personal level we are likely to be more effective”. The voices of victims and survivors are now widely heard, which is progress, but what is still missing is the voices of the decision makers including politicians, church and community leaders. This is further exacerbated by the fact that many of the perpetrators of family violence can be found within these groups, and we need only look to Hope’s story 66 for evidence of this. There is therefore silence, complicity and direct involvement from those who, if they spoke out, could be the ones to bring about social change. “We need people who are bold enough to speak out. We need champions from the church and the villages. If we can get these guys on board we all know the decisions come down from them. And they are perpetrators too. If you want to influence change then you start with the churches and villages.” Mata’afa Keni Lesa, Editor Samoa Observer, Inquiry public hearings Samoa is reaching critical mass in terms of the number of stories of family violence being reported before people start to become desensitized to the topic. There is a worry within the media currently that the public have had enough of ‘stop family violence’ headlines and that they will start to turn off and any chance of addressing the epidemic will be lost. Now is the time for the decision makers to step forward and get behind the movement and capitalize on the increased public awareness. INQUIRY FINDING 24: Family violence continues, in part, due to the absence of support for its elimination from leading politicians, public servants, traditional and religious leaders, and in their direct involvement in the perpetration of such violence. Another area where improvements can be made towards public awareness is in relation to knowledge of laws and services among the general population. This can have a significant effect on a person’s ability to access justice, the support they need for recovery or even for a person to know whether what they do is legal or not. 66 Case Study 12.