Stop The Bus: One family’s fight against child abuse

Every five weeks a child living in New Zealand dies due to neglect, assault or maltreatment. Most of these children are under the age of five.

Kane Rangitonga is the manager at Kainga Aroha Community House Te Awamutu and has been dealing with the issue of child abuse in families for more than 25 years. He has seen recognition of the issue evolve, now he is seeing it get recognised, and he hopes to one day see it resolved.

“The general problem with child abuse is that there is too much of it,” says Kane.

Child abuse is nothing new and Kane says the important thing to remember is how it was created and how it has gotten to this stage.

Ninety percent of all child deaths are perpetrated by someone the child knew. Child abuse is not something that just pops up in a family. Usually it has evolved over a long period of time, and for some families, violence is deeply embedded in their way of life.

“What started four generations ago is deeply embedded in families now,” says Kane.

Unfortunately for abused children, it is likely they have grown up in an environment where there is also drug abuse, incest, and alcoholism. This becomes a normal life for the child because it is all they know.

New Zealand ranks high internationally in child abuse statistics and the country has seen some horrific cases. One of the worst cases was that of Nia Glassie, a 3-year-old girl subjected to extensive physical abuse by her mother’s boyfriend.

This is a perfect case to remember that it is not always the parents who commit the abuse against their child. Kane says children can be abused by anyone and it can happen anywhere. Child abuse is mainly done within a family environment but the abuser could be an uncle, cousin, or in Nia’s case, a boyfriend.

One of the main issues  is that children do not speak up. This is generally because they are scared. Only 20% of family violence is being reported at the moment and that statistic includes violence against women and men, not only children. People who are witnessing the abuse happening are also not speaking up, they often do not have the courage until it is too late.

“People need information and courage to be able to do something if they know this is happening to a child,” says Kane.

Community houses like Kainga alongside organisations such as Violence Free Waipa are all pushing for programmes, information, and awareness about speaking up against child abuse and encouraging people to be courageous.

There are many programmes and organisations throughout the country fighting the issue, and Kane explains they are all cogs working together in a drive to change child abuse.

He thinks the next step for these “cogs” is to start to get a bit more coordinated so  there is no overlapping and everything that needs to go into helping a child and resolving the issue is covered.

“We need a bit more coordination around what everyone is doing,” says Kane.

“This issue is one that we don’t want to acknowledge and it is quite a taboo subject. It is one that we wish just wasn’t there or one where we’d like to get rid of it in the next six months. Unfortunately that is not the reality.”

Kane believes we can minimise child abuse but not get rid of it entirely. Conflicts, arguments, and tension are all natural feelings. It is our actions that result from these feelings that cause child abuse.

“It’s just a part of life, dealing with conflict situations, we will never get rid of violence,” says Kane.

Stop The Bus is a charitable organisation that consists of two film makers and their four children travelling around New Zealand on a yellow bus creating an interactive documentary to bring awareness about child abuse.

It all started for the Lane family with a vision two years ago and they have now decided to put it into action. Erinna Lane, the mother on the bus, had the vision of getting everyone in New Zealand to be able to link hands all the way up and down the country as a symbol of working towards a change.

It only made sense to them, being filmmakers, that they would make a documentary while travelling to communities and towns around NZ to find out what efforts are being made to prevent child abuse and to implement their vision of everyone linking together.

“We don’t just want to create a documentary, we actually want to inspire people to get out and do something,” says Erinna.

They had this great big idea but they had no way to do it. Stop The Bus would not have been possible without the backing of their local town, Te Awamutu, and supporters. The organisation runs on funds and sponsorship and as soon as they voiced their idea they received overflowing amounts of support.

They received cash donations from local and overseas communities , but the donation that made it come to life was a bus. All they needed was to refurbish the bus so that it was suitable to live and, lucky for them, a lot of skilled people pitched in to help.

“All these people have used their practical skills to help the cause,” says Chris Lane.

The bus took about a year to get road-and-living ready and the family eventually set off in May this year. They are still currently travelling around the North Island and are set to travel to the South Island next year. So far they have travelled to Bay of Plenty, Auckland, the Far North, and Coromandel. 

Along the way they meet people and groups who are making a difference in their own communities. Most recently they met a group of talented kids in Auckland. The kids were apart of SaintzUp Performing Arts Trust.

The trust is based in South Auckland and a lot of kids from this area come from under-privileged backgrounds. The Trust is giving these kids opportunities by encouraging them to focus on their creative talents.

“The most effective programmes we have visited so far that are set up to value kids, are initiated by people within that community who know their people well, lead with passion, have love for their kids, and have a core vision that others can’t help but want to be apart of,” says Erinna.  

Stop The Bus hosted their first “Link Arms” day in Te Awamutu in July this year.  Local people lined up and down both sides of the main street and linked arms to make a stand against child abuse. As Erinna and Chris filmed along the street they were overwhelmed with emotion.

They are now working towards getting other towns and communities to link arms too but said they physically cannot do it themselves. They are currently looking for interns or extra help to come on board with the organisation.

“We can’t physically achieve this mission all by ourselves so we are looking at getting an intern to do some of the organising and marketing,” says Erinna.

Stop The Bus is a family of six travelling New Zealand on a big yellow bus to raise awareness of child abuse. The family are Erinna and Chris Lane, the parents on the bus, and their four boys, Joshua, Lachie, Theodore and Noah.

Before Stop the Bus, the family went about their usual lives, after failing everything at school Chris went to university as an adult student and studied teaching. During this time, the Lanes managed to have four kids under four.

While in the middle of his studies, Chris took a one-off film paper and ended being good at it, so he carried it on. This leads into what they do now.

Erinna and Chris are filmmakers who have started their own business Big Kid Films. The Lanes did not want to move to the big cities like Auckland or Wellington to pursue their careers, so starting their own business was the way to go.

Big Kid Films have filmed a lot of weddings and have even filmed a couple of music videos, including Avalanche City’s song; Inside Out. 

Stop the bus started as an idea, an idea with no start-up funds and no way of becoming a reality without some help. Being filmmakers they decided to hire out some filming gear and pitch their idea through a video. This got the word out and helped launch the Stop the Bus organisation

A local family gave them a budget for the bus. The kitchen, the paint job, the furnishings and more have all been donated to them to help the cause.

“The donations and help show that lots of people do really care,” says Erinna.

A bus seems like a small place to live with four young boys but they love it and say it is surprisingly easy. Chris used to work long hours and would miss out on spending time with the kids as he would leave early and get home late. He now  gets to be with them a lot more.“It’s awesome all being in the same space,” he says.

Chris and Erinna do admit that, with four boys, it can get a little distracting they are doing things that require thought.

The boys love travelling round with their family. At first, they did miss their friends but manage to make friends everywhere they go.

With having other kids around the boys often forget they have school work to do. Erinna home schools the boys through correspondence. “I do have to remind them that  they were in school six hours a day five times a week,” Erinna says.

The boys are often in or around interviews Chris and Erinna have. “I think its creating a unique style because it’s very informal when you throw four kids into a room you can’t be too serious” Chris says. People often respect that the kids come along and are a part of everything they do.

It is a big learning curve for them as they’ve had to adapt to a lot of different social situations. “Sometimes they’ll be sitting in a social services office or sometimes it’ll be something involving kids so they get to run around,” Erinna says. It’s a great opportunity for the boys to grow.

Travelling all around the country can get really exhausting for the family. They’re always talking to people who have  hard-hitting stories. This can get physically and emotionally draining for the family.