Violence, a Gender Issue?

"Maori urged to stand against violence.
Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia said men were responsible for most of the violence within Maoridom but it was women who were left to pick up the pieces ... it was women who were left to find solutions to the problem."
Now I'm sure our own Titiwhai Harawera would probably agree and extend upon this. If I recall correctly, at those Waitangi celebrations where her presence was to be prevented by those male elders, did she not threaten to reciprocate with revelation about pedarast behaviour by those self same elders?
... but she didn't!
The one thing you can count on in families in which extreme behaviour occurs is the rapid learning of the differentiation between private and public and the extreme cohesion, loyalty given outside (CYF/Police) threat .... many, many examples, not just the Kahui twins.
Simply being a passive party to this is condoning it ... but realistically this behaviour is common in maori families and it is not only more likely that maori women get 'the bash,' but also more likely that they will give it, and not only to their kids, and the more likely their kids will give it to others - look at our school 'stand down'/exclusion statistics - it is probably an artefact of what is called 'detached parenting.'
Perhaps she's exhausted the 'race card,' can no longer ascribe parental violence to their own children to an artefact of years of colonial oppression and now needs to 'pull' the gender line.
It is a big problem. it does need to be spoken about forthrightly such that it can be addressed. The attribution of blame - about the only platform upon which Turia can stand - endeavouring to define it as a gender issue is simply doing another disservice to our maori people.