Norm's message: Break the cycle of violence

Merania Karauria | 29th July 2010

Former All Black Norm Hewitt says there is magic between children and animals - but there can  also be a link between animals and domestic violence.

The former hooker captivated Rutherford Junior High and Wanganui Intermediate on two different days with his stories and a PowerPoint presentation showing cute animals - but also animals that had been mistreated.

 Mr Hewitt said there was no blueprint for parenting, but there there were many interventions and groups working  to address  violence against children and in  homes.

Education was the key, he said, to lifting people out of their poverty of thinking.

Mr Hewitt said he had shone the light on the SPCA message of five freedoms: food and water, love and understanding, exercise, shelter and vaccinations.

During his own childhood, Mr Hewitt said it was how his father shut the car door on his return home from the pub at night that signalled to him whether to stay away from the kitchen.

At other times he would be so frightened of his father's violence that he would jump out of his bedroom window and find solace out in the paddock with his horse, Tommy.

 "It's about choosing to break the cycle of violence," he told students.