Whānau and friends of Tara Brown marched in solidarity in Ngāruawāhia today with a message to curb domestic violence.
It follows after the 24-year-old died from injuries sustained during an alleged brutal assault in the Gold Coast.
Letting their feet do the talking to convey a message again about domestic violence.
A message that close friends of Tara Brown's mother, Natalie Hinton wanted to push through. So, earlier this week they invited their community to join this rememberance walk for Tara.
Friend of the family Pokaia Nepia says, "Today's march is to remember one of our own, Tara, who died in Australia, and to stir us up that physical abuse to women, men and children is unacceptable."
Nepia adds, "It's horrifying what's happened, I don't understand why that happened to her."
Natalie's family are local to Ngāruawāhia and Tara was born here. When she was four years old, they went to live in Australia to make a better life for themselves.
But those dreams were brought to an abrupt halt after the 24-year-old died was allegedly killed by her ex-partner Lionel Patea in a brutal road rage attack on the Gold Coast.
Ngāruawāhia local Huni Strickland says, "Domestic violence to women or men is heartbreaking, we need to stop this type of abuse so that it doesn't happen to someone else!"
While the hikoi was only 5km long in one part of the country, the hope is their message will transcend wide and clear.