Women: life blood of the Pacific
From December 13 - 16 1994 at Nadi, Fiji, a meeting of women from the Non-Self-Governing Territories and Colonies of the Pacific took place. Its purpose was to establish a grassroots network of Pacific women with the initial aim of participating in the Fourth
United Nations World Conference on Women and NGO Forum being held in Beijing in September 1995.
International Viewpoint n° 271 — November 1995 25
THE ORGANISER of the Nadi meeting, Susanna Ounei-Small, Assistant Director for Decolonisation at the Fiji-based Pacific Concerns Resource Centre (Secretariat of the Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific movement), found that her original terms of reference for the meeting to bring together women from the 'non-selfgoverning territories' as defined by the PCRC were too restrictive. They did not reflect the reality of the Pacific, so she sought to broaden these to include indigenous women from Aotearoa (New Zealand), Australia, Guam and Hawaii.
It was hoped to have two women from each colony represented in Nadi, but personal circumstances and financial constraints meant that this was not always possible. Women came from East Timor, West Papua (Irian Jaya), Tahiti, Kanaky (New Caledonia) as well as an Aboriginal representative from Australia, and a Maori woman from Aotearoa (New Zealand).
The December meeting was the preliminary meeting in a three-stage project to ensure that the special needs of colonised women are heard both within the Pacific region and in the international arena. It was also the first occasion in which women representatives of all the participating peoples had been able to share their stories and to co-ordinate their activities. All felt that the meeting was long overdue.
Previously, most of the international networking from the countries involved had been done by men, leaving women with very little access to the information or the international contacts. The Nadi meeting was a valuable vehicle for the women to be thoroughly briefed about the Beijing Conference. This included presentations about the world conferences on women, including the personal experiences of two delegates, from East
Timor and Kanaky, who participated in the Nairobi Conference in 1985. As Elizabeth Cox of IWDA (International Women's Development Agency) writes:
"Men and government officials dominated Pacific participation in the Third World Conference on Women, in Nairobi in 1985. There was little or no feedback or follow up in Pacific countries. A handful of Pacific NGO grassroots development workers did participate in the NGO Forum in Nairobi, but they went at unprepared for such a huge event. The experience was overwhelming and not easily related to home country situations and experiences.
In a few cases the participation by workers from Pacific NGOs in the NGO Forum at Nairobi inspired small one-off events at home, but rarely did it sustain grassroots awareness raising and action over the decade between Nairobi and Beijing".!
A follow-up meeting to assess the benefits of the Beijing forum, and to evaluate how the network will best function to support individual members in their work, is scheduled to take place around December 1995.
Susanna Ounei-Small says: "The meeting was part of our preparations for the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women, but the work will go well beyond the Beijing meeting to support the efforts of Pacific women struggling for independence. Despite having different colonial masters and being at different stages of struggle, the similarities of our experiences and needs are overwhelming, so we need a network to support each other wherever possible".
Notes 1. Pacific Women's Documentation Project Workshop and Project Status Report, October 1994 The goals of Omomo Melen Pacific are: a) to enable women from non-selfgoverning territories and colonies in the Pacific to come together and identify common concerns; b) to represent these concerns through full and active participation at the Fourth World Conference on Women and NGO forum; c) to establish an ongoing network and strengthen solidarity among women of the colonies who share a similar perspective and experiences; d) to raise awareness of peoples of Pacific colonies and their struggles -the need for de-colonisation and the right to self-determination for Kanaky, East Timor, West Papua, Bougainville, Tahiti, other Pacific colonies and the indigenous peoples of Aotearoa, Australia and the Torres Strait Islands. The network takes its name from the laa language of Ouva atoll in Kanaky (New Caledonia). Over the course of the Nadi meeting, interviews were conducted with all delegates. The contents of these interviews, together with other resource material on the struggles of women from non-self-governing territories and colonies in the Pacific form the basis of Omomo Melen Pacific, a 42 page publication available from PO Box, Otautahi (Christchurch), Aotearoa (New Zealand). Please include a reasonable donation to cover printing and postage costs The Nadi meeting was also attended by observers from women's groups and media from Tonga, Fiji, AIDAB (Australian International Development Assistance Bureau, PCRC, and resource people from Corso in Aotearoa/New Zealand, and IWDA and CAA (Community Aid Abroad), both Australian agencies. Funding for the meeting came from Corso, IWDA, CUSO (Canadian University Services Overseas, CAA, and The Australian National Council of Churches.
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EQUALITY NOW IGUALDAD YA
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