New PMC book celebrates Solomons women achievers

By Josephine Latu: Pacific Media Centre

When Solomon Islanders at the launch of Being the First were each handed a copy of the book, the general reaction was one of “awe”.

The book is the first ever to document the lives of leading Solomon Islands women from their own point of view, and the first published historical account of achievements by local women over the past 50 years.

It will be launched in New Zealand later today at AUT University.

“They all kind of picked it up and held it close to them – bringing it to their chest. It was quite emotional,” says Suzanne Bent-Gina in Honiara, describing how women responded when given a copy of the book to keep – free.

Bent-Gina, deputy director of the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands’ (RAMSI) Machinery of Government programme, helped organise the book project as part of its component on women in government.

A former Prime Minister and current Solomon Islands Speaker of Parliament, Sir Peter Kenilorea, introduced the book to a packed house, where many were village women who came in the capital for the International Women’s Day celebrations.

Five of the 14 women featured in the book, along with the sister of the late Phyllis Taloikwai, also profiled, read extracts from their chapters.

Emotional moments
“They were all very emotional and proud when they spoke,” says AUT’s professor Marilyn Waring of the Institute of Public Policy, who co-edited the manuscript with Malaita-born Dr Alice Aruhe’eta Pollard.

The two thought of the book idea in 2008 while discussing how to get Solomon Islands academic theses from Australian and New Zealand universities back to the islands for local readership.

“There are hardly any books written by Solomon Islanders out there. There are anthropological books, travel guides, photographic books – but all written by outsiders,” says Waring.

“Some [Solomon Islands]‘big men’ have written books, but not much information about women. These women who were previously hidden from history are now on public record.”

The pioneering volume includes personal life stories of 14 women, many who grew up poor but went on to break barriers as politicians, heads of government departments, and community workers.

Ruth Liloqula tells how she was born outside her village in a bush, took care of orphans at her boarding school at age 11, then had her first taste of activism when she and others marched in protest against unfair government scholarship selections.

Liloqua was the first female Secretary to Cabinet and is now the Permanent Secretary of Lands, Housing and Survey, and outspoken about cultural attitudes towards gender roles.

‘Average woman’
“[Women] see themselves as subordinates. This is the main problem I see … There’s an ingrained thing that we do not assert ourselves,” she says in the book.

Ethel Sigimanu, Permanent Secretary for Women, Youth and Children’s Affairs, prefers to be treated as an “average woman”, despite her leadership role.

“I was not born with a silver spoon in my mouth, so to get where I am is not impossible. I grew up in rural places and went to rural schools. The first time I went to Pawa [Senior Primary School] my father gave me $2. I was going to be away for a whole year,” she tells in the book.

Meanwhile, in the political arena, Hilda Kari talks about the lack of support she found from male colleagues over the span of her career.

She has been the only female Member of Parliament in the Solomon Islands since 1978.

“I could not name any real men supporters – none at all,” the book quotes in her profile.

Frustrated with unequal treatment at work, Kari ran for Parliament and was voted in for three consecutive elections. After losing her seat in 2001 and 2006, she now supports a quota system to ensure women’s representation at decision making levels.

All the women acknowledged the support of their husbands, families and friends along the way.

‘Transformative experience’
Co-editor Waring, a former New Zealand MP, said putting the book together was a “transformative experience” that involved many helpers.

She and Pollard recruited ex-Public Service Commissioner Catherine Adifaka – a “known leader and someone [the women] would trust” – to conduct the interviews.

Cynthia Wickham, a Solomon Islands marine science graduate, worked from a boat out at sea, translating and transcribing the oral-centred pidgin language.

Local RAMSI staff provided technical assistance.

Being the First: Storis Blong Oloketa Mere Lo Solomon Aelan was finally published by AUT’s Pacific Media Centre for RAMSI and the Institute of Public Policy.

In an all-woman production team, the PMC’s Del Abcede designed the book and Isabella Rasch created the cover montage.

Waring is hoping to get funding for a similar project in the future.

Decision-making
She said that since the launch, the Solomon Islands Ministry of Education has been working to integrate the book into its secondary school curriculum for English and Social Science.

“This book has taken us another step towards the advancement of women into decision-making positions,” Sigimanu announced at the launch.

“These are ordinary women who were not born with silver spoons in their mouths. They too, have had to struggle with the challenges of life – like being able to afford to get their children to school,” she said.

“It is about people looking at where they are now, and seeing that women can indeed rise up – and can do great things for this country.”


Being the First will be launched in New Zealand today by Solomon Islands honorary consul Doreen Kuper on Level 2 of AUT’s Institute of Public Policy at 4pm.

Pictures: Top: Women in the National Women's Day march in Honiara before the book launch. Middle: Betty Fakarii signing a copy of the book; translator Cynthia Wickham, a marine science graduate. Above: Solomon Islands honorary consul Doreen Kuper with co-editors professor Marilyn Waring and Dr Alice Aruhe'eta Pollard.

Josephine Latu is a postgraduate communication studies student from Tonga at AUT University’s Pacific Media Centre who is also contributing editor of Pacific Media Watch.

The book is available online at the Pacific Media Centre and Wheelers and at good bookshops.

Publishing triumph for Solomons' unwritten language

By Geraldine Coutts of Radio Australia

Compiling a book on leading women in Solomon Islands is no easy thing when a major language in the country - pijin blong Solomon, or Solomons Pidgin - is only a spoken language.

But Marilyn Waring, editor of Being the First, rallied to the cause, with the help of the subjects of the book, the country's leading women in the period following independence from Britain 32 years ago.

Professor Waring, a former New Zealand MP, learned of the lack of a record of top women when she worked with the Solomon Islands' Alice Pollard on women's issues for the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI).

She told Radio Australia's Pacific Beat: "Alice is a Solomon Islander, and became aware that there was no book at all of any kind by Solomon Islands women on Solomon Islands women."

Ministries
Women selected for profiles in the book, published by AUT University's Pacific Media Centre on behalf of RAMSI, include Hilda Kari, "the first and only ever woman member of Parliament.

"About 12 of those in the book are the first women ever to become permanent secretaries or deputy permanent secretaries of government ministries," she said.

"One, Cathye Adifaka is the first woman who was a public services commissioner, and Catherine actually conducted all the interviews in Solomon Islands pidgin, which isn't a written language.

"And then we had to have that transcribed by another young Solomon Islands woman, Cynthia Wickham."

Wickham, who graduated in marine science from an Australian university,was on a boat in the Pacific when the editors sent her voice files to check.

"And she would transcribe them in pidgin, then make a first translation into English.

Spell
"And then they would come back to us to start working on them.

"As pidgin isn't a written language we actually have to debate how you spell every place name, every person's name.

"It's been a pretty unusual editing experience, but I think one of the most important things I've done in more than 30 years working outside of New Zealand."

Professor Waring said: "The public service is the single largest employer in the Solomon Islands but only six per cent of the women in the service are in senior roles.

"So we're hoping that the book provides mentoring in that way."

She believes it is going to go into the high school curriculum.

The launch in the capital, Honiara, is next Monday, March 8 - International Women's Day. A New Zealand launch will be held in Auckland on March 17.

* Being the First can be ordered online for $NZ25, from the website of the Pacific Media Centre, at AUT University.

Solomon Islands launches 'commission of hope'

A legacy of bitterness still troubles the Weathercoast (south coast of Guadalcanal) and parts of Malaita in the Solomon Islands. It has been five years since the conflict and now hopes are pinned on a new commission to consolidate peace.

By Krista Ferguson: Pacific Media Centre

High hopes for a long lasting peace are resting on the South Pacific’s first Truth and Reconciliation Commission, launched by Archbishop Desmond Tutu in the Solomon Islands late last month.

The commission has been mandated to promote national unity and reconciliation by investigating human rights violations and abuses which occurred between 1998 and 2003.

General secretary of the Anglican Church of Melanesia, George Kiriau, is personally hopeful that the reconciliation process will be successful.

“There is a lot of expectation given the high note of the presence of the archbishop.

“With this launch we should see better understanding of how the conflict came about.

“I’m personally very hopeful and optimistic.”

However, Kiriau acknowledges that there are people who might not share this optimism.

“There are those who are hurt and traumatised, who had relatives who were killed. They may have different views of the process.”

But healing is important says Kiriau.

“We need to forgive.”

Little consultation
Dolores Devesi, Pacific programme manager for Oxfam, says her organisation supports the request by the national government for reconciliation.

But Devesi, who was born in the Solomon Islands and came to New Zealand in October last year, says her personal view is that this is the same as every other time.

The problem, according to Devesi, is that young people in the community are not consulted and engaged in the process.

“It’s usually the chiefs and elders, but it is actually the young people who need to be involved.

Devesi says there are some sceptics who say this is a high-level publicity exercise that will cost a lot of money.

There have been attempts to establish peace in the past, such as the Townsville Peace Agreement in 2000.

Devesi attended a reconciliation event last year and was not impressed.

“It was superficial. There was one woman and no young people. The elders attended and presented gifts to each other.”

Devesi says that there is always hope at the beginning of each process. But there is also a feeling of “here we go again”.

“We’ve had too many that haven’t worked. There’s always hope at first, but as the days and months drag on, hope disappears.

“It will take a long time to heal. There is a lot of hatred.”

Sorting out
For Kiriau, the people involved in the process are also the key.

“You can have the good reforms, but if the people inside are not sorted out then you can’t make much progress. People will find a way around the system.”

Kiriau says the commission has people of integrity and this will help people be more forthcoming.

The team includes three national commissioners: Rev Sam Ata, George Kejoa and Caroline Laore and two others - Ratu Joni Madraiwiwi from Fiji and Sofia Macher from Peru.

There is a lot of bad feeling still, says Kiriau.

“It is still a fragile law and order situation. The leaders will need to be careful.”

The Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Island (RAMSI) will help to underpin law and order during this process, says Kiriau.

Simplistic label
The conflict in the Solomon Islands is often labelled as ethnic-based, but Kiriau says this is too simple.

“It is to do with development and economic opportunities.”

The government is struggling to provide basic services. There is a high population growth and many people are dropping out or leaving education and not finding jobs, says Kiriau.

Devesi also says that the underlying issues need to be addressed.

The biggest problem is the land issue, she says.

“The government needs to be proactive to prevent another blowout especially in the temporary land settlements outside Honiara.”

Urban migration and economic pressures are also a problem, she says.

“How do we retain people in the villages?

“The cost of food is extremely high. You can’t save any money.”

Devesi says she monitored her budget in 2007 and 99 percent of it went on basic food items even though she was on an above average salary.

Sweeping term
Dr Jon Fraenkel, a Melanesian programme senior research fellow at the Australian National University (ANU), says ethnicity is a very sweeping term, but at certain times in history, island-wide groups have emerged that were deeply antagonistic.

He named the Isatabu Freedom Movement (IFM) formed by Guales and the Malaita Eagle Force (MEF), formed by Malaitans (two different provinces), as examples.

“The conflicts started in 1998 with a speech by Ezekiel Alebua in Western Guadalcanal. He demanded compensation for the killing of 25 Guales and for establishing the capital in Guadalcanal.

“The IFM chased Malaitan settlers out of rural parts of Guadalcanal. They pushed them back into the capital Honiara.”

The Malaitans didn’t think their rights to the land were secure, he says, so they moved without strong dissent at first.

However, there was increasing discontent until 1999 when Malaitans confronted the then Prime Minister Bartholomew Ulufa’alu and demanded compensation for lost property.

Ulufa’alu said no and soon after the MEF was formed.

“It was steadily downhill after then,” says Dr Fraenkel.

Court evidence
Amnesty International has urged the Solomon Islands government to integrate the work of the truth commission with other justice work.

According to a statement on April 29, the Truth and Reconciliation Act may prevent information presented before the commission being used in court proceedings.

Kiriau says the government has been clear that the statements made before the commission cannot be used as court evidence.

However, he says that this is about sharing experiences and helping the government to prevent this unrest in future.

Dr Fraenkel says the community is still deeply divided by the conflict.

“There are terribly bitter wounds on the Weathercoast (south coast of Guadalcanal), but also parts of Malaita.”

Dr Fraenkel says that it has been five years since the conflict and most - but not all - of the militants have been arrested.

“The major issue is not finding more militants to prosecute. It’s allowing the country to move onwards.”

However, he does say there are some of the MEF leadership with questions to answer.

“It’s important to get the politics right to enable the emergence of a domestic leadership to deal with issues and get some economic development going.”

Devesi says nobody should be above the laws.

“Everyone would like to see prosecutions.”

Compensation culture
Dr Fraenkel says that the conflicts were fuelled by the compensation culture through which rival militia groups bankrupted the state.

He describes this in his 2004 book The Manipulation of Custom; From Uprising to Intervention in the Solomon Islands.

Traditionally compensation payments were made with pigs, cans of tuna, rice or shell money, says Dr Fraenkel. However, during the 1998–2003 conflicts many aggrieved groups demanded compensation from the state.

Devesi agrees with Fraenkel that money has been part of the problem.

“In our tradition you give pigs or shell money," she says.

“Reconciliation in the past has been sponsored by donor agencies [involving
money]. Reconciliation will only happen if the community gives from their
heart.”

Krista Ferguson is a Graduate Diploma in Journalism on the AUT Asia-Pacific Journalism course. Photo of Dolores Devesi: Oxfam.

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