<name key="name-140014" type="work">Women, Development and Empowerment: A Pacific Feminist Perspective</name>

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WOMEN, DEVELOPMENT AND EMPOWERMENT: a Pacific Feminist Perspective EDITED BY VANESSA GRIFFEN assisted by Joan Yee REPORT OF A PACIFIC WOMEN'S WORKSHOP, NABOUTINI, FIJI, 23–26 MARCH 1987 ASIAN AND PACIFIC DEVELOPMENT CENTRE, KUALA LUMPUR, 1989Cover Design: Christina JoeLayout: Sharon Bing, Vanessa Griffen, Christina JoePhotographs: USP Media Unit (Photography Section);Vanessa GriffenTypeface: Dutch 11 pt Copyright © Vanessa Griffen and the Asian and Pacific Development Centre APDC Report GPO Box 437 26 Petrie Road Suva, Fiji Published by: Asian and Pacific Development Centre Kuala LumpurMalaysia Printed by: Star Printery, Suva, Fiji

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements Editor's Note INTRODUCTION TO PACIFIC WORKSHOP: Women, Development & Empowerment i DAY 1 DEVELOPING A FEMINIST PERSPECTIVE 1 OPENING SESSION ON FEMINISM 1 Negative and Positive Attitudes to Feminism 19 Cultural and Traditional Practices and Women's Status in the Pacific 22 WOMEN'S PROJECTS AND PROGRAMMES: CASE STUDIES 29 Primary Health and the National Women's Federation in Kiribati Kairabu Betaia 30 A YWCA Kindergarten in the Solomon Islands Jully Makini 34 A Women's Crisis Centre in Suva, Fiji Shamima Ali 37 Establishing a National Machinery for Women's Development in Papua New Guinea Fungke Samana 45 Women's Organisations in Guam Laura Souder-Jaffery 51 Women's Participation in a Subsistence Agriculture Improvement Programme, Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea Fungke Samana 61 DAY 2 WOMEN AND DEVELOPMENT: A CRITICAL EXAMINATION 67 Introduction Claire Slatter 67 Pacific Development Strategies Hilda Lini 68 PROJECTS AS STRATEGIES FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF WOMEN 77 Critical Appraisal of the Idea of Using Projects as Strategies for the Advancement of Women Noeleen Heyzer 77 Summary of Workshop Discussion on Projects 84 Projects - Tokelau Islands, Kiribati, Cook Islands MesapaMesepaAtoni, Kairabu Betaia, Vereara Maeva 85 Alternative Approaches to Development in Kanaky Dewe Gorodey Pourouin 89 Women, Development and Feminism: Some Criteria Amelia Rokotuivuna 92 DAY 3 DEFINING PACIFIC FEMINISM 97 Introduction Laura Souder-Jaffery 97 Defining Pacific Feminism – Workshop Discussion 102 Our Vision – Workshop Statement 111 DAY 4 WOMEN, DEVELOPMENT AND EMPOWERMENT: STRATEGIES 117 Advancing Pacific Feminism to Empower Women Vanessa Griffen 117 Strategies – Advancing Pacific Feminism 130 APPENDIX 1 Evaluation 133 APPENDIX 2 Participants and addresses 138

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The Workshop on Women, Development and Empowerment was made possible through the efforts of many individuals, and the Asian and Pacific Development Centre (APDC), which provided the funds. Noeleen Heyzer, APDC Women's Programme Officer, negotiated the funds and worked with the local organisers in formulating a general outline of the workshop. Her sensitivity evidenced during her discussions with the local organisers and in the workshop sessions, endeared her to all the women at the workshop.

The content and format of the workshop programme is the result of the shared reflections and labour of Claire Slatter, Joan Yee, Donita Simmons, Arlene Griffen, Shaista Shameem, Vanessa Griffen, and Amelia Rokotuivuna who formed the Organising Committee. Donita Simmons used her skills at the computer to create attractive printed programmes. The book and visual displays set up by Joan Yee and Donita Simmons in the workshop room helped greatly in our learning.

The participants who came from different islands and backgrounds provided the resources and experiences. Our reflecting and living together for a few days enabled us to give a collective expression of obstacles to and strategies for empowerment of Pacific women. It was also the beginning of collective vision building for the future.

The pre-workshop logistics were accomplished with the assistance of Mere Ratukalai.

Thank you all.Amelia Rokotuivuna Workshop Co-ordinator

EDITOR'S NOTE

This report has been written from the transcripts of the Workshop on Women, Development and Empowerment, held in Fiji in March 1987. It reflects the process of the workshop - the discussions and questioning that evolved into a shared understanding of, and a committment to, a feminist perspective for the Pacific.

The report therefore proceeds as the workshop did - from its early discussions of feminism, to more familiar sessions on work experience (projects and programmes), to analyses of “development” and its assumptions. It was felt important that the report convey the process of the workshop, the difficulties and differences of opinion that existed, while also covering the positive agreements that emerged. The report therefore covers the workshop presentation, discussions, opinions and feelings, before presenting the clearer statements of vision and strategies that were agreed upon later.

Hopefully, a report of this sort may help recreate the workshop for those who participated and be a means of sharing the experience with other women in the Pacific and elsewhere who could not attend. It may also be useful to women who may wish to hold a similar workshop; the presentation of the report has been designed with this in mind.

I would like to thank Pamela Yee and Sharon Bing for patiently typing the early drafts. Claire Slatter assisted in the early stages and made useful comments. Sharon Bing carried the burden of retyping the successive drafts and was generous in giving her time to assisting with the layout of the report. I am extremely grateful for her cheerful presence and support. Christina Joe was prevailed upon to produce a cover design and illustrations and also kindly assisted with the layout. I also thank the USP Computer Centre for the use of its facilities.

I owe very special thanks to Joan Yee who liaised with the typists, proof-read the many drafts, and was on hand with help whenever it was needed. The production of this report would not have been possible without her help. Finally, I would like to thank Noeleen Heyzer, for being such an enabling person and for waiting so patiently for this report.

Vanessa Griffen September 1989

INTRODUCTION TO PACIFIC WORKSHOP: WOMEN, DEVELOPMENT AND EMPOWERMENT

WELCOME BY WORKSHOP CO-ORDINATOR

Amelia Rokotuivuna welcomed participants and on behalf of the Organising Committee explained the background to the workshop:

The idea of the workshop was first suggested in Kuala Lumpur in a meeting between Noeleen Heyzer, of the Asian and Pacific Development Centre's Women's Programme and Vanessa Griffen and Amelia Rokotuivuna. APDC's Women's Programme had intended to carry out an assessment of the needs of women in the Pacific, and was considering the possibility of a workshop. It was felt that it would be useful to have a workshop to assess the needs of Pacific women but also to review what progress and development had occurred in the UN Decade for Women. In a 1975 Pacific women's conference, participants had discussed a range of issues that concerned their lives, analysing their place in Pacific societies. This sort of discussion and analysis had lapsed and while many developments had happened since 1975, a critical view of the position of women in their countries had not been pursued.

During the United Nations Decade for Women international attention had been drawn to “Women and Development” issues. In this period, a great deal of money, energy and resources had been poured into the Pacific through international agencies, regional agencies and through Pacific governments and projects for women had become a focus of attention. Women had become more involved as implementers of projects, many of which had not always been initiated by women. It was felt that there was a need to analyse these activities and their contribution to improvements in the status of women. In the opening of the 1987 workshop, Amelia Rokotuivuna, the workshop coordinator, explained why such a workshop was needed:

We have spent our time, our energy, our intellectual resources, in implementing and monitoring projects. Pacific women have spent very little time since 1975 reflecting on or thinking about where women are now - in our society, in our government, in the churches, in the family - and whether there has been changes in the social structures in the Pacific to benefit women.

Following preliminary discussions in Kuala Lumpur in 1986, an organising group was set up to plan for the workshop in Fiji. The aim of the workshop was to gain a perspective on developments related to Pacific women and to enable participants to examine issues affecting Pacific countries and the region as a whole. It was felt important that at the Pacific workshop, analysis of “women and development” be guided by a broadly feminist framework, for assessments of the position of women in the Pacific, whether it had improved and in what ways.

The guiding objective of the 1987 Pacific workshop was therefore to enable Pacific women to assess developments in the region affecting them and to consider strategies for the empowerment of women in a real sense - socially, economically and politically. The workshop was therefore titled “Women, Development and Empowerment”. A second major objective of the workshop was to attempt to arrive at a feminist perspective that would be meaningful and relevant to women's lives in the Pacific, and contribute to their activities and work.

Black and white print - pacific design.

Black and white drawing of woman weaving.

Black and white drawing of woman cooking. DAY 1 DEVELOPING A FEMINIST PERSPECTIVE Chairperson: Vanessa Griffen Facilitator: Shaista Shameem

FIRST SESSION: “WHAT IS FEMINISM?”

The first session of the workshop introduced feminism. The guiding questions were:

What is feminism?

What does it mean?

How did Pacific women feel about it?

The facilitator invited participants to speak up as ideas and thoughts occurred. Participants were encouraged to pick up points they wanted to discuss, as the session proceeded. Emphasis was placed on discussion, which would be a start to the workshop exchanging and developing ideas collectively.

OPENING SESSION ON FEMINISM

In this first short session of 1 hour, time was short, but it was intended to be an opener to begin with the most difficult issue: how to discuss women and development within a feminist framework. The blunt questions asked were: What was feminism and what did it mean to the Pacific women present? Later in the day, the workshop planned to look at the type of progress women had made during the UN Women's Decade. In this lengthier session, the workshop would begin to develop a critical analysis of ideas behind development projects, and whether or not they always helped women.

At the beginning of the discussion on “feminism”, participants introduced themselves and said a little about their work and/or experiences. It was important to remind participants that each was there representing herself, not any project or organisation. The first, difficult brain storming session on feminism then followed.

FEMINISM

In order to convey the difficulty encountered with the word “feminism”, the irritations and negative responses to the word, and the way in which this initial response was dissolved, this session is presented here as it occurred, (in an edited version of the discussion). As the workshop went on, the feelings, discussion and ideas about feminism changed. Here are the difficulties and first awkward moments of the workshop:

CHAIRPERSON What we have clearly identified in the workshop programme is that we do want to develop a Pacific women's perspective. We want a Pacific women's perspective of ourselves and on the position of women in the Pacific-politically, economically and socially, and we want this to be a feminist perspective.

What we should do first, now, is just talk about feminism and what we think of it. Any responses to the word? Has feminism any relationship to what Pacificwomen think they are doing? Let's just ask around the table and see how we respond if we mention the word “feminism”, especially in connection with what we are doing or think should be done in the Pacific. What does feminism mean to you?

(SILENCE)

LAURA (GUAM)

In the discussions, the names of the speaker and her country of origin is identified only when it contributes to a clearer understanding of the view expressed. When not relevant to understanding the text, name identifications will be dropped.

Up until now, I had my doubts about feminism in the Pacific because the feminism that I know is Western feminism, a feminism that is different. What I knew about feminism before this workshop - since I was not in the Pacific during the Decade -is that the perspective is primarily Western, primarily about the struggle that women had in an industrial society. Pacific women have a different kind of struggle. It is not only a struggle to form an identity as a woman in our respective Pacific cultures, it is also a struggle to form an identity for the Pacific societies that we live in and from which we have to confront other countries from outside the region, because we have been colonised, and because some of us have been to other countries or have been educated in other countries. Perhaps in this workshop, we will have a chance to define ourselves as Pacific Women. Let us have a look at what parts of Western feminism are appropriate to our lifestyles and our women. Let us also think about our cultures which help us define ourselves as women and our roles as people…

The question was then posed to the workshop as a whole: how general was the impression that feminism involved “Western” women and Pacific women were outside it? Did the workshop believe feminism did not exist in other parts of the Third World and if Pacific women wanted to identify with feminism, they had to respond to the guidelines set by Western feminists?

Black and white photograph of a woman weaving.

LATA (TONGA) I'm talking about the ideological side of feminism, what's been written about it. Pacific cultures all have a feminist strain. Women in the Pacific have always had a particular place - we call it farihana which means “the house we are going to live in”. The man (male) world is represented by the word “tohkamo”.

The speaker added that the roles referred to above did not reflect social circumstances in Tonga today.

At this point, it would be honest to describe the meeting as tense and strained. There was silence. Someone asked the room at large, somewhat angrily: “I'd just like to ask you, what does that word “feminism” really encompass?”

CHAIRPERSON Maybe we can start by discussing our views on Western definition of feminism? If there can be a quick response to that from everyone? For example, have you heard of the word? Do you like being been called a feminist, or do you not like it? What we really want to start talking about is the concept behind the word “feminism”. We are not trying to arrive at a definition. We are actually trying to understand the concept, or ideas of feminism.

Feminism has tended to be associated with what we call “Western feminism”, which itself does not have a single interpretation. But for now, let's try to keep it simple, and not try to define or form a more accurate image of feminism. We are just trying to understand the concept, what feminism means to us now.

The workshop still found it difficult to respond. Someone said: “If you tell us what it means, and define what you mean, maybe we can answer your question.”

It was explained that there was no single definition of feminism; that each person would have her own understanding of feminism and what it meant to her, and the purpose of the workshop was to find out what women in the Pacific would like feminism to be, for them. After a quite unco-operative silence (!), to begin the discussion, the Chairperson said she would talk from her own personal experience of what feminism meant for her, and how her views had changed over the years.

VANESSA (FIJI) My conscious knowledge of the women's movement began in 1971–1972, when I was at the University of the South Pacific (USP). With some friends of mine, we were just beginning to read about what was happening in the women's movement in the Western world, in America. Articles were also appearing in the local newspapers. The media presented an image of the women's movement as bra-burning and all that sort of thing. We were also beginning to read, in the 1970's, some American women's movement books on the position of women, on sexism, etc. A few of us could grasp, without even coming from that world, that there was a universal element of truth in these writings. We took these ideas seriously and began writing about them, very briefly and simply and crudely, in our own student newspaper.

At that time, in the 1970s, there was not much use of the word feminism, but rather the term “Women's Liberation”. The term “women's libber” was used to label us, and male colleagues said we were just “copying” the Western women's movement. This name calling does not just happen in the Pacific, but in Asia, Africa and in other Third World countries, where women who question the conditions of women are told: “You are just copying the Western women and their struggle. It is against your culture. If you start fighting for women, our whole way of life in which we traditionally organise ourselves will be challenged.” We heard that at USP too.

Those were the early days in the 1970's at USP. Feminism is a movement that only now, women outside the Western world are beginning to redefine. More women are saying: “Yes, we will now identify what we are doing as feminist”.

I went through a period, after attending some international women's meetings, of resenting the fact that we, as Third World women, had to constantly struggle to assert a Pacific women's view. At some meetings, there was a tremendous difference between the thoughts and feelings of our small Pacific delegations and that of other. Third World women, and the views and perceptions of the American or European women present, who seemed to define what “Women's Liberation” was all about for the rest of us. Sometimes we withdrew and said: “Well, we are interested in women and we are doing things for them, but somehow what is being talked about here on the international stage is not for us”.

Only recently have I been prepared to say that what I intend to work on is a feminist struggle. Why I can say that now is because something has changed in what women internationally are defining as feminism. Third World women are beginning to have an effect on defining what feminism really means. Before this, what was considered feminist appeared to us irrelevant. We thought that Western feminists did not take into account conditions such as poverty, colonialism or imperialism or racism, and white domination in some parts of the world. Western feminists sometimes separated the wider issues of international social and economic relations.

At our first Pacific conferences in 1975, many Pacific women had come just to talk about “women's issues” and about women's organisations. But some Pacific women present, from the French colonies-for example, Dewe [also a participant at the 1987 workshop] from New Caledonia - reminded us we could not divorce our women's struggle from the struggles of our people. In 1975, many of us learnt from this contact with our sisters in New Caledonia (Kanaky), the French colony. What was considered feminist or women's struggles at the time did not incorporate these ideas however, or so it seemed to us.

We then felt the need to define our own meaning of feminism. Sometimes, we felt we were on the sidelines and were not quite as feminist as Western feminists. Now, I think it is in our interest to define feminism for ourselves in the Pacific, because the definition of feminism, and world thinking on feminism, has changed. Latin American women, African women, Asian women, have managed to put across their views and different feminist perceptions, to First World women (the so-called Western women) and have argued that for them, women's struggle or feminism is not a simple and narrow concept.

There has been a sharing amongst women in the world, so now feminism has a wider meaning: women are defining it differently. Feminists realise this and though continuing to work on improving the condition of women generally, they are aware that women cannot ignore conditions affecting the whole society and country - especially ones which exist under a system of domination which takes many forms. Women are realising that there are other forms of oppression and injustices that the women's struggle has to incorporate if it wants to help women. Women also realise that this wider view of oppression has to be understood if anything is to really change regarding the status and position of women in our societies.

The idea of feminism has been broadened. A fundamental aspect of it is recognition of the inequalities and exploitative nature of male-female relationships in all societies in the world. That is the universal aspect of women's condition. Women have found that they cannot ignore other issues related to women, such as how their country is organised, who controls the country and the economy, and the dependence of that economy on the world economic system. With a wider perspective, women are able to see feminist struggle as not just changing the little things that affect aspects of women's lives, but as an effort to seek a broader transformation that would improve the position of women - of men and women equally - for a better world.

That is an evolution or development in “feminism” that women in Third World and other countries have moved on to. The feminist perspective described is only a guideline, but it is the redefining of what feminist struggle means from different women's viewpoints that is important. This process has helped change the international view of feminism for women everywhere - in the West and in the Third World.

It is this progress that enables me to now say that I am for a feminist world.

I would like to see some defining of feminism evolving in the Pacific and the development of a perspective that women in the Pacific could live and work with. What we are trying to do at this workshop is to arrive at a perspective or philosophy which would be our Pacific understanding of what feminism means to us.

Black and white print - pacific design.

The discussion of feminism and what it meant to each person expanded at that point, with varied responses being made:

LAURA (GUAM) My own experience arose when I was working on my dissertation on women. I tried to come to grips with the idea of feminism in the wider context. I interviewed 82 people (in Guam) for my work, and asked them what they thought of feminism - in exactly the same manner as we are trying to do today. I asked: “Are you a feminist? What do you think of feminism?” Without exception, they said, “Please don't call me a feminist”.

We have a great allergy to the word “feminist” and “feminism” and “women's liberation”. Those interviewed were about 45–65 years old, not a generation to be very excited by those ideas and definitions. The women said things like: “I am not a bra-burning person; I never wore a bra, so, I do not know why bra-burning is so important to the feminist”. Another example of what is associated with that word “feminism”: “feminists” do not want babies and yet women's lives are defined terms of their children. Some respondents did not want to have anything to do with women who wanted to live only with other women, or who rejected the family. In their view, the base of women's lives was the family.

Women also felt that the traditional power source, and the source of empowerment for women, was the family, and through the man in her family. If a woman gave up that power base, what other power base was there? They regarded positions in the legislature, or directorships in government as not long-term or secure sources of power for women.

In talking to women in Guam, I often heard them say, “No, we are not discriminated against; we do not need to be liberated”. And that bothered me a lot. Having studied in the United States, I came filled with all kinds of new ideas and powerfully persuaded by feminism. I thought and felt it was glamourous and romantic because of the sense of sisterhood and sharing I had experienced overseas.

Black and white photograph of women cooking.

It took me many years-maybe, about 10 years - before I began to understand that the white woman's feminism, the First World woman' feminism, if you will, was a feminism that came out of their personal experience. They did not have to live in extended families or have to fight colonialism, imperialism, cultural imperialism and dominance, in the way that we have had to. They did not have such a dramatic presence of the church and religion in their lives Their personal experiences from which their ferminism came was different from my personal experience. So, I really began to understand that.

Until Third World feminists begin to speak and recognise that First World experiences are not related to ours, we will not be listened to by our women. In the United States, we started group discussions and women from the Pacific realised that these groups were talking about communities that would be completely segregated from men, where only women would live together, for example.

Those things were not quite my dreams. My dreams were that my people would be liberated from the oppression that they experience. I began to back away from that kind of thinking and say, no. Every time I was in a white feminist situation, I had to defend the fact that I loved children and wanted children.

When I got into women's history, and I began to use feminism for scholarship, for research, I began to develop a different sense of feminism, and that was a feminism that allowed us to question in a different way. It enabled us to ask questions that were never asked before, to bring out realities about colonialism, imperialism, racism, gender oppression, class oppression, etc. I began to be aware that by asking those questions, by challenging institutions, I also began to understand our own cultural oppression. That is when feminism began to take a hold of me.

LATA (TONGA) The reason I react negatively towards the concept of feminism is that I view any kind of liberation as people's liberation and the particular oppression that women have had to face comes under that umbrella. I don't put human liberation first and then liberation in terms of gender. I have been in situations where I have definitely reacted against the label of “feminist”. That may be partly because coming from a society where women are given high rank in the society, I have never felt as though I have to struggle for anything as a woman. If I do not get what I want from my own brother, I pinch it from my own women; if I don't get what I want from my father or my husband, I will get it from my brother. But I have had to struggle against attitudes from men which are exclusive and present a very narrow attitude and definition of a woman's job. For example, ideas that you cannot do this or that because you are a woman. That I am against.

VANESSA (FIJI) You have just said that a woman in Tonga can get what she wants - if she can't get it from her father, she can get it from her brother or husband. Perhaps we should consider this: Why does a woman have to get what she wants from this man or that man? Why can't she decide what she wants herself and get it? If women have a freedom of choice in Tonga, it is still within another umbrella and that is, patriarchy. Men are still in charge.

In answer, it was stated that women were in charge, but indirectly. The position of women in Pacific cultures and societies was debated later. One speaker spoke strongly against the workshop being uncritical of traditional ways, an issue that was debated at length in the next few days.

The session's aim of getting a quick reaction to feminism continued.

PARTICIPANT Let me summarise my reactions to the word feminism. I do not have any hassles about it, because a feminist is a woman, I am a woman. My particular interpretation of feminism depends very much on my personal experience which would, of course, be very different from that of another Tongan woman. The label of feminism - I may or may not choose to identify with …

The workshop discussion was directed to the questions: What is feminism? What does it mean to us? What did Pacific women think or fear about feminism? In the first session, an attempt was made to share common views of feminism and our prejudices. For example, was feminism anti-family, anti-children, anti-man? Was it for the First World?

The discussion of feminism and what was meant by it was a difficult but necessary beginning to the workshop. The workshop organisers felt it was necessary to deal with the word, and the ideas about “feminism” and “the women's movement” that existed in the Pacific. One person compared “feminism” to the label attached to the words “freedom fighters”, which people associated with guns, tanks, violence: a negative meaning. Yet, “freedom fighters” were people fighting for liberation. She asked:

AMELIA(FIJI) Are we to say they cannot call themselves “freedom fighters” because people do not accept it? That is wrong. That is letting the people who have dominated us tell us what we should call ourselves. For me, it is very important that if I decide to call myself a feminist, even if the society does not like the word “feminist”, I will continue to call myself feminist - not because I want to challenge society, but because it is important for our own self-confidence and self-definition.

A further comparison was made between being a feminist, and being a colonised people:

AMELIA(FIJI) It would be the same as not claiming your heritage or not claiming something that was rightfully yours because other people stopped your claims to it, by labelling it dirty. In other words, it would be the same as a colonised people bowing down to pressure because people criticised them for wanting independence.

We women are doing the same thing, if we have to hide under some other label because people do not accept the word “feminism” or “feminist”.

Whether or not to use the word “feminism” or to call oneself “feminist” was the issue raised. It was agreed that “feminism” created a lot of negative feelings. The important point however, was to understand feminism and be able to think clearly about it. It was important to analyse why women might feel they could not openly call themselves “feminist”.

PARTICIPANT Considering my own experience in my own society, I would say that the word “feminism” is used in a different way. Most women grow up in the villages. It's the women who grow up to be the elite of society who are the ones who are associated with feminism.

One participant explained that she had to consider the effect her using the term “feminist” would have on her work with women. If she called herself a feminist, she would be called pro-women. Her work in the Women's Crisis Centre could not have continued if the women involved had called themselves feminists:

SHAMIMA (FIJI) The Women's Crisis Centre is playing a very vital role in the community and our very existence depends on what we call ourselves. I recognise it is dangerous and actually demeaning, however, that we cannot call ourselves what we really want to call ourselves.

Black and white photograph of a woman working.

LAURA (GUAM) I think women reject the word “feminism” because it is not relevant to our lives. Men and people who have power reject it for various other reasons. Maybe, some feel it challenges their power. If we can offer a new and different definition of feminism, which is relevant to our lives and which includes women and children, then maybe there will be a different reaction.

Another thing that bothers me is the danger of looking at our own personal lives because we are satisfied with what we are doing then concluding that there is no oppression of women, there is no need to liberate. What we forget is that apart from the private lives of people, there is the institutional life of women. There we have inequality.

Women's lives are determined by the institutions of the society in which we live. We must look at the institutional lives of women, alongside our personal experience. We are here because we are free to move and to collectively get together. There are many other women whose husbands or mothers or fathers would beat them before they let them out of the house, to have meetings or do other things freely. We need to remember that.

It was agreed at that point that there was a problem in using the word “feminism” and with its image. “Feminism”, as an English word, also was foreign to many women. A distinction needed to be made between rejecting the word “feminism”, and rejecting the concepts or ideas behind feminism, which had changed.

At the session's end, a summary of the discussion's general points was then made. With the summary, an argument was presented on the need for a Pacific women's perspective, in order to advance women's work and status in the region.

World YWCA (South Pacific) Black and white prints - pacific designs.

SUMMARY OF FIRST DISCUSSION OF FEMINISM

A lot of women throughout the world with similar experiences to women in the Pacific had begun to re-define feminism. The word “feminism”, posed difficulties and it was suggested that perhaps a simple word in a Pacific language could be used instead. One suggestion was that the workshop could perhaps decide on a new word coined from one of the Pacific languages, which would incorporate Pacific women's ideas of feminism. What was more important for the workshop, was to identify Pacific women's understanding of “feminism”, and not be prevented from connecting with feminist ideas, because of misunderstandings about the word “feminism”.

To avoid discussing “feminism” by saying that Pacific women stood for “women's issues and anything that helps women” would not help Pacific women in the long run, if the Pacific women's movement was to develop in new directions. A Pacific feminist perspective could broaden women's work in the region.

One example was given, of how a broader perspective and analysis could help women, using the area of health and providing health information for women. Women were often involved in health education. But could women's health be seen in isolation from the structure of society and a number of related issues, for example, inequalities between rich and poor women, and how that affected women's health? Also important were questions of who made the decisions concerning the health system, and matters related to women's health? These issues all affected women's health and women needed to have a broader perspective of all conditions affecting their lives in order to act effectively to change them. The next sessions of the workshop on projects and programmes, were designed to help in re-examining the activities Pacific women were engaged in, and the contribution of these activities to changing the status of women.

Another example was given of an issue affecting women - violence - that, if analysed, raised wider issues. In Pacific societies, the social view was that violence against women was a domestic problem, or that it was “part of Pacific cultures”. These views continued to go unchallenged in many Pacific countries. By redefining and supporting a feminist perspective, women in the Pacific would be able to state their views on Pacific societies and the social issues affecting women. It was stressed that the purpose of the workshop was to enable Pacific women to analyse their activities and develop a broader perspective for improving women's status and development in the Pacific.

The summary was intended as a conclusion to the first short session on “feminism”. However, as the session was closing, participants came forward and extended the discussion on “feminism”: What followed was a lively and friendly post-session commentary:

JULLY(SOLOMON ISLANDS) (Jully is a well-known Pacific poet) I just want to say that the word “feminism” scares me. I am not a feminist. What is it? We are quite happy with our lot in the village. It is only when people see my writing, they say, “So, you are a feminist. You are for women's lib”. Then I say, “No, I am not. I am just trying to point out that in our male-oriented society, women are regarded as being lower, but we are just as good as the men…”

Black and white photograph of a woman working.

LATA (TONGA) To be honest, I did not understand the word “feminism” until I read this handout from you people. During our school days, we used to call ourselves feminists. But now the word is really broad. I understand how the women in our society have to struggle for their rights, to get equality because I was influenced by my aunty last year. She is the leader of the women's group and when she opened the women's council officially in July, she talked about inequality in that women did not have the right to get the funds from overseas, and had to go through a channel to get money. We are trying to fight for our rights and we are entitled to this. It is very interesting to share ideas here.

Hilda (Vanuatu), reported that in the last 10 years, many Pacific countries had recognised women's projects, particularly during the UN Women's Decade, and a lot of assistance was given to women. But in some instances, women who were organising programmes and projects had misuesed the facilities and resources provided to them. Men had then pointed out that women had been given a chance, but had abused it. In her view, it was women's responsibility, therefore, to distribute the resources given for women's development in a proper manner. This was one area she thought needed to be examined after 11 years of women's development in the Pacific, if women wanted men to assist them in their programmes.

Naama (Tuvalu) said that “feminism” was a new word to her and she would be afraid to introduce it to her community. There were two kinds of women's groups in Tuvalu - one consisting of “educated” (in the formal sense) women and the other, “uneducated”. It was difficult for some women leaders to put their ideas across to women whowere very tied to their culture.

Black and white drawing of a woman collecting shellfish.

But the two groups of women were getting together to see what they could do. She thought it was time that the views of the younger generation of women were accepted, and these were her thoughts on feminism:

NAAMA (TUVALU) I think in a way feminism is already in Tuvalu. It is not a problem with our menfolk, as we are working in co-operation with them. They accept our views and they accept us. We also know that the background of the village life and of everything else is the women, so there is a very strong attitude at that level.

Some women respect the men and recognise that men must be the sole head of the family and leaders on the island. But we the women's group do not accept that. We must put in our views and be among the men in our decision or policy making. So, we are trying our best to solve that problem.

We have the situation at home - the men work and earn the money. When pay day comes, they give the whole salary to the women. But then there is a problem. Most of the women are misusing this privilege. They are using the money to play bingo, buy new clothes and that sort of thing. We want to help them.

We have other problems in the outer islands, but it is not that much. So, if I had to put it, our community will accept feminism.

The discussion on feminism was brought to a close by summing up the negative and positive aspects of feminism that arose from the workshop.

Black and white print - pacific design.

SUMMARY OF NEGATIVE AND POSITIVE ATTITUDES TO FEMINISM

Negative attitudes to feminism

it is Western

it applies to women in industrial societies

it is part of the Western feminist movement

it was about not wanting babies

it was about women wanting to be separate from the rest of society

it would undermine the traditional power source of women in the Pacific, which is the family

it was about women being discriminated against (women in the Pacifiic were not discriminated against)

it was a white women's feminism which arose out of their experiences and their approach. This approach focussed on personal lives rather than looking at society as a whole

it would segregate men and women.

Other Negative Points Raised

feminism is relevant to highly educated women

the word “feminism” is not known

feminism is not relevant to rural women

Some remarks were indirectly negative about feminism: e.g.

Women were all feminists in the Pacific anyway, because they were looking for the betterment of women and women's lives, and were working for the liberation of their people. There were different definitions of feminism.

Someone thought if women went around identifying themselves as working for women, then when something went wrong, men would be quick to point a finger and blame women for not using the assistance properly.

Someone said that she was for “anything pro-women”, but she did not necessarily need to call herself a feminist.

Another participant said that the word “feminist” scared her; she was not a feminist. She asked: What is it? What is its meaning?, even though, from her works, people called her a feminist.

Someone said that she understood it as Western feminism, but if she had a wider understanding of the word, she would have a greater identification with it. (This remark was bordering on the positive!)

It was commonly said that feminism was a new word for some countries and women would be afraid to introduce it to the women they were working with. There would be some difficulty in introducing feminism.

Positive Attitudes to Feminism

Listed as positive were comments indicating Pacific women should try to work out their own ideas of feminism, a Pacific feminism, and that there were benefits to defining and identifying with a particular feminist perspective:

It would produce a greater sharing, a greater sisterhood

A Pacific feminism would be defined by Pacific women and cover issues that were relevant to them, such as cultural imperialism for example

Pacific women needed to develop a feminist ideology to analyse the wider issues of women's struggles, which were important to them as women and as Pacific people - for example, all forms of dominance, social inequalities, and the role and influence of institutions such as the church

It would allow Pacific women to question in a different way issues such as colonialism and imperialism

Having a feminist perspective would influence the questions Pacific women asked about institutions and enable women to challenge conditions and cultural practices that contribute to their oppression.

Someone said that men were still in charge (a positive reason for developing a Pacific feminist perspective!)

It was important women identify with “feminism” if it represented what they stood for and the changes in society women wanted.

A neither negative nor positive response from some participants was that they wanted women to be seen as persons, as human beings, and that was their perspective.

Positive Attitudes to Feminism

It would produce a greater sharing, a greater sisterhood

A Pacific feminism would be defined by Pacific women and cover issues that were relevant to them, such as cultural imperialism for example

It would allow Pacific women to question in a different way issues such as colonialism and imperialism

Having a feminist perspective would influence the questions Pacific women asked about institutions and enable women to challenge conditions and cul tural practices that contribute to their oppression.

Someone said that men were still in charge (a positive reason for developing a Pacific feminist perspective!)

It was important women identify with “feminism” if it represented what they stood for and the changes in society women wanted.

A neither negative nor positive response from some participants was that they wanted women to be seen as persons, as human beings, and that was their perspective.

Black and white print - pacific design.

CULTURAL AND TRADITIONAL PRACTICES, AND WOMEN'S STATUS IN THE PACIFIC

A very controversial point that arose from the discussion on feminism was its relationship to traditional culture and “traditional” women. A controversial comment made was that:

It is feminist to be a woman and to be in a traditional role, if women are happy with that.

In many Pacific women's conferences, the view has been expressed that Pacific women have equal status and significant power and influence in some areas in some traditional cultures, for example, women's control over land. The view that Pacific women have power traditionally and that the women's movement should not criticise traditional cultural practices, was raised and then seriously debated.

Two issues were identified for discussion: 1.

Cultural practices and whether they gave Pacific women status and power in society

Religion and how it defined women's status and roles.

Amelia (Fiji) picked up the issue, saying she felt very nervous whenever she heard statements that “Pacific culture had always been feminist”. Particularly she questioned any view by the workshop that it was feminist for women to be in a traditional role “if they are happy”. Amelia argued that it was very important that the workshop examine this view carefully, and went on to explain her view of women's traditional role in Fiji:

AMELIA (FIJI) The two major cultures - Indian and Fijian - are not feminist at all. They have never been feminist. I would be brave and say that that is the same with the other Pacific cultures. They are not feminist. I think we have to be very honest about it. I am worried that uncritical statements might eliminate the possibility of us examining our cultures - because there are good points and bad points about them.

In her view, there was a danger in making blanket statements or being on the defensive about Pacific cultures, and, speaking from her Fiji experience, Amelia explained why. Fijians had inherited a lot of customs and relationships in their culture which were not Fijian culture but introduced by the colonial government.

Black and white photograph of people dancing.

One example was the system of land ownership that the British had formalised, and had declared derived from “traditional” Fijian culture. The system of land ownership imposed had been changed in the 19th century to suit the colonial government and was not cultural. In her view, these examples raised the issue that the workshop needed to keep an open mind on: what was “cultural”?

Another point for discussion was the difference between Melanesian, Polynesian and Micronesian cultures. It was decided that the workshop would not go into the regional differences between Pacific cultures. It was more important to look at the general areas of life which culture or religion affected, and the contradictory practices that affected women. Some cultural practices could give a very positive treatment to women while others were negative.

It was recognised that it was important not to make an assumption that there were no contradictions between Pacific cultures and feminism. Further, Pacific women needed to be brave and to take a hard look at their cultures.

The discussion of feminism continued, based around this point, that a Pacific women's workshop on feminism needed to look at and be critical of, Pacific cultures -particularly as they affected women.

PARTICIPANT The one thing that has pushed me to challenge the situation about women in Fiji is because of how I am treated in my family. I resent the fact that when I eat I sit at the bottom; I resent that very much and I resent the fact that the women eat second in the villages.

PARTICIPANT What I resent in Tonga is that a man can fool around and a woman cannot A man can wander around at night and woman cannot do that. But I do not resent being placed second as far as eating is concerned.

PARTICIPANT I resent all those things because I am not given the same treatment as my menfolk. That does not mean that I do not like my village. I love my village. There are strong points in our culture but I do resent some of those horrible things that happen to women. I see them practised at my home, in town - when the relatives come, all the girls pop into the kitchen. They wash all day and they wash all night while all the boys are sitting around. Those are the things that make me say, “I am going to be a feminist, and I will fight”.

Someone raised the question that not all women might resent these practices. The reply:

PARTICIPANT I think my mother has always resented it [discriminatory practices against women] too; many women in my village have always resented it.

Black and white photograph of a woman weaving.

Other examples were given of how village life and practices in the Pacific could discriminate against women. For example a village association which held annual general meetings and collected money for improvements in the village, used a mix of the traditional and modern democractic ways of doing things at village meetings. The people chose a chairperson, but the village chief was always asked to say something first; secondly, though a ruling was made that everybody was allowed to speak, all the men sat at the top of the meeting place and when a woman wanted to speak, they told her to sit down. When a woman chairing on one occasion firmly allowed anybody to speak, including women, this was practised. However, once the strong and assertive woman left, village meetings soon reverted back to the old form, with village women not being allowed to speak.

Women at the workshop related similar Pacific experiences and the double standards that were used to judge women's social behaviour. In Tonga and Samoa, if women expressed themselves freely sexually, they were considered “bad”, regardless of their role or contribution in the society.

The discussion of traditional culture and women's status indicated that Pacific women could not separate the two issues. There was a need to be critical of Pacific cultures using a feminist perspective, because culture and women's status could not be separated.

Cultural differences in the Pacific were recognised. In Vanuatu, culture varied from area to area. In some areas, women had high status; in other areas, colonialism and the church had changed women's traditional status and it was agreed that Pacific culture was really a mixture of old and new influences. Not every woman had the same status in society, even traditionally. Some societies had different positions of privilege and power, held by men or women. There were differences in status between women as well, in the Pacific.

On this note of questioning and debate, the first discussion of feminism ended. The session had branched out and broadened from an initial negative and uncomfortable response, to an examination of the living conditions and experiences of women in the Pacific. The development of a feminist perspective, and a feminist process in the workshop, had just begun.

A MAN'S WORLD My brother can sit on the table I mustn't He can say what he likes whenever he likes I must keep quiet He can order me around like a slave I must not back-chat He gives me his dirty clothes to wash I wish he could wash mine! If he sits on the front steps I must go round the back door If the house is full I must crawl on my hands and knees I must walk behind him not in front Watch my speech when he is in the house Don't say “face” but say “front” Not “teeth” but “stone” Carry out my love affairs behind his back Custom allows him to thrash both of us if caught But he can carry on in front of me That's his privilege I must pay compensation If I'm to get married Or pregnant without a hubby A brother can make a living out of his sisters!

by Jully Sipolo

From: Civilised Girl by Jully Siplolo, The South Pacific Creative Arts Society, Suva, Fiji, 1981

Black and white photograph of a pacific houses.

Black and white photograph of a beach. DAY 1 WOMEN'S PROJECTS AND PROGRAMMES IN THE PACIFIC: CASE STUDIES

INTRODUCTION

Guidelines had been given to workshop participants to help them in their presentation and analysis of projects. Key questions asked were whether the projects were useful, whether they helped women, and in what ways? This session on project analysis outlined the kinds of activities Pacific women were involved in and the experiences of women working in women's groups in the community. At the end of the workshop, after discussing women's projects and their contributions to achieving changes in women's status, time was allocated to rethinking certain aspects of women's work, choices and priorities, and strategies for action.

RATIONALE FOR WORKSHOP SESSION ON PROJECTS AND PROGRAMMES

The session was included in the workshop to allow a critical examination of women's projects and activities in the Pacific in the last 10 years. It was necessary to look at projects, to see what women had been doing, the history behind women's projects and how they were set up, and the impact of these projects on women. The case studies of different types of projects in the Pacific that followed were to help the workshop examine the contribution that projects made at the community level and nationally, to improving the status and conditions of women.

World YWCA (South Pacific) Black and white prints - pacific designs.

PRIMARY HEALTH AND THE NATIONAL WOMEN'S FEDERATION IN KIRIBATI Summary of a Presentation by Kairabu Betaia

Primary Health Care in Kiribati

In Kiribati, primary health care is handled by the Kiribati Government through the Ministry of Health and church groups. From 1963 to 1972, the primary health care extended to family heath care. The government provided funds to a women's organisation for fares to travel around Kiribati to carry out a programme in family health care, nutrition and sanitation. The Women's organisation also had a radio programme on women's issues and health education.

The Kiribati National Women's Federation was formed in 1977, under the supervision of the Ministry of Health and Family Planning. The Ministry handed over the responsibility for family health to the organisation. From August 1981 to 1986, the FSP (the Foundation for the People's of the South Pacific) provided financial support for overall running of the health programme.

When the women's organisation started the programme in Kiribati, it faced a lot of problems. The people in the village did not accept the nutrition programme because they felt that it was going to change the value of their food. The women's organisation tried to make people aware of the health side of food and nutrition and to concentrate on having a good diet. It went to the older people and tried to introduce the benefits of good nutrition. But people didn't want the women to talk about nutrition, they wanted them to cook and taste the food first. So the women did that. When the people could see that the women were all right after tasting the food first, only then would they eat it too, and then talk about nutrition. People were also informed through radio about sanitation. Slowly, people were changing.

The KNWF (Kiribati National Women's Federation), working together with the Ministry of Health, has run many workshops in the outer islands at the women's centres. Workshops are on sanitation, nutrition, home management and home economy.

Through these, women of Kiribati gained confidence in their health and diet and are making use of the health services available. They are also encouraging their children to eat green leaves and local food.

Problems the organisation encountered were that they had run out of money. Luckily, to the women in the outer islands and all the women in Kiribati, money was not important - they wanted to continue to learn about health services and other things anyway. So, the work of the Women's Federation in this area continues, though it is mainly voluntary now.

Questions and Answers

Q: Did the Kiribati diet traditionally include greens or not?

A: In the olden days, people lived on local green leaves, coconut and fish, etc. But that has slowly changed. Nowadays, because the soil is not so rich, people did not have so much green leaves. The Federation project has started that again - encouraging growing these foods.

Q: Was the project funded by FSP (Foundation for the People's of the South Pacific)?

A: Firstly, it was funded by Government, but when Kiribati gained independence in 1982, FSP came in and funded it and then left the project.

Q: The women's organisations were working in the Government's programme, that is, the Department of Health Programme. Were they paid for this work?

A: Not by the Government. But the Government supported some of the women's workshops and training.

Q: The favourable response to the nutrition programme in the village - was that anything to do with the fact that it was the women who were organising it?

A: The response from the community was that they needed the women to write up the recipes and also needed information on local medicines. People are encouraged to use local leaves. It was also found to be better when people used local medicines once a day, replacing bought medicines.

Q: What is meant by local medicine? Is it bush medicine?

A: For example, girls in Kiribati are not allowed to eat raw fish from a very young age. There are times when they have a period, that they must use certain leaves in the morning and evening, for three days. The leaves help control the body's smells and make the face nice and shiny.

Q: Why aren't the young girls allowed to eat raw fish?

A: When you sweat, you smell very bad. When we are dancing - we are very strict on this - you have to go without fish for two weeks before dancing in public…

Q: Does that apply to men and women too?

A: For dancing? Yes, both men and women.

Black and white print - pacific design.

Kairabu added a comment on her experiences with the project:

KAIRABU (KIRIBATI) When we visited our village people, it was very difficult for us to talk in the meeting house. Women are not allowed there. We asked the village leaders for permission to talk. Now, they allow us, when we talk about the project.

Q: But are women allowed to be at any meeting in the village meeting house?

A: Yes, but we are not allowed to talk. The women priests can talk there now…

Q: Do you think that is an improvement?

A: Yes.

Women dancing, Northern Province, Papua New Guinea Black and white photograph of women dancing, Papua New Guinea.

A YWCA KINDERGARTEN IN THE SOLOMON ISLANDS Summary of a Presentation by Jully Makani

The Solomon Islands has six kindergarten schools. One is run by the YWCA, one by another women's organisation, two run by women, one by a man who came to the YWCA for training, and one run by the Holy Cross Church.

The YWCA kindergarten started in 1975. Its building was in the YWCA area. The women decided, as part of the services to the community, to buy the building. With a loan from the bank and additional funding from an organisation in Holland, the loan has been paid off. The kindergarten now belongs to the women. Children of all races, from 2+ to 7 years of age, are taken in. Four women were working at the kindergarten - it is now increased to 7. The women are not trained. There is only one trained teacher, while the others are helpers. But the YWCA, as a feminst organisation, needed to try to upgrade these women's learning. The helpers now attend a course throughout the year and during the holidays the YWCA sends them to kindergarten workshops. It also tried to encourage the women to attend the University of the South Pacific and to speak on the satellite (the University of the South Pacific has a satellite link-up). The satellite enables extensions classes to be held throughout the South Pacific university region and can link women to other kindergarten organisations in the Pacific. The YWCA tried to register the women in extension courses of the USP; one problem was that none of the women had secondary school education.

The YWCA kindergarten has made a contribution to the community. It was the best form of service that could be given to the community because the population was growing at approximately four and a half per cent and the Solomon Islands needed more kindergartens. Such a service needed to be provided. Another reason for getting children into kindergartens was that more mothers were going out to work. The kindergarten was in a way serving as a child care centre.

Fees were $1.00 a day and had been that for the last six years. In 1986, when the committee decided to charge $1.50 in line with other kindergartens, there was a loud outcry. Its teachers were also however demanding higher pay.

This project's contribution to women's development was that women could now go out to work, because the kindergarten took care of their children. Mothers were employed and thus earning their own money, which built up their confidence. Secondly, the kindergarten teachers were getting training through workshops and courses, and teachers had also organised themselves into an association. All teachers in the Solomon Islands come together once a year, funded by the University of the South Pacific or a similar body.

Other kindergartens were springing up in the islands but the headteachers could not find the time or money to visit these kindergartens. Each time, money had to be sought from the University of the South Pacific, Foundation for the Peoples of the South Pacific (FSP) or other organisations.

Due to the YWCA kindergarten, women had come together and had a common cause. The children who went to pre-school did better in primary schools than those who had never been to pre-school. By then they could count and knew their ABC. The YWCA kindergarten project also gave women a chance to get together with the other women and compare notes. In the kindergarten committees women could exchange views - in English and in Pidgin. There was a YWCA branch kindergarten in Western Province.

Questions and Answers

Q: Do the children get pre-school education at 5 years of age?

A: Children are taken from two and half to seven years. From 7 years, they go to primary school. If there is some difficulty, the kindergarten also takes children up to 9 years.

Q: Were the schools designed to meet the needs of the children, or were they designed as day care centres to assist women in their responsibilities to their families while they are employed?

A: The YWCA says it is not a day care centre. The children taken in at 3 are toilet trained, etc. It is a pre-school.

Black and white photograph of children making leis.

THE WOMEN'S CRISIS CENTRE IN SUVA, FIJI Summary of a Presentation by Shamima Ali

The Women's Crisis Centre (WCC) became operational in August 1984. The founding group met in 1983, when women of various races, nationalities, religions and ideologies, got together and voiced a concern about the number of sexual attacks on women in and around the city of Suva.

The group was concerned about the total lack of support for women. There was no official body to provide help, so the women decided to work towards providing such a service themselves. The result was the Women's Crisis Centre.

The Centre is funded by donations and by small grants, occasionally from the government. It is a charitable trust affiliated to the National Council of Women. However, the National Council of Women has not provided much help to the Centre; the WCC however still wished to be affiliated to the NCW.

Presently, the centre is made up of about 30 women, mostly locals and some expatriates. Its aim is to continue to increase the number of local women members, and the Centre constantly works to this end.

The Centre operates as a collective body, and found it operated best in this way. Each member has an equal voice and major decisions are arrived at in a democratic way. All members of the Centre are volunteers, except for the Co-ordinator and the Secretary. The Co-ordinator makes most of the day-to-day decisions and is the primary spokesperson for the Centre, arranging publicity, etc. The two paid members - the Secretary and the Co-ordinator -are also members of the Collective. The Collective assessed itself constantly and if, at any point, it is felt that the Collective idea was not working, the Centre would change its structure. So far, the Collective has worked very well.

The main function of the Centre is to provide a support service to women and children who had been or were victims of violence, rape, wife bashing, child abuse, and incest. It is open from 9 to 5, Monday to Friday, and provides a 24-hour telephone service made possible through a diverted call system which ensures that a counsellor is at the other end of the line, 24 hours a day.

The service is completely confidential, free and available to all women and children. It provides psychological and emotional support through counselling. Women on the counselling roster undergo a basic training programme in counselling, conducted by a trained counselling psychologist. The trainer is leaving but three of the Collective have been trained to take over from her.

Counsellors accompany a victim, if she wishes, through police and court procedures. The Centre provides her with information on other services available to her and on her rights. A victim could also be referred to a place of refuge, which is a short-term arrangement. Individuals in the community provide safe-houses for women. The Centre also assists in finding alternative long-term accommodation, which is difficult. The Centre offers full support for whatever course of action the woman decides to take. The woman is encouraged to make a decision for herself.

The Centre also has conducted self-defense classes, which it is trying to continue. The Centre does not offer religious counselling, because it is not prepared to do this. If a woman wants religious help, however, she is referred to an appropriate agency. The WCC also felt it was important not to undertake religious counselling because the Centre wanted women from all religious backgrounds to feel free to come to the Centre. Also women who were desperate enough to come to the Centre did not need religious counselling at that moment of crisis. In its two years of counselling and seeing over 200 cases, the Centre has not had any case of women asking for religious counselling.

Other aims of the Centre are to develop an extensive community education programme and increase community awareness of the problem of violence against women. This has been done through information dissemination using posters and pamphlets and through media contacts, public teaching, conducting of seminars in schools, colleges, and in women's groups and other community groups.

Research into the circumstances, dynamics, and magnitude of sexual and domestic violence, is another priority. The Centre hopes to house a valuable library of information on the subject which could operate as a community resource centre. A fair amount of literature has been collected and is being used by government organisations. The Centre hopes to eventually have some influence on the judicial procedures because women have very little legal protection in Fiji. [Following the coups in Fiji in May and September 1987, the judiciary has been particularly unstable. The Fiji Women's Rights Movement, which works closely with the Women's Crisis Centre, is looking at this area.]

Contribution to the Community

Assessing the project's contribution to the community, the Centre's view is that rape and violence do not just affect women but they affect all of society. In two years, the Centre has attended to 200 women and children who belong to all races and socio-economic groups. The WCC has been able to avert a few suicides and some child abuse. Media coverage in Fiji recently on the issue of violence shows heavier sentences passed and comments by judges and magistrates. The Centre feels it is making some headway and had raised community awareness on the issue of rape and violence towards women and children.

The Centre and “Development”

Though the Centre might not be contributing to “development” in the sense of economic growth or being involved in any redistribution of wealth, the Centre is providing a valuable support service for women and, with the Collective, is making decisions and running the Centre on a shoe-string budget. The project is working well in the face of opposition from men and women also.

The Centre has also made inroads in the medical, legal and police areas. Officials who would not previously come near the WCC or its workers, are now offering to assist the Women's Crisis Centre.

One problem is finance - finding finance to continue existing is a consistent constraint on the Centre. Much valuable time is spent on writing funding proposals and doing public relations work to get money. A proposal has been submitted to the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA), for two years funding. The UNFPA proposal, which needs government support, has been in Government hands for 14 months in 1987. [The funds have still not been forwarded at the time of publication, 1989]. The UNFPA has agreed to fund the Centre and has budgetted for two years, but the Government has rejected the proposal twice, forcing the Centre to re-submit it again. At this time, no definite answer or reason for refusing the proposal has been given. The Centre has heard from the former President of the National Council of Women that the Government did not like the word “crisis” as “crisis” gave Fiji a bad name. Fiji's image as a paradise is contradicted by the existence of a “crisis” centre.

Black and white cartoon about domestic violence.

The Collective refuses, however, to compromise on this point and to change its name. They are angry because it had taken the Centre a long time to establish itself.

Within the organisation, personality clashes and different perspectives exist, including on feminism. The Collective tries to iron out these difficulties. There are some women who were opposed to feminism. The Centre has gone to great lengths to explain that it is not a feminist organisation consisting of men-haters. Sometimes, this appears to be a false image because in dealing with battered women daily, it is difficult not to form a certain dislike of men; the WCC work also affects our relationships with men. Women in the Centre have had their views changed by their work: for instance, no longer thinking that if they as individuals are okay, everyone is okay.

The WCC is seen as a threat in Fiji. The WCC is not a group of women who had got together because they had nothing else to do. The Centre is “hitting at the very heart of the oppression of women”.

Shamima added a comment on her experiences in the project:

SHAMIMA (FIJI) Meeting a woman smiling, talking and in good health after seeing her walk through the doors a complete wreck - physically and emotionally abused three months before - that to us means improving her living conditions and raising her status. It means we have come a long way and it justifies our existence.

Questions and Answers

Q: Was it part of the WCC's continuing education programme to educate men?

A: Yes. The WCC goes out and talks to service organisations. The Centre does not talk to the husbands or men directly involved in cases, except through use of the media and by writing on violence, hoping that these men will read the articles. The WCC does go to men's organisations, such as the Rotary Club, the Lions Club, the Medical School, and the Police. When the Police are training new recruits, they call on the WCC to talk to them. The Centre also carries out workshops on the treatment of rape victims.

One idea was to go to the Raiwaqa Housing Authority (a high density urban housing complex) to carry out workshops but the women feared the danger they might put themselves in if the males present got together and harassed them. The WCC members have received phone threats and threats from people who come to the Centre. These threats continue.

Q: How do you treat women who go back to their husbands?

A: The women at the Centre have no powers to control that - unless the legal system were to change. We had a case of a woman whose husband had been beating her for the last six years, ever since she got married. She was brought in by her niece who wanted the Crisis Centre to tell the woman to leave her husband but the Centre could not/did not do that. The woman concerned wanted to give the man a second chance, so the Crisis Centre went to the public legal advisor (now a woman - a plus point for the Centre) and she wrote a letter to the man suggesting possible legal action. The letter helped the woman considerably, even though it was not legally binding. If powers were legal, these could help more women.

Q: The reason I asked is that in some places, the man beats his wife and one can do nothing about it.

A: That is one of the things the Women's Rights Movement is pushing for. At the moment, when a domestic matter is reported, for example, wife bashing, the woman has to press charges and it is up to her. Then the case is classed in the general category of domestic disputes. If the woman drops the charges, that ends the case. The WCC and WRM is pushing for the matter (a man beating a woman) to become a police case, whether the woman reconciles or not.

Q: Is a large percentage of cases dealt with at the Centre rape cases and wife abuse?

A: The Centre was actually set up as a rape crisis centre, but the women involved right at the beginning realised that many women were being bashed up, and a lot of children also, and that is how the Women's Crisis Centre came into being. Rape is still an under-reported crime in Fiji and still a very taboo subject which many people refuse to talk about. In two years, the WCC has had about 12 cases of rape, of which only 4 had been reported; it has dealt with about 200 cases of violence, with 100 cases being wife bashing.

Q: What about incest and child abuse?

A: In two years, only about four cases were referred to the WCC by teachers.

Q: Does the WCC have a close relationship with the school system as well?

A: Yes. A few teachers have joined the WCC and through them, contact has been made with schools.

Q: Why did the WCC decide to have workshops in Raiwaqa - a high density urban housing area?

A: Most of the rape cases are from Raiwaqa. The Centre has also had women from the Raiwaqa community privately reporting rape cases. The Centre has been told of two women who were in hospital, who had been gang raped five times. The attitude of the police has been “Oh, it happens all the time” and so they have not bothered to pursue the cases. A traditional practice is also being used to smooth over the matter: a tabua (whale's tooth - a traditional offering of high value) is taken by the people who committed the offence to the injured party and the rape becomes “a family matter” and is settled that way. The victim however, has no say in the matter, as the tabua is presented to her family.

Discussion

It was also noted that the Fiji Government (March 1987) had wanted the Women's Crisis Centre to remove the word “crisis” from their name. This highlighted a point made earlier that the people who control the institutions in society, who have the powers, can use these for their own purposes. It was suggested that progressive (or ‘radical’) women's organisations perhaps paid too much attention to women's organisations that did not want to be associated with the feminist women's movement, because they viewed feminism negatively. For progressive women, it might be more important to continue working to try to educate and explain issues, not just to conservative women, but to the community. Remaining in contact with conservative groups was important, but progressive organisations should not do this just to appease opposition.

It was pointed out it was the activism, not just the feminist ideas of progressive groups, that was sometimes considered threatening. Governments were also fearful of activism. Both women's organisations and the government were uncomfortable sometimes if the institutional framework of society was challenged.

ESTABLISHING A NATIONAL MACHINERY FOR WOMEN'S DEVELOPMENT IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA Summary of a presentation by Fungke Samana

As for many other Pacific island nations, 1975 was International Women's Year and the PNG Government made available money for the women in the country to organise themselves. So, in 1975, a national women's convention was held at Port Moresby which brought together women from all over the country, most of whom were representing church women's organisations already existing in the country, and other women's clubs and organisations such as the YWCA, the Girl Guides, the Soroptimists International, the Catholic Women's Association and others. Part of the government money was used for the conference and to send a delegation to Mexico City for the 1975 UN Conference.

The main resolution of the 1975 Port Moresby convention was that the participants coming from other provinces in Papua New Guinea would go back and set up their own Provincial Councils of Women. The National Council of Women would be supported by the Provincial Councils of Women.

The women participating in the National Convention in 1975 went back to their own respective provinces and tried to organise women at the provincial level, by establishing Provincial Councils of Women. PNG has 19 provinces, plus the National Capital District, which makes a total of 20 provinces. Therefore there were supposed to be 20 provincial organisations plus the National Organisation, as an overall organisation.

As women organised themselves, there were a few practical problems that they faced. The bulk of PNG women are village women. There were difficulties conveying information or getting to women, to establish the machinery. What happened was that only women in the city centres or in towns could get together for association meetings. Provincial councils did not reach the grassroot levels, so were just superficially women's organisations. At the same time, other women's organisations, such as church women's organisations and women's clubs which were supposedly being organised, already existed. The setting up of Provincial organisations threatened these women's organisations and they felt that by joining up the national and provincial women's networks, their organisation would lose its identity. Church organisations were particularly strong and did represent women from the grassroots level up to the national level. These women's organisations of the Catholic, Anglican, United and Seventh Day Adventist churches, had women's networks in the country.

The Government Machinery

From 1975 onwards, the national government funded most of the National Council of Women's programmes, its office maintenance and other expenses. Up to 1983, the national government spent K700,000(PNG kina) on women's projects. To summarise, the National Council of Women was established mainly as a women's network to represent women of the country on the international scene and also nationally. The Council was to be a resource centre for the women of the country. It was the only channel through which financial support, or any other support from outside, could be directed. The churches had their own way of getting assistance.

The PNG government also had a eight-point plan; and the seventh point of the Plan specifically spelt out “Equal participation of women in development, politically, socially and economically”. The PNG Development Plan's seventh point was supported by financial assistance representing the Government's commitment.

At that time, the Government also had an administrative division called Youth and Women that was also involved in organising women in the country. When the national women's organisation was set up, conflict arose between this Department and the national machinery of the National Council of Women, which came into being through an Act of Parliament. Conflict between these two structures existed.

Analysis: In terms of its contribution to women, the national machinery for women started off well - it at least had some training programmes in appropriate technology, nutrition and agriculture. However, these were started and then were forgotten. Whatever funds had been given for them instead maintained the bureaucracy that had been created.

Also, from 1975 onwards, women at the provincial level had difficulties with the National Council because it was a very new organisation, which confused a lot of women. Women in the rural areas did not know or care about what was going on, and those in the main town areas who were aware, were also confused.

Detlef Blumel, SPC Black and white drawing of a group of people sitting in a circle.

Gaining the support from the Provincial

Papua New Guinea has a system of Provincial Governments and a National government. Provinces have their own funds to administer.

or the National organisations was another matter. The national machinery needed support from the provinces which was a problem as already described. At that time, the concept of decentralisation from the National Government was also being established at the national political level, and the provincial governments were just being established. A lot of things were happening at one time in PNG and the women were in a worse situation, trying to get support from the provincial governments. Some provincial governments were very responsive to women's requests; others did not assist women at all.

Making it worse was the conflict between the national machinery and the Government department already in existence. This was the point where the difficulty over the National machinery for women started. The Government gave funds through the Council of Women, which was a non-government organisation. At the same time, it supported the Department for Youth, Women and Religion which also had money for women's projects. The Government was therefore giving money and support to two different bodies, for the same purpose, and all the provinces had women's activity officers who were supposed to be coordinating women's projects in the provinces.

In assessing women's understanding of development in PNG, the church women's organisations are very vocal. They have a clear concept of what women's status is, and what it can offer for women in terms of “development”. Unfortunately, the National Council of Women has never recognised church women's organisations, and that is one area where the national machinery failed. Church women's organisations were asking for recognition within the national machinery but the structure of the National Council of Women did not enable them to co-exist together.

In 1979, at the Third Women's Convention, Morobe Province withdrew from the NCW and a lot of provinces also later withdrew; the major churches also withdrew support. By 1984, the National Council of Women was just a floating organisation, it was inert. By 1985–86, it completely collapsed. The National Council of Women still exists as a name because it came into being through an Act of Parliament, and has to have a two-thirds majority to be abolished. The women are still struggling in their own organisations such as the church organisations, the YWCA, the Girl Guides, etc.

Another weakness of the national machinery was that women were doing its programmes and other aspects of its work from the capital city, Port Moresby, and few of them would have known what was happening at the village level. The NCW resources never got down to the grassroots level - from personal experience, Morobe province, since 1975, only received K500 (kina) from the National Council of Women. Assistance was offered if women's projects followed what the NCW wanted; otherwise none was received.

Some attempt has been made to revive the national machinery. At the beginning of this year, the National Minister for Women, Youth the Religion tried to call a meeting to come up with a committee to re-organise the National Council of Women, but it never eventuated. In conclusion, it is still unclear what will happen to the National Council of Women which was set up in 1975 to help women in development in Papua New Guinea.

Funds could only be received if organisations were a member of the National Council of Women (NCW); all applications had to go through the Council. Provincial Councils or women's organisations that withdrew had to apply directly to government. In most cases, the Government made funds available.

Workshop Discussion

The conclusion on the PNG NCW was that it was never really supported by existing women's organisations in the provinces. One problem was the need to recognise church groups and work through existing organisations, because they represented a communications system that was already established that could be used.

The PNG case was considered one of the less successful experiences of a National Council of Women. Most other Pacific countries established their Councils of Women after PNG. Four countries where the Councils had run more successfully were: Tuvalu, Kiribati, Vanuatu and Solomon Islands. In Vanuatu, the staff on the Council of Women were civil servants and paid for by the Government to work for the Council of Women. One view was that a good working relationship with the government was a necessary factor if national organisations were to work successfully.

A question was asked on whether, when government funds were allocated to national organisations, training in finance management was also provided. One area where government support for a national machinery could be strengthened would be to provide training in management and financial skills for the women placed in leadership positions in the organisations. Another problem was that funds did not reach most women, especially women in the interior areas. Women and women's organisers in the remote areas therefore suffered from a lack of financial support and personnel resources, despite a national machinery and funding being available.

Black and white photograph of a woman sewing.

WOMEN'S ORGANISATIONS IN GUAM Summary of a Presentation by Laura Souder-Jaffery

If an observer were to evaluate the effectiveness of women's organisations in Guam by their number, goal and scope, and wide-ranging membership, the impression created by approximately 75 women's organisations in Guam, representing the diverse ethnic, professional, religious, philanthropic, cultural and military segments of the island community, would be misleading. There are three federations or umbrella women's organisations with which 98 per cent of all women's organisations are affiliated. The 75 women's organisations are affiliated to one of the three umbrella organisations or federations.

The Guam Council of Women's Clubs was formed in 1982, by the First Lady of Guam at the time, to promote friendship and fellowship among the women in Guam. The two other federations boast a predominantly Chamorro membership. The Confraternity of Christian Mothers is comprised of chapters of each of the 19 Catholic parishes in Guam. Guam is divided into 19 villages; each village with a parish and in each parish has a Christian Mothers' Association which is affiliated to the Confraternity. Established at the turn of this century, its objective is to encourage the development of “Christian home education, children and truly Christian mothers”. The women of Guam, if they join any organisation, will usually start with membership in the Christian Mothers Association in their Parish. Those who are active organisers in the community have frequently attributed their personal growth and development as organisers, to their membership in the Confraternity of Christian Mothers.

Black and white print - pacific design.

The Federation of Chamorro

‘Chamorro’ represents the indigenous language and people of Guam.

Women's Organisations

The Federation of Chamorro Women's Associations is analysed here. This umbrella organisation is chosen for several reasons. Its membership consists of grassroots Chamorro women representing a wide cross-section of villagers and it draws women from all socio-economic strata, age groups and occupations, including housewives and the unemployed. In addition, the Federation was a product of the UN Decade for Women.

Its founder, Lagrimas Aflague laid the groundwork for the Federation in 1980 by convening a board of trustees to develop a constitution and by-laws to set organisation objectives and to assist in organising district clubs. She stated that her reason for initiating the Federation was simply that there were many community needs which should be addressed. This woman took it upon herself to establish a Federation because she identified the need and then convened a board of trustees, before the actual member affiliates were established. The Federation came into existence before district clubs were created which gave legitimacy to the Federation.

More importantly, the Federation's founder believed Chamorro women needed a non-sectarian and non-partisan organisation to which they could belong. Her interest in later Federation projects also was a strong motivation for organising; two of her projects have become major projects of the Federation.

Eight District Clubs have been established in the last seven years, using an organisational structure patterned after the Federation. These clubs meet monthly and charge $14 annual membership dues, $2 of which goes to the Federation as an individual membership assessment. Only Chamorro members can be full voting members but women of other ethnicities can be associate members though they cannot vote, nor can they hold office. Meetings are conducted in the Chamorro language. In no other official situation is Chamorro used in the fashion that the Chamorro Women's Association uses the indigenous language to conduct its business. The Clubs embark on projects in the villages.

There are approximately 300 voting members in the Federation. These seemingly ordinary facts represent a bold step: Chamorros' clubs are very organised, and are accused of being discriminatory. The same principle, however, does not apply to other ethnic organisations on Guam. Anybody who has been to Guam will know that there is a proliferation of Filipino Women's organisations representing every province in the Philippines, Micronesian Women's Organisation representing various island groups of Micronesia, and Chinese, Japanese, and Korean women's organisations. But when Chamorro women organised, it was automatically considered a discriminatory act against other ethnic groups.

The Chamorro identity is one of the Federation's most notable contributions. The Federation is financially self-sustaining. It sponsors bingo games three times a week for fundraising and nets approximately $15,000 (US) a month. This is used to support its projects and selected charities; it is a wealthy organisation. The money raised is used to support its projects and selected charities. This year, members decided to donate to the American Red Cross, the Cancer Society, the Heart Association and, most significantly, to the Hospital Volunteers Association for the purchase of a machine. When women are suspected of having breast cancer, or have any kind of a shadow on an x-ray, they have to go to Hawaii to get a mammograph, or they are operated on without knowing whether it is a cancerous growth. The purchase of that machine cost about $150,000 and all the women's organisations are collecting funds for it. They also donated to a new organisation trying to assist abused and handicapped persons, and to provide a shelter for battered wives.

The Federation also helps individual members who are in need. It acts as a kind of life insurance policy - if members have a family crisis, they can go to the association for funding, much in the way that an extended family works. A recent example is of a member whose home was destroyed by fire. The Federation gave her $1,000 to relocate her family and she was able to pay three months rent with that money.

Black and white drawing of three pacific women.

The bulk of the funds are earmarked for two on-going projects - that is, Miss Cinderella Scholarship Programme and the Civic Centre Building Fund. These are the two projects that are the pet projects of the founder.

One of the nine objectives identified in the by-laws is a women's centre, to bring about a spirit of cooperation among the Chamorro women. This objective has served to put women in touch with each other, especially with women whom they would otherwise not have known or had any reason to meet or have contact with. The opportunity to work with the variety of women on projects has extended the social and support networks for many members of the Federation. Whatever motivation for creating the Federation it has served a good purpose for individual members.

On a collective level, the Federation's most successful and visible contributions are community oriented. Most of the energies of its members and almost all its profits from fund-raising activities are channelled to the Federation's two projects. They also assist charities and work with village commissioners. In every village are municipal governments based on a commissionership, with one commissioner and a municipal council. The organisation does work with the village commissioners especially at the district level (there are eight districts) to assist in problem areas in the village. If the commissioner identifies a problem - for example, the lack of enough trash cans in the village creating a sanitation problem - the Federation will go in and provide trash cans for the village, or raise funds to do so. If there is a high incidence of vandalism in the village, the mothers, through neighbour networking, try to identify the vandals and work with them, redirecting their activities to sports, etc. In the general sense then, the Federation's activities have improved living conditions, both directly in the villages and indirectly, through its monetary contributions to other charities.

In the other areas of interest to this workshop, however, the reality is painful. An evaluation of women's organisations in Guam today, and in the past decade, would lead to one conclusion: while development and feminism as concepts many appear, albeit rarely, in organisational literature and sometimes surface in discussions, no substantial contributions to the understanding of either “development” or “feminism” have been made. A major problem is that women's organisations become too involved with project detail and forget to look at the big picture. That is something that was raised this morning in the discussion on feminism and is a constant problem needing attention.

However, women's organisations in Guam, including the Federation of Chamorro Women's Association, have had a better performance record in raising the standards of individual women, as distinct from improving the status of women collectively. The Federation does not identify improved status as a specific organisational goal. Consequently, club activities are not planned to foster the innovation or improvement in the status of women. Nevertheless, the Federation has had a positive impact on many of its members. A number of Chamorro women who have joined the Federation, but were never involved in organising all before, had not felt comfortable joining other women's organisations because of the predominance of non- Chamorrosnon-Chamorros who usually assumed leadership roles and make Chamorro women feel inadequate or inferior. Sometimes a preoccupation with organisational skills which define leadership ability is overemphasised and if some women do not appear to have these skills, they are never asked to become a member of any organisation. This attitude prevents Chamorro women from wanting to join other organisations.

Because the Federation is comprised of Chamorro membership, the environment of the organisation itself and of its meetings, attracts women who would otherwise not think of joining. Women are encouraged to contribute to decision-making; they ask everybody's opinion about issues, so, women are actually encouraged to formulate opinions when they have never even been asked before.

By taking on these responsibilities and organising activities in their organisation, women are strengthening skills that they use both in the home and at the work place, if they are employed. They also acquire new organisational skills. Members who were previously shy and self-evasive are slowly changing, and are developing a confidence and pride in the discovery that they do have talents, and that these talents can benefit the community. It is too early to tell whether this new cadre of organisers, who are working alongside the more seasoned women leaders, will become more active in the public sphere or whether they will confine their involvement to the Federation and its activities.

Key Leadership Positions in the Federation

The key organisers in the Federation are successful women who are relatively secure and comfortable with their positions in society. This serves as a distinct disadvantage or barrier. What frequently results is the “What you are talking about?” syndrome. When questioned about what they have done to improve the status of women in Guam, a typical response is “Oh, we don't need to be liberated, we are okay the way we are”. This is a classic example of a singular application of the feminist principle “personal is political”, - meaning, women feel that if they are okay, then everybody else should be okay too. And if they are not, then it's their problem. That application of the feminist principle, “personal is political”, only to one's own experience therefore can be very limiting and self-centred, and is counter-productive to a collective improvement of the status of women. This is not done deliberately, by these women at the top. It is an unconscious discrimination against other women in less powerful positions. There is a need to recognise this problem: personal success and satisfaction often lead to complacency and inability to relate to the lot of other women in Guam, whose reality is quite oppressive. This discollectiveness with the collective sense of reality, is evident in the same way individuals view indigenous issues like self-determination and development. Some people think if they are successful in their own little businesses, then there are no economic restrictions affecting Chamorro people from growing economically. Dis-collectiveness is a real problem.

Returning to the Federation, it has the potential to become a thinking and nurturing environment in which women can assess their issues and ultimately grow with each other in a collective understanding of development and feminism. There are barriers that must be overcome: one of the most difficult is attitude. If women can overcome the battle of attitude, they will have won the war. The big question is how to germinate the necessary levels of consciousness and awareness in women leaders, organisers or activists, to direct the energy and power at their disposal towards the Pacific female vision of justice that we have gathered here together to understand and define. I hope we will come close to doing so in the next few days.

Questions and Answers

Q: What is meant by Chamorro?

A: Chamorro people, Chamorro language, Chamorro culture is the indigenous culture of Guam.

Q: What does that mean in terms of population?

A: The Chamorro are a minority in their own country and in their own nation. They are threatened and put under great duress when they claim to be a “nation”. There are more Chamorros in the United States than there are in Guam; the same situation as American Samoa. Chamorros call themselves Guamanians. Guam was colonised first by Spain and then by America; it had 400 years of Spanish colonisation before American colonisation. The US gained Guam as part of the spoils of the Spanish-American War of 1898.

Q: What percentage of the Chamorro people speak their language?

A: It is relative to age. All children are now learning Chamorro in school. The younger children are learning to actually read and write and speak Chamorro. My age group - 37 - is really a threshold age group in the sense that when we were growing up it was good to speak Chamorro, but at the time that we were in school, there was a very strong movement against the teaching and speaking of Chamorro because it was felt that it would diminish our capacity for learning in English. Parents became very scared that if their children could not learn and succeed in English, they would not succeed at all in society. So, there was a very pronounced movement in the 1960s to erase Chamorro altogether from the public sphere. We were actually fined if we spoke a Chamorro word. All my lunch money and recess money was always put into this fine, as was everyone else's. If you could not pay the fine, you had to work after school, cleaning the school. Imagine what that can do to the psychology of a child… Anything Chamorro was then considered backward, anything traditional was backward. The idea was to try to urbanise the Chamorro and make the culture disappear.

Now, because of revival efforts, Chamorro is becoming a very exciting language. We are exploring new ways to express the new things that are happening that we have no words for. We are actually creating and adding on to the language.

Black and white photograph of a beach.

Black and white drawing of a woman working. WOMEN'S PARTICIPATION IN A SUBSISTENCE AGRICULTURE IMPROVEMENT PROGRAMME, MOROBE PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT, PAPUA NEW GUINEA

Summary of a Presentation by Fungke Samana

Fungke's earlier presentation, the first half of her paper, was on the national machinery for women established in PNG in 1975. This case study is of a provincial level agricultural programme and activities for women.

As mentioned earlier, the Morobe Provincial Council of Women withdrew from the National Council of Women in 1979. The reasons for withdrawing were that there was no national women's policy which could direct the work of the provinces. Another reason was that material and financial support was not being given to the provinces to organise; also the National Council of Women did not make a financial report to member organisations. One other reason was that provinces were not given the opportunity to come up with their own constitution and policies to meet their own needs. The National Council of Women was not representing grassroots women at the provincial level. The Morobe Provincial Council of Women withdrew on these grounds.

Morobe Province

The Morobe Province is the biggest province in the country in terms of its population of 360,000. After withdrawing from the National Council, the Provincial women quickly formed a committee to organise a constitution and come up with a policy. They also formed an organisation and registered it under the Registrar General as the Morobe Women's Association in 1982. The Provincial Government of that time gave a K10,000 (kina) grant to organise women in the province. Part of the money was used to organise the first provincial women's conference, which tried to bring women from the rural areas and church women's organisations together. This meeting approved a constitution and also a policy for the Morobe Women's Association.

Beginnings of the Provincial Women's Organisation

Part of the government's money was used for awareness programmes. Women in the villages were not sure where to get assistance, either from the non-government organisations or government organisations, so the Association organised women at village level and introduced awareness courses.

This programme took up to three years, funded by the Provincial Government. The Executive of the Women's Association decided a year's programme and women's activity officers within the Government Department helped implement them. Therefore, public servants paid for by the Government carried out the Women's Association's programmes.

By 1984–85, the whole province had been covered by the awareness programmes. A programme called the Subsistence Agriculture Improvement Programme was then started.

The Subsistence Agriculture Programme

In 1985, it was recognised that women would not have time for any other activities unless subsistence agriculture was improved. Every day, a woman is out in the garden trying to produce food for the family and has time for nothing else.

The Subsistence Agriculture programme involves the whole community, not only women. Its objectives are to train subsistence farmers and improve agriculture through new techniques which can be incorporated with traditional agricultural methods, to increase both the quality and quantity of food production. A second objective is to train subsistence farmers to adopt stable gardening methods as an alternative to unstable traditional methods of cultivation. A population growth of about 3.5 per cent annually has placed priority on providing food for the people. The programme teaches site-stable gardening so that people will continuously produce food from a given area, a different concept from the traditional shifting agriculture method. Appropriate technology suitable for the village people is part of the programme. A long term aim is to hope to establish agro-based industries in rural areas - fruit juice, jam, and cordial-making, etc and a marketing system to boost production.

Women who are benefiting from the credit project in Koge, PNG APDC Black and white photograph of women who are benefiting from the credit project in Koge.

Presently, the programme has food centres where farmers - women, men and young people - bring their foodstuff; a local market to assist this programme is planned. The whole aim is to improve the nutritional status of the people in the village and to provide self-employment to stem the drift of people to urban areas for employment. In one of the villages, where the programme has existed for about six years, it been proved successful. Young people are now planting vegetables and cash crops and making money. Some are earning about K2,500 (kina) a month, more than if they were employed in towns.

The programme is also on food processing and food preparation. PNG has just one method of cooking food - in a pot with coconut cream, etc. The programme shows people how to prepare a nice appetising meal. The men are quite happy and want us to teach them more. If the women are doing something that benefits the family and the home, the men are prepared to listen, in our experience. A lot of men are sending their wives to these courses and some are coming themselves! The men do not see this as a women's programme. Funds come from the Provincial Government and the programme is open to anyone who is interested.

This represents what the Provincial Women's Council is doing in Morobe province after withdrawing from the National Council of Women [see earlier presentation on PNG National Machinery]. Another two provinces have asked for subsistence agriculture training, and the church women's organisations are also asking the Morobe Women's organisation to assist them in training their women. Mostly, the training programmes are for two to three weeks. The programme does not get national government assistance in funding but relies on some outside aid, for example, from USAID and the Foundation for the Peoples' of the South Pacific.

Questions and Answers

Q: Is the programme encouraging family planning?

A: Family planning comes into the programme, which in the two-three week courses, covers general hygiene, family planning and the traditional aspects of having children. Traditionally, if a woman was seen bearing a child one after the other, she would be ashamed to show up in the community. Yet now, people are having babies one after another. The programme involves family planning workers.

Q: Your programme sounds a real success, even though it has taken some time. Are there other programmes which have succeeded or is this the only one? Generally most programmes are not so successful.

A: This is the only programme like this in PNG. Other provinces are showing an interest and if the national government funds our programme, then we can assist them too.

Black and white photograph of a people outside

Taken from The Tribune, IWTC, New York, June 1989Black and white print of women working. DAY 2 WOMEN AND DEVELOPMENT: A CRITICAL EXAMINATION Facilitator: Claire Slatter

The first day of the workshop had focused on an opening discussion of feminism and on the presentation of women's projects and programmes. In this session, the workshop focused on examining the type of development promoted in the Pacific, and the use of projects as strategies for the advancement of women.

INTRODUCTION by Claire Slatter

In the Third World, women's advancement has mainly been in the context of “development”. Women's development and women's advancement have been linked to the provision of basic needs such as water, food, energy, housing and so on, which are the subject of development plans and strategies. It is easy to understand why overall development goals are linked to women's advancement, because governments are struggling to attain these development goals for everybody. But in this kind of context, particular concerns about women's status and women's conditions often take second place. Many women are familiar with the sort of arguments presented by political leaders or government leaders, in response to pressure for special attention to be paid to the concerns of women. This difficulty of gaining particular attention for women's advancement in the Third World is also a problem in traditional societies, which are concerned with resisting Western influence, even though “development”, to a large extent, has in fact meant Third World countries following development strategies promoted by Western countries and their economies. The fact that women in the Pacific are questioning development is not a contradiction since development patterns in the region are largely defined by our relationship to development patterns defined by the West.

PACIFIC DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES Summary of a Presentation by Hilda Lini

I am not an expert on this subject but will share with you some of my concerns and experience with women and development in the Pacific. The word “development” to me means growth or change. In the Pacific we are guided by what are called “development plans”. Each country in the region formulates what is called a five year development plan, with their goals and objectives. Most development plans are very similar in their format and contents. If we look at the development plans of Solomon Island, Tuvalu, Fiji, Cook Islands and Kiribati, you will see that the format is almost the same with similar sectoral developments. Development plans are usually concerned about raising revenue for the country or the government, and at the same time distributing the benefits of that development through economic growth, throughout the country.

If we look at the development strategies in these plans, we will discover that a lot of emphasis is directed at raising the Gross National Product (GNP), through the development of the commercial and private sectors, the export market and through raising foreign exchange. Low priority is given to development sectors which do not generate monetary resources, for example, the social sector.

Also in these plans are very small paragraphs on women and development. Again this is a sector (like youth development) that does not generate any revenue for governments.

These development plans depend heavily on overseas loans and aid, because our countries do not have money for these development projects. Governments have to make sure that they pay back these loans; so revenue has to be raised to pay back foreign loans. The private sector also is reliant on foreign private investment to realise profits. These development strategies do not encourage self-sufficiency which is the direction most people would wish to see their countries head towards. Although development plans talk about developing their countries to be self-sufficient, development strategies do not really work towards self-sufficiency.

Also, although development plans emphasise raising the GNP, economic growth does not always lead to equal distribution of development benefits. A country may be making a lot of money from the tourist industry, for example, but that money goes towards building roads, hotels, swimming pools or improving the airports, and not enough money goes towards building hospitals, or improving health services, or the education system, to really benefit the maximum population of the country.

Foreign Aid: free assistance, loans, or rip-offs? (Source: Paul Cavadino, Get Off Their Backs) Black and white cartoon questioning the reality of foreign aid.

Foreign reserves may be important but the social aspects of development have to be considered. These aspects are often given less priority.

For example, the cost of living is rising all the time, an experience of development felt by many people in the Pacific. This pattern of development is not benefitting the people concerned.

Women and Development Planning

One of the regional projects coordinated by the Pacific Women's Resource Bureau of the South Pacific Commission, was to examine the development planning process which takes place in the Pacific. We wanted to find out why women were not involved in the planning process. Generally we found that most countries had very small units of national planning offices which were mostly staffed by expatriates even though they often were headed by a local. When it came to drawing up a development plan, this was done by the expatriate staff supposedly with directives from the local staff. Often these plans were based on development plans devised elsewhere; also many expatriate staff would not understand the cultural background and community issues of the countries involved.

Planning also takes place in a vacuum away from the people. Planners sit in a planning office and do the planning - they do not consult the people who may be able to make valuable contributions to development strategies.

When people do not participate in the planning process, they are unable to interpret the concepts used by the planners when they attempt to implement sections of the plan. People's exclusion from the planning process also results in their immediate and basic needs not being included in development plans, and/or receiving no budget allocation for services people would find helpful.

For countries to develop in a positive way, we need to adopt a strategy whereby people participate in the planning process of the community and of the nation. Governments have to involve people in identifying development projects, participating in formulating development plans and in monitoring the implementation of these plans. They also should be involved in the evaluation of positive and negative impacts of development plans. Only they can we hope for positive development in our countries.

Summary of Workshop Discussion What is Development?

It was noted that to speak out against the philosophy of development often meant being branded “anti-progress”. It was often felt that “development” was good, to criticise its effects meant being “backward-looking” and “anti-progressive”. It was presumed that “development” meant “progress” and “traditions” meant “lack of progress”. The answer to that was consulting the people: their involvement in development planning would solve these dilemmas.

In Vanuatu, women had been very vocal in demanding participation in planning. The Government decided to include women and youth teams in the planning of the future five year development plan and held regional planning sessions in which people were able to discuss their needs and the five-year development plan. This process of involvement of women and youth had come about through pressures for greater participation.

In PNG, having women in the planning office was not necessarily a positive benefit because they did not relate to women at the grassroots level. The PNG participant also pointed out that the system of government was still very foreign to most of the people and contradicted the traditional leadership system which ensured distribution of wealth rather than accumulation. One of the problems of modern government was that leaders had become corrupt and were involved with foreign businesses and governments, making “decisions that do not even reflect the feelings of the people”. It was observed that this was a trend happening elsewhere in the Pacific, where leaders were making the wrong decisions regarding resources. An example from PNG was of government taking control over water resources - forcing people to pay for water, a resources they previously used freely.

FUNGKE(PNG) The women in PNG are very critical over Government's control over water resources. The national Government passed a bill in Parliament which in effect said that when rain touches the ground, it belonged to the state. The people had no rights whatsoever. Even if you are in a water district, you are not allowed to put up a tank. If you put up tanks you can go to goal for six months or pay a fine of K1000 (kina).

Men, women and children in PNG had demonstrated, demanding control over their water resources while the Government argued that it would provide them water - but at a cost.

These examples raised questions: Was this “development” - when government took charge of water resources because it had the power to do so? In the PNG example, the added disadvantage was that the PNG Government had borrowed 30 million kina from the Asian Development Bank for water services; the loan would have to be paid back with a high interest rate using the people's money.

Examples such as this highlighted the questions posed by “development”: What is development? Does it always benefit the people? Who pays for development? Who gains from it?

In some countries, women had pressured to have a say in development planning, but had been ignored by the government. The sections on women in some development plans were often written by the planning office - without any consultation with women.

In PNG, women's participation has been more formally institutionalised: that is, it happens on a regular basis, and not just once every five years. Women are involved in all levels of the planning process. At the community, district and provincial levels, there are women's representatives, who are not just formally educated women, but village women. Since 1980–1985, emphasis has been placed on building the infrastructure for development - roads, communications, etc. and women's representatives have played a part in this decision. The 1986–90 Development Plan aims at economic development and decentralisation, and the 1990–1996 plan emphasises industries in the rural areas.

Black and white photograph of a woman weaving.

The Morobe provincial women's association has training courses on the system of government and on planning, for women representatives. At the national level, women had no influence and decisions were made by the National Planning Office. Therefore, in a province in PNG, a method of including women in development planning had been formally set up or institutionalised, a positive change.

In Vanuatu, women were also participating in a committee set up to look at development plans. The National Council of Women was also concerned with national development planning. The Government and National Development Office were receptive to women's participation.

Development plans with strategies for women had to be monitored, to ensure government implemented its promises. Once carried out development strategies for women also had to be evaluated or judged, to determined whether women benefited and in what way.

Development plans had to be assessed by women. There was a need to analyse the type of development the plans promoted, and the impact of development on the people and the culture of a country. A Government's allocation of resources also decided whether the community and women could develop productively. One participant remembered being told by the Minister for Rural Development in Fiji, that the Reserve Bank, which advised the Government, believed that only a small section of the population could contribute to economic growth, therefore government money was given to that sector to develop the country. The sector receiving funds was the business and commercial sector, while the rural village sector where most people lived, was not regarded as a viable economic unit. Villages were left out of development, by not being allocated funds to contribute to economic growth. Many people felt they had no control over development, and that it was “inevitable”. People outside the power structure - where development plans are devised and resources allocated - were faced with the problems of “development”.

Summary of Development Discussion by Claire Slatter

Development is very growth-oriented, based on sectors or particular areas in the economy which produce or generate growth. Because of this, lower priority is given to social sectors, such as health, education, welfare, etc. This also means that resources distributed by the Government tend to be directed towards a very small percentage of population, the section which promises to generate more wealth (the business sector). Therefore, a country's resources, are directed towards a small percentage of population, and not distributed evenly. This seemed to be a trend in development strategies in the Pacific.

Dependence on foreign capital/foreign investment, and dependence on loans, also exists in the Pacific. Governments have also tended to become the providers of services and in doing so have become very powerful and centralised. Centralised government planning does not involve people in decision-making, women particularly. Women could get involved in development planning to try to influence its direction and to obtain some of the benefits of development.

It is important, however, for women to be aware of the types of development being promoted, when they participate. It would be effective for women to begin working at the local level, where women were very active. Planning participation at national level was harder for women.

Black and white photograph of a weaving.

Black and white photograph of women in conversation. DAY 2 PROJECTS AS STRATEGIES FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF WOMEN

CRITICAL APPRAISAL OF THE IDEA OF USING PROJECTS AS STRATEGIES FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF WOMEN Summary of a Presentation by Noeleen Heyzer

I am very happy to be here I must warn everyone that I am very new in the Pacific. So, I am very limited in my experience here and therefore I come to this meeting more as an observer and a listener. At the same time, experience from Asia could be useful in trying to understand what is actually happening here in the Pacific. I will use that experience to make some comments on women's projects.

The first question we can ask is why in the first place do we talk in terms of women's projects? What is the ideology behind having projects? When we talk about development we do not talk about men's projects, yet we talk about women's projects. This was acceptable for a certain time simply because a lot of women felt that they were left out the mainstream of development and that this “development”, as discussed earlier, by-passed women's interests. It was thought that by having women's projects, women could win some space in the development process. The last 10 years shown that there are many weaknesses in approaching development in this way: that is, in the use of women's projects or having a women's component in projects.

Critical Appraisal of Projects

What perhaps we should be asking for, is a women's perspective on development. If women are given equal status in the mainstream of development rather than being components of projects and/or the object of projects, then women may experience a more genuine advancement.

The type of projects women have been involved in the last 10 years, can be classified in terms of their purpose and consequences, the people involved in the organisation, and the main activities of the project. The purpose of projects has generally been to increase employment or income.

All projects that have tried to improve the welfare of women, in education, health, community development, for example, have been what are called integrated projects. The organisations involved with projects have ranged from Non-Government Organisations (NGOS) to Government and community organisations, grassroots organisations. Their main activities have been in training, education, the provision of credit and health services and family planning programmes, etc.

Perhaps now is the time to develop our own perspective or evaluation, that is, our own framework for analysing projects. What has the women's movement got to say when evaluating these types of projects? That is a question we will ask here.

Evaluation of Projects

In terms of the well-being of women, one can evaluate in simple terms how much food and water women have control of. To take the PNG example mentioned earlier, the water supply was there, but the national government's policies took away people's control over water and it was returned in a different form. In the same way, there are some small scale projects in Asia, to do with digging wells here and there, yet at the same time national policies were moving in a different direction. Similar policy contradictions also occur in relation to housing, where the type of housing provided costs too much for the village people. At the national level, therefore, some decisions and actions work against the general thrust of projects.

In terms of the environmental, health, and personal safety aspects, many projects have been criticised because they tend to over-work women. The common assumption that women have nothing to do has meant that many projects to increase women's income, have resulted in overworking women, who have already been overworked by the social conditions they lived in. The fault of these projects was that instead of looking at a woman's participation within the social and economic structures she was linked with, some projects for women have been created independently. Many such projects later fail.

Many of the income-generating activities for women also raise the question: to what extent does the income generated by the project relate to the cost of living? Often the amount of work put into a project does not generate enough money to surmount the cost of living expenses of women.

A major criticism is that many projects do not really look at the empowerment of women. By this I mean that the process involved in the project is often overlooked. Equally important for women is knowledge gained. Very seldom is a better understanding about the world in which women live gained as a result of women's involvement in projects. That world is one in which many old structures are croding, which new ones are being imposed, and women do not really know how to deal with these changing structures. Women's lack of knowledge of how to gain control over this process is not because women are not exposed. It is because women are involved in a different system where there is a lot of sharing and where group activities are important. The new structures are part of a system that emphasises individual relationships and hierarchy. Women have not been helped or empowered to deal with these new structures.

How do we make women strong enough to evolve their own structures which will assist the reality of their everyday lives? We need some empowerment for women, to maintain what we have, and to develop women's strength rather than eroding it. Later in the workshop, we can talk about what we mean by empowerment.

We also need to look at the way women's values are under-rated and ignored, and the way the system puts down women. As women's groups, we need to build up the prestige and strength of women by not hitting women down, but by building up.

It is implicit that our definition of development is along these lines. Development has to be seen in terms of not just economic growth, or development of sectors that generate income, but more broadly, as development of the totality of a person, within the context of his/her community, and within the context of the nation as a whole. The assumption we make in evaluating the role of development in this way, is to press for a decrease in the types of inequality that exist in our social systems. This view of development looks at the relationship people have with one another and it also looks at classes of women.

Analysis of the Positive Role of Projects

I would like to briefly talk about how useful projects have been, and in what areas have they actually worked well, and areas where projects have not achieved what they set out to do. I will draw on some successful examples from Asia.

A survey of projects would show that one of the main reasons they fail is that a top-down approach is used which, in sponsored projects, encourages dependency. These projects are not controlled and managed by the women who are involved. The agency sponsoring the project sends experts who not only come from other countries but whose experience is of urban areas. This approach works on the assumption that the knowledge base of the people doing the project is not strong enough for them to independently run it. In reality the people concerned know the needs of the local area and have more knowledge than experts from outside.

Income Generating Projects

In many income-generating activities, there is an exploitative aspect resulting from projects, where women are used mainly as cheap labour to produce inexpensive items for the urban elite. The projects are supposed to generate more income for the women, but the production arrangements and urban market are such that the project creates an exploitative relationship that is not very different from poorly paid contract work. That is something we have to think about - when the earnings of women from a project is very small compared to the amount of work that they put into it.

A neglected area in projects is help for women in terms of services, and assistance in developing their projects. For example, very little is provided in terms of credit, training, markets, infrastructure and legal aid in sponsored projects and in the plans and administration of some projects. In some cases, especially in pilot projects, the activity later gets dumped.

Pilot Projects

Agencies have to show some output, and to show aid donors that things are happening. In order to make things happen, aid agencies sometimes put a lot of money into a pilot project to prove that it is working. But these pilot projects cannot be repeated elsewhere, because no one is able to put an equal amount of money into them. These are showcase projects to indicate that women's activities and development are taking place but these projects cannot take root because the ways in which they were set up make it very hard for sustainability.

Development Projects

There are development projects of different organisations. Emphasis is placed on providing technology to improve the supply of water, but very little participation of the communities is involved. Services are given, and the communities are supposed to be grateful. But the communities are not invited to discuss the kind of water supply they want.

Family Development

A lot of projects in the last 10 years have dealt with family development. Much of this is on family planning. These types of projects have been designed with the assumption that they relate to women in families. The focus is on cooking, embroidery, sewing and the aim is to set up an ideal home. There is nothing wrong with this except that these projects play up the role of women as mothers, wives, sisters, daughters, without recognising that women also contribute in other areas of production. These projects have the effect of isolating certain aspects of women's roles and neglecting others. We, as women, are trying to put women's many roles together - these projects do not see a woman as a total person, but separate her economic role from her role in the family, which is over-emphasised.

Black and white print of three generations of women.

There has also been an attempt, in family development programmes, to talk about women's health. But again, this is seen in terms of a woman's role as a mother, not in terms of her other roles and activities. Women also work in the fields, and have health problems related to their economic activities. These areas of women's health have to be addressed. This is not to say that such projects should be displaced. Rather, it is an argument for recognition of the many roles and activities women are involved in.

We must examine what sort of projects could be the models for success. Some of the work and experience in India have produced examples of successful projects. One example is an organisation of people normally unorganised who became self-employed. It was successful because there was a lot of group participation and self-management. The middle class women involved who had gone to these areas to work, saw their role as that of facilitators and did not take over and dominate. They realised that leadership actually begins in not being the leader of the low income women but to identify and facilitate the development of leadership among the self-employed women themselves. Other cases fail because once a person becomes a leader, he/she cannot give up his/her power base. Many groups face this kind of problem.

Another problem area to avoid is setting up a project as a showpiece case. A project must have the ability to spread meaning, so that if other women want to pick it up, they can do so. Often pilot projects create envy among the community because they involve a lot of money that only goes to a small group of women. The project's benefits do not spread to a wider group of women.

Village Credit

This is an area where useful projects could develop. Experience in Bangladesh with village credit in the Grameen Bank project led to training, because the people were committed to the upliftment from rural poverty. The Grameen Bank made credit available to people who had no land. It did not have bank officers but trained its own officers who were seen as agents of development change. They tried to involve the people in group organisations, which had a common interest. The Bank officers gave the groups the responsibility for getting individuals to pay up their loans. The whole process adopted in this project meant that the Bank's agents had to have a very good relationship with the village. They knew the workings of the village in order to choose the right people to lend to, etc. In the past, often rural credit projects failed because money went into the wrong hands.

These are some examples of how projects can serve the community and women. A project's organisation and flexibility are important. The process involved - how a project is organised to address the real needs of people, its leadership and what people got involved - are keys to its success.

Summary of Workshop Discussion on Projects: Experiences

Women's role as wife and mother was a recurring problem for women involved in projects. Men often expressed anger at women's involvement in projects if it affected their work for the family. In some cultures, the mother-in-law could also put pressure on the daughter-in-law on violence towards the wife sometimes resulted when women wanted to be free to participate in outside activities.

Some participants felt that if projects involved men and women, and were seen to contribute to the family, less criticism towards women would be expressed. Women still had to justify their involvement outside the home, for their work to be supported.

Project Problems

The problems that women have with projects dominated the discussion. Income generating projects were a common example, in Asia and the Pacific, of projects for women. Papua New Guinea had experience of projects set up by foreign experts who then left, resulting in the collapse of the project because the local people were not familiar with its structure. Community rather then individual benefits from projects were thought to be the preferred approach, if a project was to be a success.

Handicraft projects were mentioned, as the next common type of income generating projects developed for Pacific women. No clear analysis was given of the difficulties faced by women in these projects. In Tuvalu, one difficulty was finding an agent to market handicrafts overseas. Women also earned very little from their products - sometimes $20 a month or $5 a week. Questions were raised about the value of these projects, if they involved so much of women's time but earned women payment that did not relate to the much higher cost of living. Such cases pointed to the very marginal nature of women's projects.

Analysis of projects and how they helped women was difficult to make. One view was that questioning whether projects improved the status of women was perhaps the wrong approach. The question that needed to be asked was: in what ways did the project empower women? Projects could not be separated from development planning and the national framework promoted by governments. It was noted that women were often too busily involved in projects to analyse them in this way. Efforts needed to be made to advance the direction of projects in ways that would empower women.

It was recognised that projects alone could not change women's status. However, some of the positive benefits resulting from women's involvement in projects were improvements in their self-confidence, and women gaining experience in organising and working together.

Projects - Tokelau Islands - Mesepa Atoni The Tokelaus consist of three atolls, each of which has a women's committee. The aim of the women's association on my islands is to improve women's household management, and to help produce mats, handicrafts, etc. We also have a drinking water programme to ensure that the family drinks treated water. Twice a year, the committee inspects homes to see if families are living under proper conditions. The women expressed the need for money to help them with things like food, so a home garden project was started to plant pawpaws. The doctor's wife on the island is in charge of supervising the planting and teaching women how to look after their home gardens. When the Government changed recently, a few educated people from New Zealand took up positions with the Government as Director of Health and Director of Agriculture. The Director of Health is assisting the women's committees in trying to improve the diet of each atoll, and has given money to buy seeds and fertilisers from overseas to help with the project. He also undertook to find overseas markets for handicraft sales, so women would get improved prices for their fans, mats and other crafts. Last Christmas women were making jam out of their garden produce, and it was selling for $16 a litre.

Projects - Kiribati - Kairabu Betaia In Kiribati, we have some handicraft, sewing and cooking projects run by women's organisations and run by the women's centre. Some projects are run in the village, and involve vegetable gardens, and a piggery. Some funds have come from FSP. When the women make a profit, they buy things like plates, pots, etc. The handicraft project is run by the women, but the Ministry of Trade is now helping in this type of project. We have asked for training for women; a problem we have is looking for markets. We have a sewing project in the Centre and we help the island councils in the atolls, but we have run out of money in this project. Sometimes we also sew uniforms for the Police, and this helps with the running of the centre. We also have a take-away food project, and have just finished the building for it, but the take-away bar is not complete and we have run out of money.

Black and white photograph of women dancing.

Black and white print - pacific design.

Projects - Cook Islands - Vereara Maeva Cook Islands women have progressed in promoting themselves, both individually and as groups, in certain areas. For self-employment, we have women working in agriculture, in projects they have initiated themselves. These women could not get jobs in the Government, so they grew their own vegetables and sold them in their own small shops. Women grow flowers or raise pot plants and also sell these. All this helps the family income. Some women own and manage their own hotels and lodges and provide accommodation. This is a lucrative area when there are many visitors to the island. Other women own and manage their own restaurants and take-away shops; some have their own boutiques and employ workers. There are women who have been educated and have worked in the Government but wanted to be independent and start something on their own. Women have taken up the responsibilities of looking after working mother's children; some women are working with their husbands in family businesses. Women are involved in a piggery and poultry business, where they raise their own pigs and chickens, and sell eggs. The National Council of Women initiates programmes funded by government, funding agencies from overseas, or by themselves. Through these projects, women are trained to enable them to develop their potential to organise their own fund raising activities. These activities are done in groups where we try to get the women to do things for themselves rather than depending too much on their husbands.

Black and white print - pacific design.

INTEGRATION OF WOMEN by Grace Mera Molisa

We talk as if Women are new-comers to the planet, as if Women are new arrivals hanging in the wings. Women are mothers of humanity. Women are teachers of Society, As such, Women cannot lay blame on anyone for their nonentity because Women are party to the maintenance of an oppressive macho status quo. What needs to occur in the mind consciousness understanding and practice of men and women alike are these prerequisities:- To accept women as fellow humans in the human society. To accept and recognise the existence of women in the Human Community and Society. To accept recognise and respect the Labour of Women and the product of that Labour as a valuable Contribution to the Life Growth Development Progress Prosperity Perpetuity Posterity of Man the Human Community. Human Society and Humankind by accepting adopting accounting for quantifying enumerating remunerating the product of the Labour of Women as a valuable essential and Integral Input by Women into Nation Building National Development National Life.

From: Colonised People poems by Grace Mera Molisa, Black Stone Publications, Port Vila, 1987

ALTERNATIVE APPROACHES TO DEVELOPMENT IN KANAKY

Kanaky - the indigenous name for the French colony of New Caledonia.

Summary of a Presentation by Dewe Gorodey Pourouin

Listening to the discussions on projects, I feel in a peculiar situation because we in Kanaky are still struggling for independence and liberation.

In Kanaky, in the liberation movement, when we talk about projects and development, it involves land, cooperatives or alternative schools, not the approach that has been talked about here. Women's production is always seen in relation to cooperatives and the local markets set up by the liberation front. I will not be talking about the projects supported by the French government - that is not my affairs. In my community, we do not know these projects.

In our community, we did not start development from projects supported by funding agencies. There were no projects at home until last year, when we started to talk about development through the liberation movement. In Kanaky today, the people involved in the liberation movement talk about development, always linking it with the question of political independence. We do not isolate development from the struggle for political independence and getting out of the capitalist system. We link the development of our country and our people with trying to build a new kind of society. The liberation front has opted for a type of society and system which is socialist.

I would like to make a brief comment on socialism, and on feminism. Yesterday, I noticed that some of us were a bit scared of this term, feminism. I cannot understand this fear of certain words. In undemocratic or even liberal regimes, persons can be executed sometimes because of certain words used, or because we are women and we dare to open our mouths, or because we are blacks. If we want to share our role in society as women and as human beings, what definitions are we going to give to certain terms like “feminism” and “socialism”? Yesterday, we linked the term feminism with the “Western feminism” and “women's lib”, but we did not talk about the definition of feminism from the perspective of women's liberation struggles in some of the Third World countries like Nicaragua or Angola. I think we should try to understand what feminism is and not just think that it is a foreign word.

My main interest now is in the way we are trying to impose development in Kanaky through a liberation struggle that can change the role of women. For example, we encourage the full participation of the women in cooperatives and in an alternative education programme we have started, called the “Kanak Popular School” (an adult school), and we can see the results. A lot of young women can now speak in front of people, women now feel confident to attend political meetings, even in the presence of the French.

Our involvement in the liberation struggle is aimed at changing the attitude and behaviour of men towards women. This may not be a lot, but I consider it a big improvement when we consider the position of Kanak women before they became involved in the liberation movement, when they could not even speak at meetings because they were women. There is still a lot to do, to change the whole society however. The liberation movement is working as an alternative development for Kanak society that includes greater participation and involvement of women.

Questions and Answers

Q: You were saying something about your movement wanting to do away with the capitalist system and adopt a socialist system. Would women participate more in that sort of system (socialist), than in a capitalist system?

A: I think that under a socialist system, women will be able to participate more equally.

Q: Were you describing a process of social transformation taking place in the projects that you are involved in? Is that how women's participation has radically changed from what it used to be?

A: When you talk about socialism, it is not just a word or a term. In Kanaky, in our liberation movement, we are trying to change the structure of the traditional society dominated by the capitalist system.

Q: When you say that you are trying to change the structure of Kanaky, do you mean the traditional structure of Kanaky society as well as the structures that the French have imposed at the movement?

A: The traditional structure in Kanaky is completely dominated too, by religion or by external value, for example.

Q: Is the Kanak Popular School beginning to educate people about shared goals for men and women?

A: Yes. We have set up the alternative school to educate our boys and girls and to try to change attitudes.

Q: Are there any restrictions on what you can teach the students, and do the French impose regulations to control the education of your people?

A: The French schools exist but our school is the alternative school run by the liberation movement.

The anti-colonial struggle in Kanaky is co-ordinated by the F.N.L.K.S. Movement, an umbrella organisation of different political parties and groups.

These two types of schools run side by side, but the Kanaks have withdrawn from the French schools and are not participating. The French try to disrupt our school, and try to blackmail parents with scholarships, to keep their children from enrolling in our schools.

Comment: One of the things not mentioned in this workshop was the contribution of women in liberation movements to Third World perspectives and definitions of feminism. Your experience in the Pacific is also a very significant and very different contribution to our definition of feminism. You have stressed that feminism is also about total change, a total transformation of society and it involves all sorts of struggles. It reminds us that when we talk about changing unequal structures we mean at all levels, regionally, within countries, within all sectors of the economy and right down to the family structure.

Following the presentations on projects, and the earlier discussions on feminism, Amelia Rokotuivuna helped the workshop make links between ‘women and development’ and a Third World feminist perspective, by drawing up a list of some possible criteria for feminist development in the Pacific. In that way the workshop used the experiences and analysis of women to move towards a feminist perspective of development. This was part of the workshop's second objective of developing a Pacific feminist perspective to guide Pacific women's vision, work and analysis.

WOMEN, DEVELOPMENT AND FEMINISM: SOME CRITERIA Summary of a Presentation by Amelia Rokotuivuna

As we have heard, the Kanaks have taken the socialist perspective in assessing their society - new and old. Socialism is the perspective with which they visualise their new society. We could say that feminism is about women's point of view of the world, our point of view. The question facing us is: What will it be? What is our feminist view of the world?

Feminism has to do with how we wish to deal with or respond to the world. It is important for us to know that feminism did not develop just in our heads - feminism developed from the conflicts and the experiences of women who are oppressed. What Third World women have given to feminism is a widening of the view of feminism, to cover many forms of oppression. It is no longer called “women's liberation” because feminism looks at the whole of society. The development of a feminist ideology or thinking has not only come from reading books; women who have written books have done so from personal experience - be it in the home, or out there in working with women or in liberation struggles. In Mozambique, Zimbabwe and in China, women have added to the definition of feminism. So, when people say that feminism is an idea borrowed from somewhere else, it is not. Feminism is an historic thinking, because it comes from the experiences of women.

What we have to think about when we attempt to define feminism is this history, and the fact that our feminism springs from our experiences in the Pacific. Most of us have worked for the improvement of women or to improve the conditions of women, and we will have done so because our experiences, either in the home or in working as women, or in meetings in the villages, (where we as women were not allowed to talk). All these very personal experiences are historic and are relevant to our concepts or ideas of feminism.

We should remind ourselves that feminism and feminist action take many different forms. Sometimes some of us feel that if women go out in the streets demonstrating they are standing up to society. But there are different contributions: research is important as it is important to have information on a theory. Like any other liberation movement, we must practise and then enrich our theory with the practice. This is what feminism is about. It is about thinking, practising, and that is why we have discussed projects. We must try to reflect on our practice so that in the next project we do, we add more to the impact of that project. For example, if we have new toilets and better kitchens, we could start talking about other things - such as women being able to sit on the village committees, and being able to make suggestions about local affairs. In this way, the role of women becomes enlarged and women participate more fully.

Feminism tries to work against the authoritarianism in a society. Yesterday, we heard of a women's collective, which had no President, or Secretary, and in which the women all take turns to lead. This is a new kind of leadership. In the Pacific Island countries, we have chiefs, and a person is lower down in status if she/he is a commoner; a women is lower still. A woman who is a chief, on the other hand, is better off. We come from fairly rigid societies where our roles are defined and we know when we can and cannot speak. Feminism is aimed at breaking down these kinds of structures, to allow more people to participate equally and to allow women to try different roles.

Feminism also concerns itself with the welfare of society as a whole, not just women. If there is better distribution of both the benefits of development and the means of getting those benefits of development, then we as women are more likely to support such development and to participate in it fully. When there is a structure that does not allow equal distribution, not only for women but also for other sections of the population, it is very likely that women will not participate or realise their full potential in such a society.

Feminism perhaps, of most other ideologies, is both personal and social, because we talk about our positions in the home, where women learn other roles, and where the attitudes of men towards women are also learnt. It is very important for women and women's organisations to look at the family and the home, and at the society at large, and women's place in there. That is broadening our women's perspective to a feminist one.

Feminism also means activism. It is a new event for people to see women demonstrating. Women have realised that dialogue, writing letters and so on, may not be enough. We also need public dialogue with those in power, and sometimes we need to demonstrate the voice and power of women.

Feminism is to do primarily with the empowerment of women. The title of our workshop is “Women, Development and Empowerment”. After our discussions today and yesterday, we now need to impart a vision of our society. Projects are a small proportion of the work women do. Even in small projects, we need to have discussions to help women change their thinking and to encourage them to question all aspects of society affecting their lives - culture, family, traditions, government, the church. Projects are a way of improving the material conditions of women. We need also to look at other aspects of our lives, women's lack of power, and what can be done to change that.

I would like to summarise some of the criteria of feminism we might wish to adopt:

SOME CRITERIA:

Feminism abhors violence

Feminism reasserts the importance of community

Feminism is a belief in sisterhood, that actions with lasting effects are actions taken collectively

Feminism stands for equality - not the equality of women and men, but the equality of all people in society

Feminism stands for social justice.

With these remarks, Day 2 ended. The workshop participants were invited to think about their Pacific Women's vision of the society they wanted - a feminist vision - which the workshop would attempt to define the next day.

Black and white drawing of women fishing. DAY 3 DEFINING PACIFIC FEMINISM Facilitator: Arlene Griffen

The first session on Day One had attempted to get a quick response to feminism. It had been accepted that the workship would try to define feminism in a way that had meaning for women in the Pacific.

At the end of the previous day's session, a presentation of possible criteria for a Pacific feminism summarised the issues and discussions of two days of the workshop. The purpose of this session on the third day was to further develop a discussion of feminism in the Pacific, based on and developing out of, the preceding workshop discussions of women's work and experiences in the Pacific. The session was extremely long, debate was heated on a number of issues, but the ‘Vision’ statement finally arrived at had the support of most of the women present. Below is a summary of the introduction and discussion.

[Editor's note: Every attempt was made to be faithful to the spirit of the discussion: the need for clarity, however, made it necessary to cut down all the contributions, including Laura's wonderful introduction].

INTRODUCTION by Laura Souder-Jaffery

This session was presented by Laura Souder-Jaffery whose warmth, skill and eloquence, in sharing her own thoughts on feminism, invited the kind of participation and sharing that was needed for a successful conclusion to the workshop.

LAURA SOUDER-JAFFERY What I would like us to do is to generate our collective sense of what feminism is and how we understand that sense in our Pacific context.

We clearly established the fact that we have certain allergies to the word “feminism”. What we will try to begin with, is to grapple with the allergy and see if we can remedy it by understanding it.

Part of the problem, perhaps, was something she called “feminist rhetoric”. Participants were invited to talk about realities in the Pacific, and by doing so, to develop some kind of collective dream about the society women wanted to see develop. First of all, however, women needed to learn to see realities, through their own eyes - and not be dependent on the vision of anyone else. By looking at reality and daring to dream of different ways of shaping it, Laura suggested, the workshop could begin to approach a definition of feminism. This perspective would be a bridge between what women were now experiencing and their vision for themselves as women and people in a new Pacific.

The process required women seeing their realities clearly, and being able to communicate their views to the world, Laura explained. Presently, women were prevented from seeing the world through their own eyes, and were forced to accept a view of women defined by others. Women needed to see the world through their own eyes; sometimes, this meant putting on a new pair of glasses.

LAURA SOUDER-JAFFERY Think for a minute that for the last fifteen years I have borrowed my brother's glasses or my father's glasses to see anything that is important. These glasses are not prescribed for me; they have nothing to do with my vision but I have been wearing them. So, everything that I see in the world, everything that I beging to understand in the world, is understood through the glasses that have been prescribed for my brother. Then one day I get a pair of glasses prescribed for myself. And I wear them for the first time- and the world is different. I see different colours, different shapes, and every- thingeverything takes on a whole new definition. Why? Because I changed my pair of glasses, But more importantly than that, it is because this pair of glasses reflected what my vision needed.

This is one way of looking at feminism as a concept. Feminism is our pair of glasses through which we can look at the world. Feminism is our perception, our world vision. It is a world vision that is female; it is a world vision that works from ourselves, from our being female people in our different Pacific societies. And it is our way from the stomach up, or from the gut up, of saying, “This is the way I see things”.

When we talk about this view on a personal level, (the way we as individual women see things,) that is different from trying to look at things generally from a female centre or perspective. To use another example, feminism is like lighting: if someone is interested in focusing on the floor then he/she would light up the floor; if someone else is interested in lighting up the ceiling because of beautiful carvings on the ceiling, then a different set of lights would be used.

The lighting of history has been with male experience and using official male-dominated forms of power and politics. The lighting that we are talking about here is the lighting that emanates from our roles - first as daughters, wives, mothers, sisters, working single women and so on. Our perspective will go further and further out, as long as we are willing to extend the light.

I invite you to embark on a journey to discover a vision of justice for ourselves as Pacific women. We need to think seriously about taking off those glasses that belong to our brothers or our fathers or our husbands or our lovers - and putting on our own pair of glasses. You may say: “But we do not know what our vision problems is”. Well, we have been going to the doctor for the last two days, to determine exactly what those pair of glasses can give us. Let us think in terms of our vision as we take this journey, and use feminist rhetoric (feminsit words and ideas) to think and discover what that rhetoric is and what it can be used for.

Let us look at feminism then as an ideology, a set of ideas. If the words are strange or irrelevant and you would like to explore them, or change them, do so.

Feminism, she concluded, was an ideology or a female philosophy of liberation. The liberation was not meant just for women - but for everybody. Only in that way could real liberation occur. Liberation could mean many things for women - being free from having to do everything in the home or being solely responsible for child rearing for example. Emphasis was placed on feminism as a way of looking at the world:

LAURA SOUDER-JAFFERY Feminism is a way of looking for, and of seeking, answers. From that point of view it gives us analytical tools through which we can challenge conventional wisdom - conventional wisdom being the way things are supposed to be, especially for women.

Women in the Pacific would each have different views of the world, depending on their culture and class (economic position). The third day of the workshop was a journey towards creating a framework or outline of a feminist vision, which women in the Pacific could use to identify their world, from their everyday experiences. A framework would help Pacific women to plan for changing the world according to their needs.

Workshop Participants Front row (L-R): Dewe Pourouin, Fungke Samana, Amelia Rokotuivuna, Aiffe Mionzing Second row (L-R): Louise Aitse, Sadie Bogotu, Noeleen Heyzer, Laura Souder-Jaffery, Shaista Shameem (hidden) Third row (L-R): Se Nellie Singeo, Jully Makini, Moana Bentin, Naama Latasi Back row (L-R): Shamima Ali, Arlene Griffen, Hilda Lini, Vereara Maeva, Mesepa Atoni, Claire Slatter, Lata Soakai Absent: Kairabu Betaia, Vanessa Griffen, Alamai Manuella, Donita Simmons, Prem Singh, Joan Yee Black and white photograph of workshop participants.

DEFINING PACIFIC FEMINISM Summary of Workshop Discussion

It would be impossible to cover all the issues that emerged in a day's “journey” to discovering Pacific women's realities and their views on what was wrong and what needed changing. What is summarised here are the issues that were discussed at greatest length and the areas of conflicting opinions. The Pacific feminist perspective that emerged, and which was generally agreed to by the workshop, is presented in full, under the workshop's title: “Our Vision”.

Black and white photograph of women in traditional dress.

The Family

Women lived alongside men in the family, the extended family was a common structure, women sometimes had to be both mother and father in the family; there were some tasks that were done only by women.

It was recognised women had most responsibilities for child rearing; men did not get involved (and were not expected to) in child care. Some participants were uneasy, feeling that critical views of the family were Western-oriented and did not recognise Pacific cultural differences. It was observed however, that regardless of cultural setting, the expectations of women as mothers, were strictly defined: in all cultures women were expected to fulfil obligations to their children first. Men, on the other hand, could choose whether or not to take responsibility, for example, when a child was sick. If a mother was absent, other women took over her child care tasks of feeding baby, changing clothing, etc. This happened whether it was in the village or in an urban setting. In the urban setting, though, men (eg a grandfather) might be asked to mind a child while a woman worked, but he would not be expected to know what to feed the child, etc. Whether women were mothers or not, they were expected to know how to care for children:

PARTICIPANT I have never been a mother, but I am certainly expected to know how to be a keeper of children, yet my brother is not expected to know about children at all.

One suggestion for looking at the reality for women in the family was to list all the things that could only be done by women and the things women are supposed to do. The list of things that only women can do is short: women bear children, and only women can breastfeed. The other activities women did could be done by men or women but were done by women because it is part of their role. Roles and experiences can vary for individual women, and in different families. Women's realities were complex, and similar also, in many ways. The discussion was directed at drawing out the general pattern of reality for women in the family:

Main points raised about the family:

women are given a specific role in families as wives and mothers

women are not expected to be heads of households

there are other divisions in families, for example, there are rankings according to caste or status

there are different levels of privilege within society; between families, within families and between women. For example, women who came from better off families can pass on their housework to less privileged women, who were used as housemaids, child minders, and these women were paid or lived in the family and were not paid

there was disagreement expressed over whether oppression existed in all families

Questions were raised on the role of wife, and on the pressures placed on women within marriage to have children

Questions of Class or Privilege

This issue was debated quite heatedly. One participant expressed the view that women who appeared privileged (by wealth, education) often worked hard to gain that position and therefore were entitled to the privileges they earned. She argued that traditionally, chiefly women/or men, or people from wealthy families, were given added responsibilities to provide food and money for others during periods of crisis or for family and village events. In the Pacific, these were accepted ways of distributing wealth and having wealth also often involved person in a lot of community or family obligations.

It was felt that one danger in agreeing with this view was that it implied people who were poor were in that position because they had not worked hard, or were lazy. Yet privilege often stayed within families; many people could not even climb out of poverty because of constraints of unemployment and the lack of land, lack of housing, lack of money for food/education/training that they experience as individuals and as families. Unequal conditions in society can perpetuate differences in wealth between groups of people, between individuals, between men and women, between families and within families.

Violence in the Family

A general reality for many women is violence in the family. Women are not protected by society or the community. Violence in the home is regarded as a “personal matter” and no one intervenes. Women, if organised, could help and support each other and raise objections to violence. Women themselves were sometimes violent towards members of their families, it was also acknowledged. Drunkenness on the part of the husband was a common feature of acts of violence against women. Women were attacked for “talking back” or beaten because of a husband's frustration with someone else - his boss or his brother, for example.

Education

Many comments were made on the sexist content of children's books, separate subjects being taught to boys and girls in schools, the irrelevance of some school curricula in providing knowledge to meet the everyday needs of people's lives. Women needed to be taught skills and to acquire knowledge of their choice - which meant a much wider range of information than was generally available. A woman's gender did affect what she could learn traditionally and in the school system.

Black and white photograph of children reading in the classroom.

Education, formal and informal, tended to reinforce women's roles. In traditional society, some areas of knowledge eg. traditional medicine, were only held by men, yet women were expected to care for children when they were sick. Some aspects of agriculture and fishing were other areas of traditional knowledge kept exclusive to men.

In a family, when choices were made on which children should go on in the formal school system, girls were discriminated against. If money was scarce, girls were pulled out of school first. One participant disagreed, and said that girls were supported in school by their families if they did well; it was regarded as an investment for girls to give them an education because girls were more likely to take care of their parents later. Married women were sometimes discriminated against in government or in private employment, by not being given study grants; and women were expected to follow their husband's career rather than the other way around, when public service training, appointments or scholarships were decided.

Religion

It was agreed that religion provided some of the sterotypes and restricting images of women. Women were expected to be pure or had to confine themselves to certain areas and avoid certain foods, according to the beliefs of many religions. Some disagreement was expressed over Christianity and its effects on traditional societies and traditional religion. The Christian faith, one participant noted, had strong strictures on wives being faithful and obedient; women in some churches also had to sit in places separate from the men. She added an interesting observation on the effect the missions had on women's role:

PARTICIPANT Somehow, I believe that the whole idea of having a woman do the housework was invented by the missionaries. At home, traditionally, a man knew what his role was and a woman knew what her role was. When the missionaries came, they took the men away to train them, and the women were left with all the responsibilities. Before that, the wife who cooked and did everything in the house, taught the men to cook and serve. The responsibility that used to be shared by a man and a woman had to be disrupted when the man was taken away by the missions.

A view following on this remark was that what is now called “traditional” - in the family and “traditional” society - are roles and responsibilities influenced by the missionaries and colonial contact. The missions had also been exploitative, and in some cases continued to extract work and money from the people. The church also changed the traditional concepts of marriage, institutionalising it, so marriage now took place in the church, where men and women were taught their roles.

Black and white drawing of a woman cooking.

What is Traditional?

The discussion then moved to a debate on what was “traditional”, and on the need to be clear-eyed over traditions that might in fact have been introduced by colonialism. Many traditional practices were detrimented to women. It was generally accepted that in the Pacific it was difficult to talk of culture before European settlement in the Pacific, because European contact had intervened so much with the traditional way of life. The question of religion and its influence on women was also raised. It was recognised that many women in the Pacific are Christian and very involved in church activities.

The Economy

Women do not have control over resources and how they are allocated. A lenghty discussion on women's economic contribution followed when one participant suggested that women demand payment of some of the nation's gross domestic product (GNP) for the unpaid work that women did in the home and in subsistence agriculture. It was noted that women's projects were often not provided with resources by governments because they were thought to contribute little of economic value to the nation. Women's considerable contribution to food production was not recognised. In Kanaky, the liberation movement hoped to change the economic system to one that served all of the community. In other Pacific countries, development that supported private enterprise and foreign business had not resulted in benefits “trickling down” to the people. Resources tended to be allocated by government to those groups and sectors that had resources to invest.

The workshop emphasised the need for women to be economically independent; most women were powerless to change conditions in their lives because they were economically dependent. Collective economic enterprises were preferred methods of self-help and self-sufficiency. Women's lack of participation in development planning - the experience of many other powerless groups - meant they had no choice over the kind of economic development that took place.

The idea of “collectivity” or a collective effort in economic production as opposed to individual effort and enterprise, was not fully accepted by some participants who felt that this view was of a dream society that could never exist, unless collectivity was enforced by the state or government, a method some participants disagreed with. Questions of individual privilege and wealth were again raised and defended by some participants as an alternative view. Generally, the workshop was supportive of collective efforts that emphasised community well-being rather than individual development and progress. This issue of economic benefits and individual effort was unresolved, however, and some participants felt it needed further debate.

The Environment

This was broadly defined as the physical environment (natural resources such as land, water, etc) and the total social environment, (political structures, power relationships, decision-making), which affected use of the physical environment and resources. On questions of political power, it was agreed that women did have power in Pacific societies when they were consulted before decisions were made, on land for example. The workshop debated whether this was real power or influence – some participants thought that traditional relationships between men and women were misinterpreted by outsiders; other thought that though women were consulted in decision making, this did not constitute real power if women were not given responsibility for the final decision. The statement sometimes made about how women had power in traditional societies, was compared by one participant to a male politician proudly stating he had a good wife behind him, yet he remained the person holding the position and making decisions! Until women had an equal say, it was argued, women did not have equal power in traditional or modern society. Participants' views produced a useful exchange on experiences of women in decision-making in the village.

Black and white image of a tree.

On Women's Traditional Power

PARTICIPANT If it concerns a village issue, then a woman has to be consulted at home. On the land issue, the man discusses questions with his mother and also has to consult all the sisters, before he makes a decision.

PARTICIPANT We are landowners too, we have a right to land. But, do men consult women on all other issues? If it is a discussion on the home, I can see in my village that the man will go and talk it out with the women. But, if it is a question about a road, where a road should lie in the village, they ignore us women. If it is a question of agricultural technology, they won't consult us.

PARTICIPANT I think women in the village play a big part in everything because they can always choose, for instance, where a road should go. If women are really against it, they can stand up to that. I am sure there is nothing to stop us.

Question: But do they?

Answer: Yes, they do. It is through their husbands that they have a say.

The last comment perhaps revealed more clearly than any debate how little power women have, even if they are consulted traditionally. This led the debate back to questions of what was and was not, traditional society, and questions of direct and indirect power held by women. The issue was brought sharply back into focus by a participant remarking:

PARTICIPANT We all agree that in the traditional context women may have wielded power and continue to wield power in informal ways and in some cultures, in formal ways. When it comes to modern politics, the formal structures is controlled basically by men.

We keep referring back to what our traditions are, but if it is not a reality today, there is no point in talking about that tradition. I am very anxious that we do not over-defend our traditions. What are the present structures that are part of our reality, and what is women's position in these structures? That is important.

The workshop's collective sharing of views was used to arrive at a “framework for the changes and ideals that women would like to see in the future”. The changes Pacific women wanted were then used as a basis for formulating strategies in the final session of the workshop. Below is the framework - or feminist vision - arrived at by the workshop, in its session on defining Pacific feminism.

OUR VISION

The statement “Our Vision” was drafted at the Workshop, read to participants, added to and accepted by the Workshop as the beginning of a feminist framework for Pacific Women's strategies and hopes.

Our Vision Black and white title graphic.

The Family

The family as an institution has a profound effect on the lives of women, on how they view themselves and on how society views them. It is therefore important for women to change the power relations between and the roles of husband and wife, and male and female members of the family so that male and female members have equal status and interchanging roles.

It is in the family that children first learn attitudes about women in society and it is important that the family encourages and teaches an egalitarian view of society and women. Unless egalitarianism is practised in the family there is little hope that children will grow up with a humanitarian view of the world.

Our vision of the family therfore includes the following:

a better world for women in the family

equality between family members in terms of status and responsibilities

equal distribution of family resources

equality in child rearing

eliminating all forms of domestic violence

working with other women in our family

reproductive control by women

equal rights to the wealth generated by the household

equal status of common law wives

elimination of sexual abuse of children (incest) in the family

Education

Education should provide useful knowledge for us as women to be able to understand the societies we live in. It is important for us to have access to all forms of knowledge. Knowledge is essential to enable us to analyse our specific situation as women and to transform society.

Our vision of education requires the following:

equal opportunities for women to pursue studies at all levels without restrictions

training of women by other women in traditional skills

broadened training opportunities for women

challenging the present concept of education so that all forms of knowledge are seen as equally important

equal opportunities to pursue knowledge in all areas and all levels

challenging the content of education at present in the Pacific which is not suitable for village life especially where there is so much unemployment in the urban areas

eliminating sexist content in school curriculum

changing the present situation where the acquisition of knowledge through formal institutions is disproportionately rewarded with power and status in the community.

Black and white print - pacific design.

Religion

We recognise that religion is an entrenched system in Pacific societies. However, as women, we question some of the basic doctrines and practices of the major religions in the Pacific because they repress and exploit people, especially women.

Our vision therefore includes:

challenging and changing the interpretation of religious teaching and values

challenging the oppressive and exploitative aspects of and the acquisition of wealth and land by the churches especially through women's fundraising

religious teaching should speak to the present situations in countries, projecting positive images and non-exploitative marriage arrangements for women

changing the focus from building edifices to delivering services and housing to people.

challenging the rise of fundamentalism and proselytising within Christianity and the Islamic faith

opposing the compulsion to participate in church rituals and acitivities and to contribute funds to church causes

Economy

Women are the most economically-exploited group in society and as such are committed to transforming the economy to a more equitable system. This system must ensure the equal distribution of resources for production and of development benefits.

Our vision of the economy is one which allows:

equitable access to productive resources and capital

equitable distribution of wealth generated by the people

using resources in ways that benefit the whole society and not just a small proportion of the people

sovereignty in choosing trading partners

sovereignty in choosing an economic system

self-sufficiency

economic independence of women

Environment

We know that our natural environment is explited senselessly for the short-term gain of the few, with dire implications for everyone. We believe we must take action to stop this exploitation and conserve and replenish our resources.

Our vision includes:

natural environment: using the natural environment with respect and only to meet immediate needs

ensuring collective (rather than individual) control over natural resources, including land, recognising that the environment is the source of all our basic needs

opposing the “rape” and pollution of the natural environment

supporting a nuclear-free Pacific

We also believe in the necessity to create a safe, healthy and liveable environment in which the basic needs of all people are adequately met.

Our vision is therefore:

social environment: creating an environment where basic needs are met

creating an environment in which all people may live without fear or insecurity

creating a non-violent environment and opposing militarism

Politics

We believe that the present political system does not allow wide participation, equal representation and collective responsibility. Politics is the system through which decisions affecting our lives and futures are made.

We therefore demand:

equal participation for women at all levels in the political process and system

consultative, participatory decision-making

collective rather than hierarchical decision-making

consensual rather than confrontational or competitive discussion

freedom of political self-expression except where this counters human development

universal suffrage and widest representation in the parliamentary system

elimination of discriminatory practices in the legal system and in the constitution

political self-determination for colonised people

opposing Western political manipulation

non-aligned policy and recognition of the sovereign right of states to determine their relationships internationally.

The Tribune: IWTC, New York, June 1989 Black and white cartoon of a woman addressing the mayor.

Black and white drawing of a woman collecting shellfish.

Black and white drawing of a woman weaving.

Black and white drawing of a woman hoeing. DAY 4 WOMEN, DEVELOPMENT AND EMPOWERMENT: STRATEGIES Facilitator: Amelia Rokotuivuna

ADVANCING PACIFIC FEMINISM TO EMPOWER WOMEN Summary of a presentation by Vanessa Griffen

Though this was slotted for yesterday, it actually falls quite well into what we would like to do later today, which is to talk about strategies. Yesterday, we talked about our vision, the ideals of the kind of society we would like to live in and the changes we would like, in very broad terms. For this session, what I am going to concentrate on is what we mean by empowerment. To me, the word simply means: adding to women's power. Why do we need empowerment? We acknowledge that women are a group (amongst many other groups) who almost universally have less power and are in a powerless position in many areas of society.

We need to define what we mean by “power”. To me, power means:

having control, or gaining greater control

having a say and being listened to

being able to define and create from a woman's perspective

being able to influence social choices and decisions affecting the whole society (not just areas of a society accepted as women's place)

being recognised and respected as equal citizens and human beings with a contribution to make.

Power means being able to make a contribution at all levels of society and not just in the home. Power also means having women's contribution recognised and valued.

When considering how we can add to women's power in society, I have looked at this at two levels and attempted to be both practical and visionary.

The first level, the practical level, is concerned with ways of improving what we have now, and our present activities and ways of working with women in the Pacific.

The second level, the visionary one, examines how we can improve our work so that we make real inroads into changing structures, affecting decision-making and changing the way in which “development” and “progress” are defined in the Pacific. This means changing the unequal power relationships between men and women, governments and people, decision-makers and people, planners and people, traditional leaders and people, and gaining back power for those people in society who have less control over their lives, especially women.

How can we do this? Drawing from our own discussions here at the workshop, I have thought of small ways in which we can add to women's power. By examining what we are doing and our present activities, I would like to suggest ways in which we can develop them or push them a little bit further, in order to gain a little more power, even in the project areas where many of us are involved.

Take for an example, the project in Kiribati involving a women's group working, on a voluntary basis, to provide some of the health care services for the government. We can ask how the relationship with government in the project can be changed a little bit, so that the women have greater participation as the definers or creators of the health services? We can question the relationship behind the women's role and involvement in that project, so that they have more control and are not just the “doers” without ever being the “definers” in the health care services and delivery.

This is just one example from the workshop presentations. We could ask questions of the many other activities we are doing and ask for changes in women's role in these activities. One thing women could ask for is feedback into the system- - instead of women always receiving instructions or ideas from the system, and implementing them on its behalf. It occurred to me, in the Kiribati project, that the field experience of those women who were doing the teaching and the training in the health education programme should be used as a resource by the government. Their perceptions of the health problems, particularly of women, could go back into the system. To change their work relationship, women would need to think of ways of reporting back into the health care system. Another change could result from this in that the health care system would be more responsive to women's input, an important improvement. Thirdly, there could be a change in the sharing of knowledge within the project. Some of the information that the women are receiving and are being trained to transfer to the community could be broadened. Apart from transferring the health knowledge given, could women learn more? Can women in the project have more training and health knowledge if they want it? That would be an area the women could think about. There may be other types of health information women would like to have that the health service has not thought of.

Having A Say in Projects

How would doing this add to women's power or control? These little pushes into what we are already doing could lead to quite fundamental changes, although they seem very small. Some of the fundamental changes that could come about are:

In this project, such demands would change the way women see health care, if there was input back into the system, from the women who are helping deliver it

It would change the power relationship between the health care deliverers and the people receiving health care, particularly women

It would also change the relationship between Government (in this project a government service is involved) and people (women) in this specific area of women's community work

It would also be a significant change towards creating a different way of organising in that area of government activity (health care).

One way of empowering, therefore, would be for women to pressure for changes in the power relationship in a programme so that:

women have lines of communication and feedback, e.g. to the health care decision makers and planners of the project,

women are listened to.

These are changes. They are small, but significant. Think of the impact it would have generally, on health care services in the village or in the city, if the contributions of women were fed back into the system? Usually there is very little opportunity for contributions from women, who make up the majority of the health care receivers.

Practical Ways of Empowerment

Let us consider how women could actually go about doing something like this. I would like to suggest some ways, again using the health care project just given, as an example. Women could:

ask for a meeting with the health care department or whatever office the programme comes under;

not just listen to what the health office/department wants women to do, but also present some ideas and suggestions. Women should not just be told what the problem is, but be able to tell government departments and officials what problems they found. Women could also suggest problems they would like worked on first, that is, set priorities. Again, this is a small area where women could be gaining a bit more control and influence, if they had more input. This is a way of empowering women.

Women's suggestions. Women could see that their suggestions are listened to, or in some cases, women could put forward demands. The listing of what is more or less important by women working in the field should be taken into account by government planners and officials.

Women could ask for training in skills other than what they already have in that area (in this case, health). For example, is there training of traditional midwives to help provide better health care services for women in the villages? Women's groups could ask that their traditional healers be incorporated into the health care system. A WHO programme is I think already doing this for the Pacific.

All these are just examples of ways women can add to their role and influence, and benefit more from projects. We can do this with other projects as well. I have just given one example. Women who traditionally act as health teachers or practitioners, and have traditional learning and knowledge, could exchange this knowledge with modern health care practitioners.

Learning to Say “No”

I would like to give another example of the way women can gain control or gain power using another project we heard of in the workshop - the Women's Crisis Centre. In just a small area, women can gain power by learning how to say “No”. In the WCC case, the collective was pressured to change the word “Crisis” in the Centre's name, which defined the Centre and its work: Women's Crisis Centre. The WCC heard that Government transfer of its UNFPA funds was being held back because of the name Women's Crisis Centre which had been chosen to identify the centre and to define its role. The Crisis Centre collectively decided it would not change the word “Crisis” to suit the government. That was retaining control in doing just that: in not backing off, in women saying “no” to powerful institutions. It retains power and gains women power, when women are able to say: “No, we will define ourselves, we are not going to accept what the system has to offer us, at the price of changing our goals”.

Kairabu from Kiribati told me a story which also illustrates the power of saying “No”. Women said “no” to a project that had been imposed by a foreign agency on their women's group. The Kiribati government and the agency's assumption was that, in a small country, these women would not know how to say “no” to foreign experts who wanted them to do a particular project. But the women said “No” and the government was embarassed that the women's group which it had decided would be the implementers of the project, was not going to be available. The women retained that position, even though the Government had publically decided to sponsor the foreign agency's programme. In the end, the project was stopped, it had collapsed because the women said “no” to implementing it. There is a nice ending to the story too - Kairabu (and the women) got something concrete out of the experience too. When the project collapsed and the agency withdrew, the women kept all the equipment and the facilities left behind! These are some examples to show that often we have more power than we think.

The Tribune, IWTC, New York, June 1989 Black and white cartoon of packing cases.

Examining Our Own Structures

Another thing about gaining control and power is that we must always question and critically examine our own structures, including women's organisations and their roles. For example, we have heard different experiences of the National Councils of Women. Some of these organisations work well and some of them do not. We need to critically examine our own organisational structures.

Some of these organisations are big and have the appearance of strong government support, for example, in PNG, an Act of Parliament enacted the National Council of Women and its structure. Is bigness always a strength? In the PNG case, the factor we need to examine is: who decided the structure? Resources were channelled through this large structure, which actually became an impediment to distribution of government resources to women's groups in PNG; it did not work very well. The question we need to ask is: Is the appearance of strength in women's organisational structures always a help? Sometimes it might be more effective and more empowering, and there might be more control and genuine advance, if we create working groups at all levels - to do what the women concerned want to do and have decided on. These small working groups might be more effective in mobilising women, in enabling better awareness amongst women and in organising action for women. Sometimes, a small and a particularly-defined group, working effectively, makes more sense than a large group or organisation whose structure hinders flexibility and real power for women. Genuine growth and effecting change may be more possible in smaller groups.

Therefore, on women's organisations and structures, to make sure that women gain power:

we should not always seek large organisations, but effective working groups;

we should be careful about our own organisational choices and relationships

we should be watchful of the power relationships in our own organisational structures. We have seen from examples given in this workshop that many organisations have power relationships that favour those at the top, rather than inviting participation for all women;

we need to have a leadership style that creates awareness and a sense of power for all women;

we need a sense of sharing, of “sisterhood” to help us all in a feminist struggle.

Not all women agree or will be able to agree on what they want to do or what they want to work on together. But we should not let these divisions weaken us, but keep our vision in mind to decide what is useful and worthwhile struggling over. I recall when working in the Pacific Women's Resource Centre in 1978, we used to worry about women's organisations that did not want to join the PWRC, or even opposed it. That was perhaps a false concern to be occupied with. What is important is the question of effectiveness, and gaining the commitment from women and groups who want progressive changes for women. If divisions exist, we can work on them but we should not let them weaken us as women in struggle. There is enough weakening us coming from elsewhere in the system and society.

Use of Resources - Time and Money

The last point I wish to make on the question of power and control that also emerged from the workshop is the need to examine the use of resources (particularly time and money) in women's activities. It is important that we ask what our energies are going into, and again make choices that reflect and are related to our feminist vision. This is where having a vision becomes important. If we have an idea of the fundamental changes that we want – the different arrangements and relationships in society, that will benefit all people, including women – then we should direct our energies and our resources - time and money - towards these goals.

On Money: Women in the Pacific raise a lot of money for the church, for schools, for the community, etc. We need to ask the question:

are we usefully channelling this money into areas that will help women's advancement?

If we channel money into churches and schools (the money women raise makes a high contribution), do these institutions in turn change or recognise women better? For example, do they provide women/girls equal access schools, and encourage equal participation by women (the church)? A woman at our 1975 women's conference posed this question:

AKAITI AMA (COOK ISLANDS) Women are always expected to do the cleaning in the church, but how come we are not allowed to preach in it?

We need to look at resource wastage: the time and money women spend on activities that may not contribute in any way to their advancement or equality of treatment. Women should keep in mind that these activities may use up their strength and energy while not giving women any greater gains in control or participation in these institutions or in the society as a whole.

To Empower Women in Society

We need to make deeper inroads into the system of society - the way in which it is organised, the way in which women are unequally represented.

Below is a list of the areas where women do not have power and where women need to gain power. This could be used as a checklist for deciding how and whether our activities contribute to empowering women, and the different ways in which women's activities could be improved to empower women more:

Key areas where women need to consider adding to their involvement, participation and power:

Decision-making

Decision-making at all levels - in the family, in the home, in the church, in the community.

Resources

(a)

Improving women's access to resources and their input into how money and government support are to be used for projects women want.

(b)

Control over natural resources - women having a say over use/decisions related to land, water supply, etc; especially where development projects have an adverse impact on people's lives and particularly on women. For example, depletion of forest resources means greater walking distance for firewood; pollution of water resources means greater work for women.

Questions to Ask: What do women need to do to gain greater power over resources? How do women need to be organised to be heard? Women have a right to exercise control over resources affecting their lives and the community's.

Planning Processes

Where and how can women enter the planning processes of our societies, at all levels? Key questions:

Family level: Where in the family are women involved in planning/ control? Where are they excluded?

Community level: Are women present or absent from meetings? Are they present but not expected/allowed to speak? What can be done?

Village or District level: Where are the women?

National Levels: Is women's input invited or considered in development plans? How do national plans affect women's work, role, contribution to society?

A Pacific feminist perspective would guide women's suggestions for national development. Participation by women in planning means more than simply adding women to a section of the national development plans of governments.

Understanding Society and the Way it is Organised

Women will not gain power and greater control over their lives if they do not know about the society they live in, its economic, social and political system, and the place of their country and the Pacific in the wider world. Women need to understand the broader context in which their activities take place. Women, to gain power, need to have knowledge of:

(a)

The political system: both traditional and introduced, and the Pacific's place in the wider world of international relations, particularly economic relations.

(b)

Development choices made by governments and how these affect men and women - from the national level down to the village level. For example, in PNG, people bought imported foods, not understanding that government policy on taxes made imported food more expensive than local foods. If people understood what taxes on imports meant, they would understand that eating local foods was not only nutritionally better, but cheaper also.

(c)

Organisations and relationships (i.e the ways things work, structures and the system). At the village, personal and family levels, women need to learn to judge organisations, how they work, and to recognise the power relationships within organisations, even within their family (between brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law).

In other words, women need to understand the society that they live in, the system of government, and the economy. There is a need to know more about the processes of government, who makes decisions and how; and also, who benefits from decisions made by those in power. Then women will be able to identify where privilege and power lies - and be able to develop strategies for women having greater access to resources and gaining control over decisions that, directly or indirectly, affect their lives.

This knowledge and understanding is part of the empowerment of women. Women need to know these things to be able to work together to mobilise for change. A wider understanding of society, and of power and where it lies, would also enable women to identify other oppressed groups, who might also be joined in struggles for improvements in living conditions, wages, for better access to government, etc.

Women and Other Struggles for Social Change

There is greater strength in numbers. Women might gain from recognising and joining in other people's struggles for social change and justice, where these struggles also affect women's lives. The opposite is also true, that many women's struggles for social change will also benefit men and/or other oppressed sections of the community. It is important for empowering the women's movement, to join with other struggles, because the involvement of men and women, and joint strategies and actions of many oppressed peoples and groups, are needed to challenge institutional structures that are unjust and powerful. It is strength of numbers that is needed to challenge the unequal power relationships of governments, multinationals, colonial powers, or superpowers involved in the Pacific region.

Empowerment Means Having an Alternative Vision of Society

This is why having a vision of the society we want, having a Pacific feminist perspective, is so important for the empowerment of women. We need both:

knowledge of society as it is, our social realities and relationships of power and powerlessness, to be able to

decide our strategies and demands for change that will gain more power for women.

Having a feminist perspective and strategies for Pacific women would help us to:

(a)

Broaden women's activities and add to their impact.

(b)

Gain greater power at all levels to control, influence, decide and change society from a woman's viewpoint.

Feminist Perspective

We need a feminist perspective because the only way in which women will be empowered, is to challenge the dominant thinking that decides how society is organised, how resources are allocated and how power is shared. We need to challenge the thinking of a male-dominated society, where “development” is usually defined by a planning perspective that we recognise does not benefit all people, especially women. Secondly, we must begin to challenge our own thinking. Only when we have a strong body of ideas or thoughts about the society we want and the changes in relationships and structures, at the personal/social/economic and political levels, can women work to gain power. We are now at the first stage, of developing a strong body of thought, a Pacific feminist perspective, that will guide us in our struggles, and direct our energies towards empowerment activities. Action is also empowering. We must continue to work at all levels, with our projects and programmes, and work on our thinking and strategies. It is with thinking (our perspective), action and strategies that we will be able to give some direction to the women's movement in the Pacific. We must challenge our methods, and develop that perspective. Only with a wider view of society and how it works, and how we want it changed, can women hope to gain greater control over their lives and participate fully and equally within society's economic, social and political structures which we hope to change.

After a break, the workshop met to suggest strategies to empower women. The statement “Our vision” was used as a starting point for thinking of strategies. The workshop's session on strategies which followed produced the following ideas and suggestions:

STRATEGIES

Strategies Black and white title graphic.

Advancing Pacific Feminism (1)

Changing our lives at the personal level and acting out the vision.

(2)

Stressing that the definition of our reality and vision needs to be defined by us as Pacific women.

(3)

Beginning to create and record our Pacific women's world through research, encouraging women's artistic and creative endeavours in all forms and using this record to show our women's world and women's contributions in our communities and the region. Researching, writing and publicising the lives and achievements of our Pacific women heroines, past and present, as part of this effort.

(4)

Using information from this workshop to share our vision and inviting responses and contributions to it; noting the importance of the process (how we listened and discussed things together) of this workshop and continuing it in our follow-up work.

(5)

Stressing and encouraging the use of vernacular languages to express all aspects of our vision.

Family (6)

Redefining family roles to equalise work, family responsibilities and resources.

Violence Against Women (7)

Individually and collectively disapproving of violence to women and taking action against it.

(8)

Making domestic disputes involving violence public, not private and personal.

(9)

Pressing for legislation against domestic violence.

(10)

Creating our own support systems for victims of rape and violence.

(11)

Providing women with a ‘strengthening’ body of ideas (ideology) to support their stand against oppression and violence against them.

Education (12)

Seeking non-sexist, relevant literature and stories for all levels and stages of education.

(13)

Surveying, criticising and changing (re-writing) sexist materials used in and outside schools for education.

(14)

Seeking the assistance of regional organisations in achieving (13) above.

(15)

Stressing the necessity of sex education in schools as part of women's understanding of and control over their bodies.

(16)

Extending “home economics” training (or training in domestic skills) to men, and extending technical, trade and science training to women.

Economic Self-reliance (17)

Seeking to create a practical economic support system for women to enable them to stand on their own feet if they need to get out of an oppressive relationship.

(18)

Encouraging women to ensure that fund-raising activities savings go towards efforts for their own benefit and improvement.

(19)

Seeking increased national allocation of money and resources for areas where women's productive activities are unrecognised (ie. in unpaid subsis tence production and work in the home), and assistance for women to help themselves advances economically.

Working and Organising for Women (20)

Recognising women's organisations need to meet and talk about what they are doing and how they can support each other and develop a sense of direction.

(21)

We will communicate our Pacific feminist perspective to other women's groups.

(22)

We will use this group as an informal network to support us when we return home by exchanging ideas, information and further strategies; and sharing information on useful resources and experiences that may help and inspire other women.

Status of Women (23)

Working against negative images in the media and opposing beauty contests.

(24)

Rejecting the study of Pacific women and their activities being used for the academic or career advancement of individuals from outside the region.

Women and Politics (25)

Developing political strategies - informing women of the workings of the existing social, economic and political systems, pointing out where change is needed, and lobbying to effect the changes. Speaking out, demonstrating, and using whatever means that will advance the changes and legally effect them.

(26)

Women in politics - encouraging and supporting women to enter politics and work for the vision from within the existing system and helping women to effect change from outside the existing system.

APPENDIX 1 EVALUATION

Evaluations by participants (excluding Organising Committee Members), in random order.

To begin with, the whole workshop from the onset gave me the impression that we were going to deal with very technical and academic brainstorming perspectives but I was proven wrong later because of the actual content and practical method of approach initiated and carried throughout by the facilitators and the women themselves.

Overall, a very productive experience that I have learned a lot from and will hope to get support to take back to the Solomon Islands and to enhance my own women.

It was very encouraging to see the confidence, assertiveness that emerged. The time limit was discouraging for some women for whom it is the first time to get together to talk with other Pacific women; also women not involved in research work or academic studies might have felt intimidated in speaking before others with that experience.

Where grass roots level of realities, eg. families, education, environment were discussed, there was more input from a greater part of the participants, but where the economy and politics were concerned, just a small group had ideas. Maybe a further and more simplified discussion of political and economic development was needed.

The organisation was good but the time allocated for each session was not enough, particularly for topics that were very broad. However, the topics examined during the workshop were very important particularly in referring back to our own societies.

The organisers need to be congratulated for the tremendous effort put into the whole programme. The objectives were very relevant to women's needs for better knowledge and understanding of their own status as individuals and also, their roles in all areas of development. The subject areas chosen were educational and beneficial. A lot of new ideas have been created and formulated, increasing my understanding of ways and means of motivating women.

The discussion was good in drawing out everyone's expertise, which established a good sense of sharing and learning amongst the participants.

The workshop has woken up many minds and dreams of struggles of women in the Pacific Islands. All our dreams may never come about as we struggle in this male-dominated society, but we can take the first steps.

I have been to two Pacific women's meetings in '75 and '78 here in Fiji. I have found through this one that there is a lot of progress and evaluation of how we are trying to think and criticise our own realities, even if on some particular points we seem to disagree. But the most important thing for me is this collective advancement in thinking from our own realities and practical involvement.

I have longed to establish a regional connection with women in the Pacific who seek to improve their status. This workshop provided me with that opportunity for which I will be “eternally thankful”. Being here, sharing, reacting and living with other Pacific women as we worked towards a “vision of justice” for ourselves and all our people in the Pacific has been extremely meaningful, inspirational, educational, supportive… a truly feminist experience.

The content of the workshop had given me the courage to look critically at myself, my attitudes, my actions, and also to critically examine the world outside of me with a female-centered and Pacific-centered perspective.

I find it difficult to evaluate such a workshop since there were no objectives to evaluate it against.

The workshop has been organised by individual women who have ideas about development but are not working in women's organisations (sic). We have been organising these sorts of activities since 1975. I would not like us to start something new every time we think the last meeting or strategy has not worked.

I felt that the co-ordinating committee had their set ideas of how the meeting would result and were not flexible enough with suggestions or experiences from the participants; they were quite defensive in a few cases.

Through the interactions and debatable issues that were covered in the workshop, I came to realise factors which were never recognised before in my society (as they existed in reality). As someone who never thought of herself as a feminist, this kind of workshop is a great example whereby women become more aware of things which are considered improvements for women. The discussion on the concept of feminism illuminated factors which people who don't regard themselves as feminist are actually doing. What we discussed and debated within the workshop's structured framework brought to light things which participants never seem to think of as situations within their capabilities to improve.

There was no specific objective for guidelines to be drawn up at the end of the workshop. The guidelines were too general; there was no specific end to work towards in achieving the objectives of the workshop; the whole workshop was too wide and too general for any specific firm commitments or recommendations from the workshop.

The workshop was very interesting and also very fruitful. Now that we have learnt and shared ideas and experiences from each participant in the Pacific, I feel that what we have discussed in the workshop must be put into practice for the betterment of women's status in our countries.

This meeting has been very successful because women who are actually out in the field have been sharing their experiences which should happen more often so that women are assisting one another. Some women are carrying out programmes that would assist others in their own struggles in organising women.

Monday-most interesting, eye opening and have developed a better understanding of the term feminism/feminist.

Tuesday-got lost in all the discussion on devlopment plans. Clear on projects, etc.

The workshop has given me a positive outlook on feminism as a whole. Wholly support the struggle for feminism as defined.

Found venue beautiful, lovely people, delicious food. A wonderful chance to relax in peaceful surroundings and concentrate on the workshop, as well as make new friends and establish a good net-working system with other women/agencies.

APPENDIX 2 LIST OF PARTICIPANTS AND ADDRESSES

Louise AitsiSouth Pacific Commission P.B.D5 Noumea NEW CALEDONIA Ph: 26 20 00 (W)

Shamima Ali PO Box 12882 Suva FIJI Ph: 25730/300289

Mesepa Atoni C/Tokelau Affairs Apia WESTERN SAMOA

Moana BentinUniversity of the South Pacific PO Box 1168 Suva FIJI

Sadie K BogotuUniversity of the South Pacific PO Box 1168 Suva FIJI

Kairabu Betaia PO Box 240 Bikenibeu Tarawa KIRIBATI

Dewe Gorodey Pourouin Tribu de L'Embouchire Ponerihouen NEW CALEDONIA Ph: 42 85 52

Arlene Griffen School of Humanities University of the South Pacific PO Box 1168 Suva FIJI Ph: 313900 Ext 314(W)

Vanessa Griffen Dept of Government University of Sydney NSW 2006 AUSTRALIA (1987) Department of History/Politics University of the South Pacific PO Box 1168 Suva, Fiji (1989)

Noeleen HeyzerAsian and Pacific Development Centre Pesiaran Duta PO Box 12224 Kuala Lumpur 50770 MALAYSIA Ph: 254 8088 Naama G Latasi Tuvalu Girl Guides Association PO Box 6 Funafuti TUVALU

Hilda Lini PO Box 228 Port Vila VANUATU

Vereara MaevaCook IslandsNational Council of Women PO Box 733 Rarotonga COOK ISLANDS

Jully MakiniUniversity of Hawaii Moore Hall, 215 Honolulu HAWAII 96822 Ph: 948 722

Alamai ManuellaUniversity of the South Pacific PO Box 1168 Suva FIJI

Aiffe J Mionzing Executive Officer Morobe Women's Association PO Box 1468 Lae Morobe Province PAPUA NEW GUINEA

Amelia Rokotuivuna C/YWCA PO Box 534 Suva FIJI

Fungke Samana Coordinator of Subsistence Agriculture Improvement Programme PO Box 831 Lae Morobe Province PAPUA NEW GUINEA

Shaista ShameemUniversity of Waikato Sociology Department Hamilton NEW ZEALAND Ph: 62889 Ext. 8278

Claire Slatter SSED University of the South Pacific PO Box 1168 Suva FIJI Ph: 313900 Ext 480

Se Nellie Singeo Community Action Agency PO Box 400 Ponapei FEDERATED STATES OF MICRONESIA Ph: 575 or 172 Donita Simmons Library University of the South Pacific PO Box 1168 Suva FIJI Ph: 313900 Ext 283

Prem Jeet Kuar Singh PO Box 398 Rakiraki FIJI

Lata H. SoakaiUniversity of the South Pacific PO Box 1168 Suva FIJI Ph: 313900 Ext 385/356 or PO Box 75 Nuku'alofa TONGA Ph: 21067

Laura Souder-Jaffery PO Box 1651 Agana GUAM Ph: (671) 477 9228

Joan Yee Library University of the South Pacific PO Box 1168 Suva FIJI Ph: 313900 Ext 286