Very often in Solomon Islands and other Melanesian countries, ideas of equality between men and women are represented as inherently foreign and incompatible with kastom, the venerable set of social norms that include assemblages of Christian and neotraditional practices and ideals. The opposition of women’s rights and Melanesian culture is not simply the position of Melanesian traditionalists but is also reproduced by human rights advocates. This dichotomous reading of complex social phenomena fails to recognise that feminism is hardly a taken-for-granted part of Western culture and that any advances in women’s rights in the West or elsewhere are the result of ideological and political struggles that stretch over centuries, taking different forms in different times and places. It also ignores the diverse ways that Melanesian women are engaging with modernity and the initiatives that they are taking to improve their position in society and to make their relationships with men more equal and less prone to violence. As Martha Macintyre puts it: ‘Attempts to divide women into “westernized” and “traditional” are usually reactionary ploys to discredit the political goals of women’ (2000: 167).

In this chapter, the author reflects on a recent and short (eight-day) visit to North Vella Lavella, a relatively under-developed part of Western Province in Solomon Islands. His purpose is to draw attention to some small-scale initiatives of women (and men) in rural Melanesia that show proactive (albeit contested) engagements with processes of changing gender relations there. The point is not to romanticise grassroots development by claiming that the kindergarten described provides a model of transformative feminist praxis. Rather, by bringing a humble village kindergarten into view, the author hope to open up more options for thinking about the dynamics of social change in Solomon Islands and to unsettle the commonly accepted view that ideologies of male dominance are supported by kastom and are so firmly entrenched in rural areas as to be uncontestable.