Pacific women’s experiences working in universities in Aotearoa New Zealand

Pacific women’s narratives offer insight into how universities currently under-serve and exclude Pacific communities in their everyday practices. Utilising a women-centred Pacific research methodology (masi methodology) this article shares the results of talanoa with twenty-seven Pacific women who collectively represent 216 years of experience working in New Zealand universities. Pacific women’s stories indicate that we […]

Indo-Fijian women and sportive activity: A critical race feminism approach

There are no reliable statistics about female participation in Fijian sport, yet it is well known by locals (though not widely understood) that engagement in sportive activities is rare among Indo-Fijian girls and women. This paper is the first attempt to explore how and why that is so. That said, there is an important caveat: […]

‘And every word a lie’: Samoan gender-divergent communities, language and epistemic violence

In many constructions of what constitutes ‘the Samoan community’, the experiences and perspectives of fa’a’afa, fa’a(fa)tama, fa’afafine, trans folks and non-binary as well as further ‘gender-divergent’ people are often elided, conflated, glossed over or absent. One way of describing these occurrences is as forms of epistemic violence. The primary claim of this article is that […]

The untold story behind Fiji’s astonishing gold medal

Rugby is the national sport in Fiji, and the country specifically excels in rugby sevens. The country has been united by the team’s astonishing victory in 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio. This sport highlights the dramatic differences in the treatment and perception of women and men in Fiji as well that of Indigenous Fijians and […]

Negotiating Sisterhood in the Pacific Region: Feminist Alliances across Diversity

In recent years spaces for feminist civil society have been shrinking at the global level. Yet the efforts to have feminist civil society voices heard continue at both national and regional levels. This thesis explores how feminist civil society actors in the Pacific are responding to backlash and shrinking space. In particular, it focuses on […]

Pacific Women Gender Equality and Social Inclusion Indicators

This Brief and accompanying spreadsheet provide an overview of useful indicators that can help guide the collection and analysis of information to best plan, monitor, analyse and report on COVID-19 response and impacts, ensuring the inclusion of gender equality and social inclusion considerations.

Contending Masculinities and the Limits of Tolerance: Sexual Minorities in Fiji

In this article I examine how contradictory and contending ideas about masculinity are voiced in the public domain in Fiji, and discuss efforts undertaken by local gay activists to resist hegemonic constructions of masculine identity (Connell 2005, 77–83), like that promoted by conservative members of the political elite in Fiji. I therefore describe how local […]