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Uh, our next speaker is a very outspoken and proud Sato is a member of the Samoa Association and a graduate of Auckland University. Holding, a bachelor of arts degree in political science, is currently a senior officer in the disaster management office in Samoa. She's famous in Samoa for her designing consultancy by the name of Island [00:00:30] Couture. Uh, this has set seen her design and dress numerous Miss Samoa and Miss South Pacific title holders via. Did you design anything last year for 2010? Uh uh. I was the lead judge of the Miss Samoa pageant last year. And I, I didn't see you anywhere. That's why I was asking. Um has also successfully organised the industry variety awards, [00:01:00] which was the first of its kind in Samoa to showcase the colourful entertainments by the in Samoa. Uh, and to date, it remains the talk of the town. Uh, please give a very, very warm welcome to thank you, honourable Ambassador for the introduction. It's our love for everyone [00:01:30] [00:02:00] to low to low to low lover. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen and distinguished delegations from across Asia and the Pacific. Thank you for this opportunity to hear the voices of the Pacific, and hopefully it will echo through this forum through these hallways and across the vast Pacific Ocean. So it may have an input and significant change in our purpose to [00:02:30] advocate for our God given universally declared human rights. As introduced, I invite to an executive member of the association incorporated. I am humbled to be given the opportunity to speak on behalf of our president, Roger Toto Ali Stanley, who could not be here today. Roger is one of the few who has been recently appointed at the assistant chief executive officer level for the Ministry [00:03:00] of Women, Community and Social Development and Achievement. The association is most proud of and is inspiring for most to follow. So even though she's not here physically, she is with us in spirit, and it's a good thing she's not here because otherwise she would be snoring already in the front row and asking where morning when morning tea will be served. And but for those of you who [00:03:30] know Roger, she may be snoring. But if you're out of line, she'll come back to life like a hungry lion and, considering her voluptuous island delights. Her attack is not a pretty sight. She is, after all, once, twice, three times a lady. It is probably one of our known [00:04:00] attributes, as we say it as it is with little consideration on of how you perceive what is said. It is one of the reasons why we naturally become strong advocates for what we believe in. And in this gathering, it happens to be our human rights. I will speak today about human rights and the intricacies of navigating the main field minefield of traditional and cultural values versus the New Age laws and customs among and most importantly, [00:04:30] its relevance to the lives of a is a cultural identity. It is not a sexual identity. To understand the you must first understand the or Samoan culture. We are intrigued with the well with the wealth of knowledge and learning from this conference, especially with the LGBT community, the history, the struggles and finding a way forward. It is therefore necessary [00:05:00] that the LGBT community has an opportunity to hear a perspective from a vulnerable group within a vulnerable group within a vulnerable group in Samoa called There is someone saying Samoa has already been defined. The three main pillars of Samoa is culture, the church and its constitution. Its social structure determines roles and responsibilities of each individual to uphold, [00:05:30] to honour, respect and execute, execute to to keep the stability and harmony and well being. Of all this definition of Psalm one society predetermines the purpose of an individual and their entitlements. We when a child is born this child is born with its unique cultural identity and associated birth rights. They are the living continuum of family, genealogy, heritage and history. [00:06:00] They are heirs of to family land. They are heirs to chief and their birth right is to inherit all of the above plus the coconut tree and the mango tree in front of their house and family family the other, um for the male, the the identity is well established. They are the strength [00:06:30] on a that the bullet the authority for girls or training they are the most sacred. She is the covenant, the honour upheld and protected by her brothers, her womb from her womb. Our genealogy will continue [00:07:00] qualify. She is the provider and the wealth of her family lies in her hands to protect and maintain a. She is the peacemaker. It is the same identity given to to Christianity as a founding principle in the Samoan culture. Christianity was given the utmost respect as the or the covenant, and the social structure will protect it [00:07:30] and honour it as we do today. Every Samoan inherits these rights from birth. It is why, when a meets another Samoan, the first question is, what is your name? Where is your village? Who are your parents? What church do you come from? What land do you belong to? And never do we ask who or what do you sleep with Because of these cultural birth rights? This is the basis of our existence. When is born [00:08:00] like every palmon boy A is an heir to land titles to the authority. It is our role to uphold family honour by preserving the covenant between boys and girls and God in their growth can also be providers and peacekeepers. It's the perfect cocktail of the two roles and somewhat over privileged, but it's inheritance that comes with a price. It is of these [00:08:30] birth, uh, birth rights and Samoa have long enjoyed the Samoan people's sincere tolerance as they are Children of the land and family. So in my country, you being having the blood of your ancestors running through your veins. Being a vessel to uphold family, tradition and culture. Having a purpose to care for your sisters and brothers and honouring your birth rights is your first measure as a human being. Me being is secondary [00:09:00] and so is what I do in bed. Have sex with straight men. This is a fact, but it is not perceived a homosexual act and this is the culture. This cultural identity is extremely important because it is the foundation to our approach to advocating for human rights. We are extremely proud of our culture. Our place in Samon society in recognition of our people, is the reason we stand straight. We walk [00:09:30] tall, we sing loud and often arrogant thinking. Samoa is bigger than Africa. But our culture, the essence of our very being, is also our greatest enemy. The true test of Samoan people's tolerance was tested when sexual rights, sexual orientation, the term homosexuals, homophobia, stereotypes, reproductive issues and marital preferences became an apparent became apparent with the wake of the HIV and a I DS pandemic in the late 19 eighties, [00:10:00] it severely challenged the status quo. In the three pillars of Samoa, the culture became strongly influenced by labels, terminologies and and its associated implications embraced similar cultures such as drag, artistry, entertainment and even gay lifestyles. When travelling abroad, the unspoken having sex with men was immediately thrown under the microscope, and our cultural identities became confused. In [00:10:30] the process, The shameful realities of the silence with sexuality became more and more prevalent. Issues around child abuse and sexual exploitation of generally by male family members and were immediate family members were unreported, and it was a fact had to face orientation by overseas experts, focused on homosexuals and were immediately targeted because [00:11:00] of assumed and apparent sexual orientation. It was the first time started to hear of LGBT. The church community, despite its strong presence in church activities, became easy targets of the usual usual bullshit. You are an abomination. Homosexuality is a sin while ministers turn a blind eye to alcohol abuse to crime, adultery, rape and murder. Yeah, [00:11:30] for our constitution, pressures of consensual and non consensual homosexuality and wearing and having articles of women's clothing on you in public was against the law and punishable by fines and imprisonment, a direct cut and paste and what I like to call from Colonial New Zealand administration. In Roger's own words, they say I'm breaking the law because I'm Impersonating a woman while show me a woman [00:12:00] that looks like me. So the realities of the sexually of so the realities of the sexuality of our cultural identities tolerated by people before, became more apparent. It was just as ugly and real as it is around the world. These realities you are too familiar with, which brings me to the second part of my address and which, with these surfacing realities and challenges, what did we do about it? [00:12:30] The community is a traditional part of the Ministry of Health. Since the initiation of the HIV prevention programme in 1987 it has established its role as the advocacy leaders that outreaches to the marginalised groups and those who cannot be reached by the official networks. It was the beginning of the movement for the first time, organised workshops and strategic gathering to discuss issues on health, sex and well being for saw the potential with the community to take HIV [00:13:00] and AIDS to the next level, using non conventional conventional means of promotion. And for decades the Ministry of Health has capitalised on social and professional connections of to reach the marginalised and vulnerable groups. This is where comes in because of the status of women. Culturally, the community are not visible as the community. Their issues are often conservative and reserved within the comfort and security of their own. Families, unlike [00:13:30] who sometimes sometimes think they are in Hollywood, keep to themselves and keep them a man, their sacredness and their honour. Because although their sexuality was also thrown under the radar, advocating for something that is broke that is not broken will probably go against them. So in one FAA's words, let sleeping dogs lie. This is their preference in a position we must respect prostitution and [00:14:00] involved in casual paid or casual kind. Paid sexual activity also received an extended hand from the community, although this is never encouraged as an option for a full time job in the islands, there's a lot of land to work the awareness for HIV and AIDS and is taking the leading role eventuated to the establishment of the Samoa AIDS Foundation is here today and Teresa were founding members of of the HIV and AIDS Agenda, and the HIV and AIDS agenda escalated [00:14:30] to new heights by this. By this stage in our moment, the community was ready to take the bold step of establishing a collective to focus purely on vulnerable groups with vulnerable groups within vulnerable groups and after cheap bourbon, as Sarah puts it and borrowed Coke at Roger's Mansion, which could only fit five people. The greatest initiative of our time was conceived to establish the association. And [00:15:00] sure enough, nine months later down the line the most beautiful, most danker most man Manu bad, most beautiful some of our association was born. It gained instant political support with our prime minister as a patron and I was in a position to make a stand. FFA's rights advocacy began to include the rights to our sexual orientation, our gender identity, cultural identity and gender expressions. With the minor issues of sex relations, Same sex relations, [00:15:30] adoption and Anti Discrimination Association submitted last year a law during a law reform commission to decriminalise punishment to homosexual activity and female impersonation. I am pleased to advise that the Samoa Law Reform Commission took on board our submissions and recommended it to government. We are awaiting to hear the outcome of that of that exercise, but nevertheless we will still wake up every morning we our put on our big flowers [00:16:00] and we go to work to provide for our families. Despite it being a crime. The police do what they want, do what they do, and we do what we do. It's like a mutual respect and understanding of our reliance on our gender expression as much as our reliance on our careers in order to supply support our families just as the police do. Sadly, the GL BT model is has is found wanting for us here because with advent of HIV and AIDS in [00:16:30] the Pacific Pacific, excuse me. The issues are now of about sexuality and sexual acts. When for us the we have the rich, we have this rich history in our heritage, which we are wo to removing the Association of our role to sexual acts. And in conjunction with the Samoa AIDS Foundation, we are making inroads into the general public in terms of making sex, safe sex acts, campaigns, a part of everyday life for all Samoans. [00:17:00] Not just for we are going back to our roots, our cultural identity, and use that model instead of the GB LT model or the foreign terminologies. It's appropriating what works in our construct. Why should we use an outside model that will not? Only that will only insult and antagonise our elders, our culture, our people. It doesn't make any sense. And it is perhaps the reason why the sex Act [00:17:30] models will continue to push an uphill battle in Samoa and the Pacific. In our advocacy, we want to make known the Y Kakata principles as new as 2006 6, and we acknowledge their use relevance to Western societies or societies where there is consistent abuse and confusion in terms of citizenship, gender identity and sexual orientation. But because of its focus on gender identity and sexual orientation, its application [00:18:00] are flawed for us in the Pacific. We know our sexual orientation, and so do all of our people. We know our place and our gender identity, and so do all of our people. Our drive in strategic direction is to full steam ahead with capacity building for so they truly know their place in society. It's the only way they can contribute by feeling a sense of pride or belonging to something that is part of you and your culture. For us, it's a long road from a humble beginning [00:18:30] as a social gathering, which then led to the formation of association, and we are here and we are hammered by the opportunity. So the question really, what do we want from this conference? We are able to share our cultural perspective and our cultural identity. But what do we really want from this conference? What do we want to achieve? And it's quite simple and I think we have three main main main agendas that we want to push through. One is funding, funding, [00:19:00] funding, funding with the proper support structure to work with us on relevance of policies that work in our culture. In our context, we don't want to give. We don't want you to give up on us. Real value is based on gathering real evidence. As a movement, we need to hold your donors and people who are responsible for providing this funding accountable. But we must also determine if your structure and policies are effective and applicable in our context. Two. [00:19:30] Asia Pacific needs to needs to be inclusive of the Pacific in bold. Otherwise, don't use the Pacific if you never want to see again to officially include our cultural identities. This is the third point in the documentation in the language and the advocacy we respect LGBT. But if the only excuse is adding all the names is too long, like commonly said, then let it be. So [00:20:00] have 10 papers with all the names. That's what we want. Our world, yours and mine is in trouble and there is no argument at all. We live in a society bloated with fill and filled with data and information. We ride the subway sub highway of Facebook and Twitter and emails, yet we are starved for wisdom. We're connected to each other 24 7 tech through technology. Yet we are filled with anxiety, fear, depression and loneliness issues [00:20:30] which are all which are at an all time high. Don't you feel or agree with me that we need a a correction in our course? The link between the past and the future is very fragile, especially more so for us in the Pacific. Our forefathers fought for our human rights. It's why we want to continue the battle. So, in closing, I would like to offer you this. The Asia Pacific. We would like to see it as our canoe. Our people are voyages. True [00:21:00] navigation begin in the human heart. It's the most important map of all. Together we can do it together. Together we can generally help each other. There is nowhere else to go. And this is the message for our Pacific delegation. And for everyone here today there is nowhere else to go. What we are looking for is right here. What we are looking for is right here. I would like to thank the Netherlands government, [00:21:30] the United States government and also the government of New Zealand for inviting us here today and being able and having the opportunity to sponsor our participation. We are very grateful. Thank you very much. Right. I know.
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