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Bolivia, Everyone. I'm Soli from the Fiji Islands. I'm with the house of Chameleon, A transgender activist and feminist human rights defender in Fiji. I'm also, uh, the youngest board member of the Oceania, and it's a a privilege to be here. It's wonderful to be here, thanks to a world for funding us to be able to participate in this regional conference. And we're looking forward to more engagement in the next few Well, the rest of the days, as well as getting to know more [00:00:30] and contributing to some of the outcomes of this, uh, conference what? Now you have to introduce some of us well, and I'm from, uh and I am also a board member of P A and first and foremost, I must acknowledge and, [00:01:00] um, his special thanks to the world, the Rainbow Organisation and all the organising organisations for having this conference, um, happening and for getting us all the way from thousands of miles away over the seas to to actually be here. And for us it's real, Um, a real, um, great opportunity for us to actually be here and to get the exposure and [00:01:30] also to learn, as we learned from what has been going on through this, um, couple of days. I am currently the president of the Samoa, a female association. This year marks our 10th year anniversary since we first started back in 1996. And in 1996 when we first launched our organisation, Um, I just, uh, secret handedly went up and invited the our [00:02:00] prime minister to become our patron. So he has always been our patient for the last 10 years. So, Peter, for the 10th to 60 years is not very easy. And I've always, um, trying to, um hopefully in our next, uh, a GM, I will step down. And because there are a lot of other person, so who can I'm sure they can do the job much better than me and, um, Iman. And [00:02:30] like I said, sometimes before I is our technical advice for our executive back home. So she has. I'm glad that she has shared some of the stuff that has been going on back home with our current work, especially with our, um, the submission to the changes in legislation that is the real milestone and the real achievement for us. And, uh we do have, um, a couple of difficulties that I face that the real challenges back home is [00:03:00] that we do have a 54 years strategic plan that we love. We eagerly get revised every four years, but it's not happening at all, simply because we, um the lack of funds and the opportunities for us to actually submit proposals to development partners. But we will take it one step at a time. We take things easy. We do a Pacific way because we don't want to rush everything all at once, and then we might get [00:03:30] closed down in the very next year. So, um, being here for me personally, I i it it's really, um I'm grateful I'm grateful for for for the opportunity to actually be here in Wellington and to actually attend all the sessions. Like I said, um, because of all this, um, I'm amazed with, um the diversity of sexuality that I actually get to experience get to see, because back home and [00:04:00] I you know, I've been born racist, some where I can only see it either you or your so lesbian or but, um, in my line of work, I was Also, I must say that I'm also in my own transition. I must tell you later. I'm not transition like I've always been a of my life, but my transition really, that I am to lobby without government [00:04:30] since we have just last week. So the fourth of March, that was our general election. And our the government has been, uh, as one and been back to power. So my transition is that since there, um uh, because of our culture, our religion and our patrons not really into the idea of sex marriage, that would be my transition this year when I go back, now he's back into power That will lobby for for [00:05:00] that same sex marriage to for him to actually support it. And for who knows, maybe someone will actually, uh, falling into the idea of sames marriage. Hopefully very soon. So that is my transition. But, um, also, it's just a personal thing. Personal matter, that at some moment, sometimes in life, we need to get our politicians a little bit more uncomfortable. I think [00:05:30] that's the only way that they can actually do something for us. Because at the moment we can not only rely on our our smooth writing, You know, at the moment that we always say And it's for me too, that I always preach this Don't fix it when it's not broken He always said that because we kept on writing, You know, in Samoa we we will live in harmony and I always say, Go back where you're from For those who are coming from advocates for all this stuff the rise of LGBTI know And [00:06:00] I'm also a strong person telling these people get back to go back to where you're from. We are not identified. We are not, um, being characterised with your medical terms and put us into process. See, that's that was that was me, I reckon, because all my beliefs that I have, But we cannot always sit back and relax and even my and, you know, let the world go around. I reckon [00:06:30] that being here is actually an eye opener. It really opens up my eyes, opens up my head, and I think it's also time to move on and actually lobby for our politicians, our leaders that hello, I reckon we shall follow what the UN is saying. What they are loving for us to do, which is one of the priorities. Same same sex marriage. Um, because, uh, we you know, no matter what happens, we there are sexual diversity [00:07:00] that leads all this real revolution is Actually, it's in Samoa. It's actually there. But it's just a matter of all these people not coming out. So I cannot always try and be the champion. But I would like that everybody is included, meaning inclusive for all the other in closet for boys that are anticipate himself as gay but do not have somewhere to belong to. I encourage [00:07:30] them to come out and join me. So things are good things coming away. But, uh, it's just a matter of us trying to looking at the at the perfect time. You know, we always trying to find that very moment when our our but that's when our politicians are in a good mood. But that's the the way to do it. I think it's that it's always in our strategy for development of S a MA, which is our number one [00:08:00] C for development document. All these issues are not included, so I was happy because even without you want to go one more minute. The most important thing from my transition. Remember, One moment we have, uh we can talk on that, but we have to give time for the others to do the introduce [00:08:30] their issues. Ask a question. Yeah. You're most welcome to ask me any questions. I'll be here till Sunday, and I'm leaving at romance. 304 with a couple of the girls here. Six of us in one room. Um, one thing I would like to leave it with you is that, uh, please, we would love to have our own Pacific. You not. [00:09:00] Thank you, Elizabeth. Tell her, uh, good morning. Uh, my name is I'm from Papua New Guinea. I'm representing Couple Champion, which is the only organisation that works with, um uh, men with diverse sexuality and transgender people in the country. Um, [00:09:30] we advocate and I advocate for the rights of, uh, G BT I people in the country. So far, we've been doing lots of human rights work along the coastal areas of Papua New Guinea, and we've seen that there has been some good outcome of it. But we had to work towards the inland where there is lots of culture and religious thing, and all those are still taboo of about, um, same sex [00:10:00] relationships. So we're still working on it, and we are getting there. So it's been so privileged to be here and learn from other delegates in the South. Um, um, I have learned lots in terms of, uh, all issues. I think one way or the other, all issues are related to each other. So once again, uh, thanks to and the for giving us question without them, I think I won't be here. So once again, um, it's [00:10:30] good that I also said some of my, um, uh, human right issues, um, already in other sessions. And I'm here to share with any one of you. If you want to learn more about what it is like in Papua New Guinea, please come forward and just interrupt me. Anyway, thank you very much. I am from the Republic of Vanuatu. My name is Julia Baxter, [00:11:00] but please call me GG. Um, I'll be talking about Well, what I do back home in Vanuatu is, um, mobilising the youth of, um well, MS MS men who have sex with men, transgender gay and lesbians. Um, a little bit of bisexuals. And, um yeah. So what we do is do do do activities to mobilise them and to help them [00:11:30] to, um, in empowerment. And, um um, also with economic empowerment. Um, first of all, the group that we, um we do, uh, well, the group that we're in but I lead in Vanuatu is called pride. Um, foundation is a project under small bank who that is the biggest, um, local NGO back home in Vanuatu. And, um, because of the high rate of illiteracy in Vanuatu, a lot of, [00:12:00] um, young ones who do not go to education, we feel like engaging with the community. Um is very hard, and it's quite a challenge because of the technologies that we use up here in in our technical level. And the theory level is very hard to communicate and integrate with the grassroots. So we use TV shows like Life Patrol that is aired also here in New Zealand and Maori TV and um other theatre play to get the message across to the community, and it creates a dialogue [00:12:30] that makes them to understand the issues of LGBT persons and even other issues related to health of, um, risk behaviour sexual, um, HIV and STIs. Um, also with a session that I attended yesterday in the afternoon with Elizabeth. Um, I really, really enjoy that, because I believe that we are not whole or complete if we have some missing of our cultural identity, and it [00:13:00] kind of, like, encouraged and empowered me to go back to my country and to further dig on to the past of my history to trace that identity that is missing We have evidence in dialogue or the, um, How to say this. Like the stories passed down from generation to generation, about the existence of LGBT community. And in my country, they, um, LGBT warriors that exist back in, uh, in the days, [00:13:30] Um, so those are are, um a very important, uh, things that I, um I've learned so far in the, um, in this conference in the last two days. Uh, lastly, with the foundation, we use peer education. Um, with the members, we train the members to build up the capacity to go out into the communities and to engage and to advocate the issues within the communities. [00:14:00] In that way, we find that, um, it helps build up relationship and reduce the stigma and discrimination. Now, with my has mentioned earlier that we have, um a very strong cultural, um, connection amongst others. And in Vanuatu, we have a lot of respect because of our cultural values. Um, but with the Western influence, or in other words, um, colonisation it kind of, um oh, the word. [00:14:30] It kind of wiped out all that because of the different diversities that we have. So we feel that getting with peer education within the communities will kind of indirectly sensitise the community to understand our issues. This is where we build up the relationship with the communities from the lower level, and we slowly climb up the stairs. So, um, also because we find that there is discrimination amongst the community itself. I will [00:15:00] continue to speak of this because I want our other Pacific sisters and brothers to know that in our own country the stigma discrimination is in our own community. People who are successful, our graduates, they do not assist or help us support others who are on the grassroots level. How are they supposed to come to become themselves? empowered without the help or the support of the people up there. Therefore, this gap [00:15:30] there there is a gap between within our own communities. And I feel that, um, being in this conference as well will assist as well Give me the knowledge or the capacity to, um, engage with the people who are up there at that level to, um, to support the young ones. I think that's all. If you have any questions, please do ask. Thank you very much. Thank you. I'm just gonna briefly talk about the situation of Fiji [00:16:00] at the moment. We are currently under a state of emergency following the devastation of Cyclone Winston that hit the country a few days back. And Fiji, We only go through, uh, a state of emergency in under two occasions. First under the military takeover coup. Second is during the so the cycle was very devastating in terms of the destruction it had in Fiji. It is. It was recorded [00:16:30] the strongest ever cyclone in the Southern Hemisphere. It is second as well to the strongest cyclone ever in the world. We had 42 deaths and 800 people still without shelter in evacuation centres. We have school Children who is currently not attending school. But the fortunate thing that we are very grateful to the international donors and countries like New Zealand, Australia, France and the US and some others who have donated aid, food and funds to help [00:17:00] with the recovery and the response after the second wind in terms of the LGBT movement in Fiji, if you look at uh, you know, Jack talked about some of the progress that we had in Fiji in terms of LGBT protection in Fiji's constitution. In 1997 Fiji became the second country in the world, second to South Africa to have explicitly sexual sexual orientation in its constitution. In 2012, we had a review of Fiji's constitution and part of the Fiji LGBT Coalition made submission [00:17:30] in terms of the extension of sexual orientation under the Bill of Rights to include gender identity and sexual gender expression. So currently we have the 2013 Constitution which is in effect, which has that extension, and I think it's also important when you talk about progress to look at the limitations of what the Constitution has in terms of this constitutional protection on LGBT rights. One of the things that's uh, that's limited under the Bill of Rights [00:18:00] in terms of LGBT and S social protection is first of all, we are not allowed to get married. Second, you cannot inherit third you cannot adopt. Recently, in late 2015, the prime minister of Fiji gave a very disturbing statement to the media calling for all LGBT people in Fiji if they want to get married, to go to catch the boat and [00:18:30] fuck off to Iceland. It was very disturbing because one of the things that we also released as Trans activist was the possibility of a backlash that the statement can have on the LGBT community, particularly for transgender women who are visible in our community. So we made a press release. We sent out a statement and unfortunately we had some assurance from the Fiji Police Commissioner Bri Year One in naval [00:19:00] in terms of making sure that if we feel unsafe in Fiji, we can always access the police force for protection. The other thing that I wanted to talk about is one of the things that's a priority issue for the Pacific islands is climate change. We are part of the Pacific climate change and gender and sustainable development processes. We were We've been very active in the leading up to 21 urgent action up to parents in terms of making sure [00:19:30] that we know we we don't want a 2.2 °C. As far as we cannot survive with two °C, we are calling for 1.5 degree C. And we wanted to also make sure that women and LGBT people are part of the planning of adaptation and all of that. OK, I just, um ok, [00:20:00] too low. Too low, Too low. Um, my name is Ken. I just want [00:20:30] to thank you all, uh, for accepting us into your hearts. I want to acknowledge, especially the, um our brothers, uh, you know, the indigenous people of New Zealand, uh, for welcoming us and especially yesterday with Elizabeth. Uh, we are all part of the Great ocean, and we all are brothers and sisters in the scattered. [00:21:00] I would like to also acknowledge the, uh, the organising committee, uh, and and your team for an excellent work. Done. Uh, we're so proud of you. Uh, for completing this task in such a short time, it's just absolutely amazing. And for accepting us from the Pacific as part of your scholarship scheme, you have really looked after us, and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Thank you also to world for funding. [00:21:30] And there's great purpose in in looking after the more undeveloped areas of the, uh the region and especially people who cannot afford the resources or the finances to get here. OK, just after that formality. There's just a few issues I'd like to, uh, address, and I'd like to thank for last night the interfaith service that we were all at and we had a little presentation from the Pacific. It brings to mind that, uh, religion, [00:22:00] our belief system, our spirituality is a very important part of our our society. And unfortunately, it's also, uh, the cause of a lot of harm that has come into being. But I like to say as as, uh, LGBT people, especially in Pacific, it's a very strong part of our lives, and what we need to do is build bridges. We need [00:22:30] to dialogue with them, and there needs to be a lot of healing that goes on. I am a, uh, training at the moment to be a theological student. I'm also, um, part of the global Interfaith Network, uh, for LGBT. And it's an incredible work, but we're fighting for safe spaces for people of faith to worship in their own way, regardless of their religion, their nomination. Whether you're a Buddhist, Buddhist, Muslim, um, [00:23:00] no faith. The whole idea is that we can do that. And there's a beauty of We had one thing in common that we are LGBTI and it's so beautiful to be in the same room with. All these people are so diverse. And that's what we hear today. We're so diverse, but we can have that commonality. And, um, this has been previous pre conferences for the gin. So and, um, I'd like to say that should be a a part [00:23:30] of the agenda for the next meeting. That we include our Christianity, spirituality in our agenda to ensure that this is addressed and how best we can approach, Um, uh, the religious leaders, the traditional leaders of our society. And it was a good example last night when you saw the deputy Mayor of, uh, Wellington, the various, uh, clergy from around Wellington. And it was good that we also had representation from this [00:24:00] conference there. So, I, I do believe that we need to do things mainstream. We can't be separated from society, and we must must be seen to to be part of the greater society. So that's one issue. Uh, second issue is xenophobia is very rife in our own community. I think it's that we should take note that I haven't felt anything like that here except on grinder. And, I don't know, a little note to my friend there. [00:24:30] Uh, take note, Jack, that, uh uh, yeah, we can post human rights messages on grinder, but we can sure also do xenophobia on grinder. So it's important that we, you know, we we get over the whole idea. Oh, it's one minute. OK, so that's the second issue. But my third issue and my last issue is about I am so touched to see all the young people here. But I also am very, very moved to see all the old people. And, you know, really, when you [00:25:00] come to our age, you've got to you know, you put us up to pasture. We've got a lot to to still contribute to mentor. Um, and also the fact that is what's gonna happen when we're we're old and grey. Who's gonna look after us? Uh, we were fortunate in our culture that we have our young people to look after us, Hopefully. And so there should be sort of, um, the address in in in our society [00:25:30] such as New Zealand and Australia that we do care for our old LGBTI people. Really? There should be rest homes for our our our aged people. I actually work on the Gold Coast and aged care institutions for the LGBT. They are the ones that slip through the cracks that need to be addressed. So I've finished there. Thank you. Yeah, I know we're running out of time, but I'll get the I'll give [00:26:00] the rest of the time for, um this kid, um, just reminding you that I have a session at one o'clock. Um and and we have another session. Pacific sessions, um, after this, so you can hear more about us and even out the rest of our lives, too. All right. Thank you. I'll try and keep it very brief. Uh, So, um, you must be listening to our issues and feeling sorry for us [00:26:30] and already thinking, How can we help the Pacific? You have many entry points in which New Zealand and Australia can help. So I would like to share that with you, one of which is the Pacific Island Forum, which is based in Fiji. Uh, the forum is made up of all the prime ministers from the Pacific region, including Australia and New Zealand. So you can assist us by lobbying through your own leaders who can then bring up these issues at the forum. [00:27:00] And this is one of the things that we wanted to raise, uh, yesterday with the parliamentarians that were here and also human rights, but unfortunately, we were not able to get a slot. But we rely on you to, um, store this message. And whenever you have the chance to speak to your parliamentarians, um, you can share it with them and one of which is in the Pacific. We have a lot of, um, foreign ministers meeting for economics, uh, for the ministry of, uh, minister [00:27:30] of Development for education. But there is no on human rights. And I know that, uh, and another person had submitted a proposal for setting up a mechanism in which the foreign countries can monitor the human rights situation in each country, and this, unfortunately, was declined. And we would like to encourage our you, our friends and our bro, uh, [00:28:00] brothers and sisters from New Zealand and Australia to always consult us also, because this can also facilitate the process of getting approval from from our leaders when you have the Pacific people, um, providing inputs and demanding, uh, for such, uh, sensitive for for such things that are are usually regarded as, uh, issues in the Pacific and also in terms of, um, the Constitution in [00:28:30] Fiji. As you can see in the handout that I gave out, there are not. There's still a lot of countries that decriminalise same sex, and there is no country that approves of marriage equality. And in Fiji also, we have our rights protected under the Bill of Rights in the Constitution. There's lack of filtering of this supreme law into the subsidiary, uh, legislations, and we would like to we [00:29:00] we would we can learn a lot from the New Zealand, uh, experience and also from the Australian experience. And, uh, if you can share with us the pathway it took to reach that stage, we would also like to know about that. And also, what are some of the implications, Um, that, uh, the supreme law the Constitution can have on subsidiary legislation? We would also like to hear about that because, like, had mentioned, [00:29:30] uh, yesterday we have our rights protected in the Constitution. But then you have the court of law not allowing someone who has fully transitioned to change, uh, his or her sex on her passport. And also, she had mentioned about the prime minister of Fiji saying discriminatory remarks. And this is totally against the Constitution that he put in place. So this is one of the the struggles we go through, uh, the services also, [00:30:00] um, there's not many services that, uh, uh that, uh, tend to the needs of the LGBT Q i community. So that's why not many of our community members access services and also in terms of movement building in the Pacific. Unfortunately, we are unable to, um, access a lot of funds because in most of the countries, particularly in Fiji. We are unable we [00:30:30] cannot register as a charitable trust because we were told that our objectives didn't meet the charitable trust objectives. So this also limits our our work in the region. And you can learn more about this in the next session. And with that, not our ladies and gentlemen and other genders would like to end with a song to thank you all. [00:31:00] He loves I Oh, yeah. Great. [00:31:30] Oh, as [00:32:00] what is that? Thank you very much.
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