Phylesha Brown-Acton Concern is emerging from organisations which focus on the health and welfare of glbti Pacific Island people that they were not invited to participate in the Human Rights In The Pacific conference which wound up at Massey University yesterday. Conference co-organiser Associate Professor Malakai Kolomatangi has commented on the lack of glbti content, saying the conference “looked at expressions of interest and tried to fill the gaps and tried to encourage particularly the NGOs to come... But we didn't get interest from [glbti] stakeholders.” However, three New Zealand-based activists and organisations contacted by GayNZ.com Daily News all say they were not aware of the conference and had no opportunity to participate. The New Zealand AIDS Foundation, which provides support for HIV/AIDS organisations in the Pacific Islands and has programmes reaching out to Pacific Islanders in New Zealand, says it was unaware of the conference and would have wanted to participate. “The social environment in which men who have sex with men live has a major impact on self-esteem, sexual and physical safety, mental health and the ability to talk openly about HIV and safe sex,” NZAF Executive Director Shaun Robinson says. "The homophobic positions taken in the legal environments in some Pacific countries influences attitudes and homophobia here in New Zealand. Achieving change in these Pacific countries will help to prevent and respond to HIV in NZ.” Phylesha Brown-Acton, an outspoken advocate and activist for glbti rights who is a board member of several gay organisations including the Auckland Pride Festival and the Asia-Pacific Outgames 2016 mega-event, is particularly incensed at the omission. “If you're going to start with advancing Human Rights in the Pacific, lets start with peoples who are disproportionately affected! Not those who sit with privilege and power!” In a challenge to the conference organisers she says “Lets remove archaic laws written by colonisers and lets begin to have the real conversations with those who are most vulnerable! Pasefika LGBTQI peoples are seen but not heard, are tolerated but not accepted, are at risk of being prosecuted for being themselves!” Tanu Gago, a facilitator of the Faf Swag project, a South Auckland Pacific Islander creative collective involved in gblti arts, advocacy and identity, particularly for young people, says they also were not contacted. “We have big aims and few resources but a little bit of Google or Facebook searching would have found us and I hope that anyone running events like this would be asking themselves: 'How can we build a meaningful relationship with them... can we at least have a discussion with these people and show that we value the work they are doing'.” Gago says there are not many NGOs specifically involved in Polynesian glbti issues “so you have to dig a little deeper to connect with what's here." But he says they exist and are eager to work with any other organisation to improve the lives of glbti Pacific youth here and in the Pacific Island nations. GayNZ.com Daily News has sent inquiries to two prominent Pacific Islands glbti advocacy organisations, based in Tonga and Fiji, and is awaiting their feedback. [Added 19 December 2014: A week after GayNZ.com approached by email the two organisations referred to above for comment we have received no response from either.] Footnote: GayNZ.com's reporter at the conference was at the last minute able to use a few minutes made available by Professor Kolomatangi to personally address delegates on the pressing need to improve the human rights position of gay people in the Pacific and its importance in laying a foundation for HIV education and prevention.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Thursday, 11th December 2014 - 9:25am