Slow pace to equality
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CHANGING what was set in stone requires slow but dedicated work by faithful individuals.
And this is how Unaisi Matawalu set about her mission of changing attitudes towards women in the Pacific.
According to a report in The Fiji Times on May 8, 1982, she worked as a women’s program co-ordinator for the Pacific Conference of Churches based in Suva.
The program was created as a direct result of women’s complaints, voiced at a regional consultation in 1976, that issues concerning them were often pushed aside by male church leaders as something less important.
She was appointed to look into women’s issues throughout the Pacific region in 1980 and Ms Matawalu had been on the go since, visiting 14-member bodies linked with PCC, from
At times it is women who hold themselves back for lack of faith and confidence in their own selves Ms Unaisi Matawalu
Tonga to Pohnpei listening to their problems and arranging meetings.
“I thank God for the willing spirit of Pacific women,” Ms Matawalu said.
“Working with them, I find it both challenging and educational.”
She said church women in the islands were on the move, working hard, walking long distances, and discussing and undertaking long and short-term projects.
“They are involved in the care of their families, they went to the market to sell produce, to the sea to fish, to the garden to plant, and to church to worship and clean up.”
She said there were signs of frustrations — and fear of what society was going to be like in the future.
“The present generation is better educated and their attitudes towards life and church are different from their parents and this has become a problem.
“The needs of women in various islands are very much the same, except for countries such as New Caledonia and Tahiti where they are struggling for independence and women are seeking liberation of the whole community from foreign powers.”
Ms Matawalu said she found women in each island country deeply involved in the struggle for recognition, equality and better education for women.
“But there are also some who believe in going slowly for they are brought up to be listening while men do the talking,” she said.
During one visit to the Marshall Islands, Ms Matawalu organised a workshop meeting ending with a questionnaire.
One question was whether women there wanted to see a woman pastor in the chair and they replied that they did not.
“At times it is women who hold themselves back for lack of faith and confidence in their own selves,” she said.
Ms Matawalu says the sharp rise in the cost of living has affected many women, changing their role from full-time housewives to full-time working mothers.
“This sometimes gives an extra burden to grandmothers. Some enjoy it; others are over-worked. I think we should develop respectful attitudes towards grandparents, to make their lives happier instead of using them for our own benefit.”
She said many traditional customs that keep women backward in places similar to Papua New Guinea were changing slowly through Bible studies.
She said the problem of unemployment was seen everywhere. Crime rate increased and youth delinquency was common and family problems were a daily event.
The remedy, she said, was faith.
She attended secondary education at Ratu Sukuna Memorial School in Suva before undertaking training to become a deaconess.
After her training she became a house-to-house preacher and also served a year at Levuka, Ovalau before furthering her studies at the Pacific Theological College in Suva.
In 1978 Ms Matawalu was sent to Geneva for ecumenical studies.
“This was the first time I went overseas and was a great experience,” Ms Matawalu said.
She visited several countries before returning home to become PCC women’s program co-ordinator.
THERE will no longer be any police roadblocks on Fiji roads, Acting Commissioner of Police Juki Fong Chew has announced.
He said the roadblocks would only be erected if “there is an urgent need.”
“We don’t want to create unnecessary inconvenience for the travelling public,” he said.
“And it’s about carefully assessing situations and asking if there is an urgent need or not.”
The Fiji Police Force Act of 1965 allows police to regulate and control traffic on a public road.
They have powers to stop and divert traffic when it is in the public interest do so, and also to maintain order on public roads so that obstructions are prevented.