Fijian Social Activist Ahead Of Her Time
The Age
Wednesday July 13, 2005
AMELIA ROKOTUIVUNA TRAILBLAZER 7-8-1941 - 2-6-2005
AMELIA Rokotuivuna, a woman of extraordinary energy, passion and ability, who dedicated her life to promoting peace, democracy and social justice, has died from cancer in Suva, Fiji, aged 63.Amelia Vakasokolaca Rokotuivuna was born in the gold mining town of Vatukoula, and went on to become head girl of Adi Cakobau School, Fiji's most prestigious college for girls. In time, she was to become a community leader far ahead of her time.She was a founder of the Young Women's Christian Association in Fiji, joining Australians Ruth Lechte and this writer in 1962 to begin the programs of an activist organisation that worked for peace and democracy in a multicultural Fiji.In 1967 she was awarded a diploma in social administration and development from the University of Swansea in Wales, and returned to become general secretary of the Fiji YWCA in 1973.For the next two decades, Rokotuivuna led the fight on issues such as equal rights for women, a nuclear-free Pacific, political reform, and multiculturalism. She was also a strong advocate for those without a voice, and never shirked from reminding the great and powerful of their obligations to the poor and disadvantaged in her country.Referring to Rokotuivuna's charismatic leadership of the YWCA and powers of persuasion during those years, Dr Wadan Narsey, formerly an economics lecturer at the University of the South Pacific and regular columnist with the Fiji Times, wrote: "As an Indo-Fijian non-Christian male, I found myself on YWCA committees on issues such as economic justice, constitutional reform, the anti-nuclear movement and numerous other important issues of the time."In keeping with her anti-nuclear beliefs, Rokotuivuna led the movement against French nuclear testing at Mururoa atoll, which is part of French Polynesia in the southern Pacific, where France conducted nuclear tests between 1966 and 1996. She took centre stage at the non-governmental meeting held in parallel with the first United Nations world conference on women in Mexico City in 1975, and spoke out against nuclear testing; she raised the world's awareness about the continuing abuse of the Pacific and its peoples by nuclear powers.She also helped to stop the Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet from flying through Fiji to Asia.But her real character came to the fore during the coups in Fiji in May 1987 and again in May 2000 - the first by the army's Sitiveni Rabuka against a coalition government led by Dr Timoci Bavadra, and secondly, by George Speight, whose armed followers held members of the Labor government hostage in Suva for 56 days.Rokotuivuna, among others, was imprisoned briefly for her beliefs; she defied many of her own people to commit to a multicultural, tolerant and caring vision of Fiji.From 1992 to 1995 she worked as program secretary for advocacy for the World YWCA in Geneva. At the time of her death she was president of the Fiji YWCA board of directors and a lecturer at USP.Rokotuivuna is one of the five women from the Pacific among the 1000 women nominated on June 29 for the 2005 Nobel peace prize.She leaves a son, Peceli, who continues her work as a community activist, brothers Apisalome (Mudu) and Sevuloni, sister Veniana and their families, and the family of her dead sister, Manaini.Anne Walker, AM, prepared this tribute with excerpts from eulogies by Fiji senator 'Atu Emberson Bain, and the Vice-President of Fiji, Ratu Joni Madraiwiwi.
© 2005 The Age