Solomon Islands Women Tell Their Story

Wednesday, 17 March 2010, 10:51 am
Press Release: Pacific Media Centre

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Solomon Islands Women 'Barrier Breakers' Tell Their Story

http://pacific.scoop.co.nz/2010/03/solomon-islands-women-barrier-breakers-tell-their-stories/

By Josephine Latu

AUCKLAND (Pacific Scoop/Pacific Media Watch): When Solomon Islanders at the launch of Being the First were each handed a copy of the book, the general reaction was one of “awe”.

The book is the first ever to document the lives of leading Solomon Island women from their own point of view, and the first published historical account of achievements by local women over the past 50 years.

It will be launched in New Zealand later today at AUT University.

“They all kind of picked it up and held it close to them – bringing it to their chest. It was quite emotional,” says Suzanne Bent-Gina in Honiara, describing how women responded when given a copy of the book to keep – free.

Bent-Gina, deputy director of the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands’ (RAMSI) Machinery of Government programme, helped organise the book project as part of its component on women in government.

A former Prime Minister and current Solomon Islands Speaker of Parliament, Sir Peter Kenilorea, introduced the book to a packed house, where many were village women who came in the capital for the International Women’s Day celebrations.

Five of the 14 women featured in the book, along with the sister of the late Phyllis Taloikwai, also profiled, read extracts from their chapters.

“They were all very emotional and proud when they spoke,” says AUT’s professor Marilyn Waring of the Institute of Public Policy, who co-edited the manuscript with Malaita-born Dr Alice Aruhe’eta Pollard.

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