The 3^rd Pacific Feminist Forum

By creating a space that is uniquely Pacific, the forum has enabled participants to address the distinctive challenges they face both in their countries and as a region – all while affirming and building on Pacific feminist knowledge. PFF provides an avenue for Pacific Island activists and civil society to organise and harness their collective power in pursuit of a more gender-equal region. In doing so, the forum is helping to unite local feminist movements to strengthen and amplify Pacific voices not just in the region but on the global stage.

Through this process, each National Feminist Forum was able to hold space for participants in all their diversity – whether they were self-avowed feminists, new actors in the gender space or seasoned professionals that had never considered themselves feminists before.

“For me, it's just fulfilling to really see this conversation happening at the national level because when we talk about women's movement and building the movement – these approaches will really strengthen it for the Pacific,” Lillian (FWRM) shared.

From these conversations, each country developed outcome statements outlining their vision of feminism and the priorities they wanted reflected at the regional convening, with the success of this process paving the way for more National Feminist Forums in the future. You can find more excerpts from the 11 National Outcome Statements on the Pacific Feminist Forum's socials.

The theme of this year’s PFF was ‘Embracing the collective power of our movements’. The forum kicked off with a celebration of two feminist powerhouses from the region, Shamima Ali, coordinator of the Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre, and Noelene Nabulivou, Political Advisor at DIVA for Equality. In their opening address, both acknowledged the tremendous work of Pacific women’s and human rights defenders while emphasising the importance of continued feminist solidarity in pushing the agenda for women’s rights in the Pacific.

The morning session was followed by presentations from the 11 Pacific Island countries who held National Feminist Forums before the group split into breakout sessions in the afternoon. Through these sessions, participants had the opportunity to network, learn from each other and hear directly from other activists in the region on the work they are doing to advance gender equality in their countries. This included discussions of intersecting issues affecting diverse women in their communities, such as sexual and reproductive health and rights, gender-based violence and feminist leadership.

On the agenda for Day 2 were morning plenary sessions following by breakout sessions where participants had the opportunity to discuss issues including climate justice, decolonisation and independence. During these sessions, Pacific feminists candidly shared their experiences and lived realities relating to these topics and strategised together on ways to bring these issues to the global stage.

By the end of Day 3, participants had developed an outcome statement that listed the demands of feminists and women human rights defenders in the Pacific, highlighting issues like decolonisation and identity, the growing climate crisis and accompanying displacement and the lack of women in leadership space in the region. Read the full outcome statement today on our website.

A Pacific event through and through, the forum ended with a night full of music, dancing and singing as participants came together to recognise each other’s contributions and celebrate the connections made over the past three days.

Over these three days, the 3^rd PFF created an opportunity for diverse activists from across the region to come together and carve out time for relationship-building, movement strengthening and strategising outside of their everyday. It offered a platform for Pacific knowledge to be heard, exchanged and valued and for issues that are critical to the region to be discussed in new and exciting ways.

With the backdrop of a rapidly changing – and increasingly challenging – global environment, spaces like the Pacific Feminist Forum are doing the essential work of allowing feminist activists and organisations to reach across movements to support each other’s’ work, amplify too-often-ignored voices and create change at a systemic level.

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The 3rd Pacific Feminist Forum is supported by the Australian Government through both the We Rise Coalition and Pacific Women Lead at Pacific-Community-SPC, and the European Union in the Pacific -UN Spotlight Initiative 

The 3rd PFF Working Group includes Sista, Brown Girl Woke, Pacific Disability Forum, Voice For Change, Kiribati Association of Non-Governmental Organisation, femLINKpacific and the Fiji Women’s Rights Movement.

Stay up to date on all the latest from the Pacific Feminist Forum through their Facebook, Instagram and Twitter pages.