A Samoan Woman's Missionary Journey: Paddling against the Tide
Date added: 28/06/2017
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A Samoan Woman’s Missionary Journey
Paddling against the tide: O le asaina o le tai fana’e
By Rev Marie Ropeti, Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has chosen me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free the oppressed.” Luke 4:18
This text connects the mission of Jesus to the plight of women in the Congregational Christian Church in Samoa (CCCS) and provides a preface to this paper which argues that CCCS women are being captivated and oppressed from getting opportunities in leadership and decision making. It coincides with what Carter alludes to: that “the world’s discrimination and violence against women and girls is the most serious, pervasive, and ignored violation of basic human rights.”[i]
Introduction
This paper examines how the Congregational Christian Church in Samoa (CCCS) has responded to the issue of women’s rights in ministry, and how church practice and attitudes have influenced the status of women in Samoan families, churches and society. Although the churches, in particular the CCCS, talk a great deal about women’s liberation and empowerment, the reality is the church has not succeeded in following it. I wish to begin by offering some testimony of my experience in church and society in Samoa.
My experience in church and society.
As children we were taught that Jesus loves us all in the same way regardless of gender. As I grew older and learned the scripture with my church family, we were told that God created people in his image as male and female. (Genesis 1:27) God gave them a Paradise called Eden. But when people disobeyed; God’s relationship with them was broken. Then God re-established this relationship through Jesus on the cross as he died for all people irrespective of any barriers.
My father was called the pastor and my mother the “back house” (faletua) in our church community. Church life was the centre of our existence. As children we were told to memorise several Bible verses such as the Ten commandments, Jesus’ sermon on the mountain, Psalm 1, 23, and 121 among others. It was not until I responded to God’s call to be a minister that I came to realise that the institution called my church, has ‘do’s’ and ‘don’ts’ that played a major role in creating barriers to show discrimination against women in church, and hindering the fulfilment of women’s potential in church ministry.
I grew up in a church where women have been excluded from professional ministry. But this was not seen as exclusivity by the church. As I observed, I learned that for many years women have been placed on a lower tier in Samoan society. Women even internalised it as their reality. During my school years, I observed women who believed that this is not true and who fought for recognition in science, business and professional sectors. In the last 100 years or so, women have begun to claim their rightful place alongside men in the professional realm. The CCCS has not kept up with this movement and leaders in ministry have traditionally been male dominated. This mind-set has partially been broken down and women have graduated with equal qualifications to their male counterparts. But even today, women are still struggling to receive acknowledgement and recognition from the church.
Samoan women have begun to challenge the church’s position concerning the issue of women’s ordination, in raising the voice of women in the academic arena. In a paper presented by Mercy Maliko, she suggested the gender relational hermeneutical approach based on the Samoan value of fetausia’i (relational caring) as a framework for understanding and practising gender equality in Pacific churches and communities. (2016)[ii] This approach is helpful in identifying the specific ideological positions within theology, doctrine, or church tradition that create barriers for women.
Arguably, the actual elimination of women from official roles within the church institution does not eliminate women's actual presence and importance in Christian tradition, although it certainly seriously damages women’s capacity to contribute fully.
Female: Why do you think our church is so adamant about not ordaining
women to the ministry?
Male: Why do you insist on being ordained? You are a woman and our church has not accepted women to be pastors.
Female: Do you believe that my call to the ministry is similar to your call despite the fact that you are a man and I am a woman?
Male: Well it’s been known in our story that the Samoan culture and the Gospel both support the view of the church that ordination should be for men only.
Female: Okay, let me take you on a journey to see if the church is true to its cultural proposition and biblical interpretation.
In order to understand the dynamics of gender roles within CCCS, the next sections will examine the history of Samoan women before and after Christianity. This information raises awareness concerning the current attitudes and situations within church and society.
Historical Samoan Woman
The importance of women in traditional Samoan society is portrayed in the lives of the selected women in this paper. This is to show that women were highly respected and occupied responsible positions in historical Samoa. They were called upon to mobilize their skills as great leaders conjointly with their male counterparts. The traditional priesthood, for instance, embraces both women and men each in her/his own right as a person. [iii] These are clearly recorded in the legends of Nafanua and Salamasina. [iv]
The Story of Nafanua[v]
Nafanua. A warrior and goddess; a woman of courage.
In those days, the people of Falealupo lived as slaves of the two powerful tribes. Nafanua heard the agony of her people all the way over in Pulotu where she lived, and this was how she learned that her parents’ village was in bondage. Nafanua appealed to her father Saveasiuleo, “How can I avenge the defeat of my people? I can hear them suffering up there, and I must go and help them.” Saveasiuleo replied, “Very well, my dear. I shall give you war clubs which will help you to avenge the defeat of our people.” She took with her two people to the battle from the village of Falealupo Matuna and Matuna. When the battle began. Nafanua and the couple–Matuna and Matuna, were joined by a huge host of spirits in the form of dragonflies and cicadas, just as Nafanua had promised. Together they killed untold numbers of their opponents and drove the remaining enemy force east. Nafanua continued in pursuit of the enemy.
As the Salega people were resting up and catching their breath on their malae, they looked up at Nafanua and shocked at what they saw. A gust of wind had lifted her coconut-leaf breast plate and exposed her breasts for all to see. A woman, the enemy were totally shocked and mortified. The fierce warrior who had defeated and driven them back into their own district turned out to be a woman. They were so totally shamed by this, that their malae came to be known as the Malae o le Ma (The Field of Shame).
After her victory Nafanua returned to Falealupo. She lived at Analega, near the mountain ridge behind Falealupo. The villagers paid homage by sending her food, and word spread to the rest of Samoa that Nafanua had established herself as a ruling chief. From all over Samoa, chiefs travelled to Falealupo to pay homage to her. When the orators and chiefs from around the country heard about the power of Nafanua, they went to her seeking for a part of her government (Malo). Chiefs from Leulumoega arrived, they immediately lifted Nafanua’s house and took it from Analega to the malae (meeting green) of Falealupo. The Leulumoega chiefs prepared to depart for Upolu Island. Before they left Nafanua spoke to them, “You will return to Upolu with the new head of state there, but one day I will come and set up the first post of the Malo (government) at Maauga and Nuuausala. Be prepared for my arrival, or you will not achieve the Malo for which you came to me. I will stay here but will pray for the successful establishment of the Malo in days to come.” Whereupon, the Leulumoega chiefs departed for their island.
Malietoa Fitisemanu heard that Nafanua had established her Malo, so he and Su’a, another chief, travelled to Falealupo to seek positions in the new Malo. When they arrived, Nafanua said, “Malietoa, you have come, but I have already given away the ‘head’ and ‘body’ of the Malo. Only the ‘tail’ of the Malo is left. You shall take it with you and await a Head for your Malo from Heaven.” Translated (Saili i le lagi se ao o lou Malo) Malietoa was satisfied, so he returned to his land. It was Malietoa’s son, Malietoa Vainupo, who was to be the catalyst for Nafanua’s prophecy to manifest, when he accepted Christianity into Samoa,that was, receiving a ‘Head’ to his Malo from heaven.
The Story of Salamasina
Salamasina was known in the history for her power and charms. Her blood connections with the many families in Samoa qualified her to be bestowed the four main district titles of Tui A'ana, Tui Atua, Gatoaitele, and Tamasoalii. According to Schoeffel, "The bestowal of the four titles upon her thus recognized her genealogical and titular paramouncy in the land, which entitled her to be addressed as o le Tafa'ifa ('four sided' or 'one supported by four'). This was not a title in itself, but the term given from that time on to chiefs, who by holding the four papa, could claim to be o le tupu o Samoa the paramount chief of Samoa."[vi]
Most of the historical commentators on Samoa — for example Otto Stuebel,George Pratt, Augustin Krämer — mention the celebrated struggle between Tui Atua Fogaoloula and Tui Atua Foganiutea in the 15th century. The aftermath of their quarrel provides a crucial link between the lady Salamasina and the district of Atua.[vii]
Salamasina's historical significance was that she was the means of drawing together all the great aristocratic bloodlines and links to supernatural power in a period of political transformation, to create a basis of legitimacy for the new power brokers of Samoa, the orator group Tumua of A'ana and Atua. Schoeffel reported that for the next four centuries or so, they were to manipulate the new dynasty she gave birth to through control of the paramount titles which they were empowered to bestow.[viii]
In the stories of Nafanua and Salamasina, women enjoy a much higher status and respect than they do in the church which is supposed to be sent to proclaim and be God's agent of liberation in and through Christ of all oppressed and marginalised persons. If in the Samoan religious tradition women were priests and ministered well to the community, then why not today?
It may be confidently asserted that it is more correct to speak of complementary roles which the Samoan society expects of sexes in order to serve the greater purpose of enhancing society's effectiveness. Words of comparison as inferior and superior are out of place in the Old Samoan context: they represent the importation of western attitudes into a context to which they do belong. Women in traditionally Samoan society play diverse roles. They may be leaders, wielding considerable influence in the state as in the case of Salamasina. They may be priestesses, being as prominent as men in the conduct of religious affairs or practitioners of medicine or mediums. Then there are female deities whose role in society is recognized by both sexes as in the case of Nafanua. The most significant of these are the earth goddesses: the half human half spirit humans in the forms of Telesa and Saumaiafe. [ix]
Women as Feagaiga (Covenants)
In Samoa, a woman in her family is called a feagaiga ‘covenants’ and a tamasa ‘sacred child’. These attributes gave Samoan women sacred power and they were highly respected in their families and villages.[x] The sacred covenant of respect between a brother and a sister, within their family, gives special honour to the sister and reciprocal tribute to the brother. The special relationship between brother and sister clearly illustrates a view of the world that denotes encompassment and mutual respect for the other. In this covenantal relationship, both parties have obligations that dictate their behaviour towards each other. A brother’s obligations are based on the Samoan belief that the sister as feagaiga is a tamasa or ‘sacred offspring’. In traditional Samoan theology, sisters were regarded as vessels of divinity with powers to attract the supernatural. The brother therefore is required to serve and care for his sister as long as he lives.[xi] According to Samoan belief, to ignore the wishes of the tamasa would lead to misfortune, sickness, or death of a family member.[xii] Traditionally women play vital roles in religion and contribute their share to community worship life. It is a bit confusing to talk about the progress or regression of women's role in religion, be it traditional or Christian, without some knowledge of what women did in the traditional society. In Samoan traditional religion, the salvific ministry associated with acts of healing, driving away evils spirits, promoting fertility and encouraging success in life's ventures was performed by priestesses and priests alike.
These persons who officiate at communal worship do get their training under instruction of a chief-priestess or priest of the particular deity. They, like those in the Christian ministry, have been called by the deity. They have to obey or face dire consequences. In Samoan traditional religion therefore, women professionals existed. They can be equated to ministers, pastors and priests in the Christian churches and they undergo a period of training for their offices. It would be ideal to continue supporting this positive side of the role of the woman in Samoa but unfortunately it is impossible because most of the observers and even Samoans themselves realize that a discriminative role of the woman is a common reality.
Impact of Christianity and Colonial Idealogy.
The missionary society that worked in Samoa adopted an evangelical theology of mission, which was consonant with the ideology of domesticity as Elizabeth Langland explored.[xiii] This ideology defined woman as complementary to man, physically inferior but morally superior.[xiv] In refuting this claim, Latu Latai presents a crucial point that “Missionaries, in their efforts to ‘uplift’ the status of women, emphasised the role of women as mothers and wives while downplaying their sacred and powerful role as feagaiga ‘covenant’”.[xv]
Schoeffel observed that the missionaries imposed their own models of gender upon Samoan women based on Victorian ideals that promoted the roles of women as maternal and domestic[xvi]. These ideals were portrayed by the wives of missionaries who allegedly served as the perfect role models of the ideal woman to be emulated by their local counterparts. Women were supposed to be more affectionate, selfless, dependent and devout by nature. The woman’s sphere was the home, which was a refuge from the public realm, in which men competed for money and power. Since most mission agencies had adopted this ideology, they saw women as very significant in the creation of Christian families. Mission work among and for women was therefore influenced by the ideology of separate spheres which transpires in the work of Beebe, Davis and Gleade which defined the notions of ‘space, work, gender and power’. [xvii]
Missionary wives disseminated the ideology of separate spheres through home visitations, sewing lessons, childcare, cookery and prayer meetings. Ideas of domesticity were also carried into the formal education of girls, the aim of which was to make them good Christian mothers, and enable them to enter professions such as teaching if circumstances allowed.
The methods and philosophy of missionary education were influenced by the ideologies of separate spheres for men and women. When mission agencies thought about education for women they started from a fixed image of the degraded Samoan woman. Given this presumed idea of female degradation, it is not surprising that the reasons given by missionaries for taking women into their care and giving them simple literacy skills were couched in the language of moral rescue.
The other aim of mission work was to prepare Christian wives for Christian men, thus creating Christian families. To this end, women’s education included childcare and hygiene. In childcare, women were given instruction on nutrition and different feeding methods. This culminated in the preparation of Christian homes, which were seen as being important places for moral and spiritual training. As Gunson reported; “Mission work with and for women was designed in such a way that women should become wives, mothers and guardians of the family and the home.”[xviii] All this was based on the notion that maternal influence was of social value to society at large and the kingdom of God.
Missionary work among women was influenced by the position of women missionary agencies as Simone de Beauvoir argued that because men view women asfundamentally different from themselves, women are reduced to the status of the second sex and hence subordinate (Beauvior 1974).[xix] This fact had no small effect on missionary efforts among the Samoan female population. Women’s work was not mission as such but merely an appendage to it. It produced what are today very strong women’s organizations in the churches. These are the backbone of the denominations and some are portrayed as against the ordination of women.
Role of women in the Church today
The overwhelming presence of Samoan women in the churches, demonstrates the fact that the Church is sustained by their unceasing devotion. Nevertheless, men take up the paid and officially recognized leadership positions. Even if they are in the majority in their churches, women continue to be subjected to a subordinate role, with their presence and their needs not fully recognized. Women cannot be ignored in their church participation. In view of Jesus’ ministry to the oppressed, the church has continuously supported and perpetuated the unjust social institution customs and myths which the church itself should evaluate. One finds that the church is more rigid than the secular society in her approach to gender issues. For instance, the society has opened up avenues for women to participate in any sphere of the society which the church has still kept some roles as men's roles.
Women play a very great role in their church. For example, the majority of women choose to be Sunday school teachers, leaders in women’s groups and they are proven to be leading a good family life. They lead choirs and prayers meetings. They maintain their Church and see that the values are kept and respected. They also maintain the cleanliness of their Church. Also, women have a major role to play when it comes to main functions because they are the ones who prepare food for the whole group.
In the CCCS women take on various tasks. We find women playing important roles in the life of the Church. They are usually the ones who connect the family to the ecclesiastical life and also keep it alive. They are responsible for the preparations of the elements of sacraments such as baptism, marriage, burial, and the holy communion. On very special prayer days, one will see almost only women in the church. Still today in the church, women are the ones who dare to make the link to the church and to bring their families closer to God in that way. For many people, women were the initiators of their spiritual life – their mothers, grandmothers, godmothers, elder sisters.
Role of women in the Society
The tamaitai, or daughters of the matai or of the village are the most privileged group within the extended family and within the village, and are known as the feagaiga. As female heirs to matai titles, they have rights equal to male heirs concerning access to and use of the family or customary lands held in trust by the matai. The tamatai Samoa knows she has this right. But if the tamaitai marries and decides to reside with her own family she and her husband automatically have access to land for cultivation and for earning their livelihood. If a tamaitai, who has married and gone to live with her husband’s family, divorces or her husband dies, then, again, she can return to her own people secure in the knowledge that she has ready access to her aiga land and permission to build a house and cultivate for her sustenance.
The wives of matai are called faletua and tausi. The relative status of the females in this group depends on the status of their husbands. The faletua and tausi are tamaitai of other villages and other extended families who function as ‘in-laws’, spouses of the chiefs and orators in the village into which they have married. Formally, the faletua and tausi have no land rights in the village of their husbands other than the right of use of land for the duration of the marriage. Any influence they might bring to bear in the matter of land is only through the personal pressure they might exert on their husbands, the matai. [xx]
The wife of the church pastor is called faletua. A woman who is married to a pastor will face expectations about her role in the congregation that have nothing to do with how she is gifted by God. A pastor’s wife states that “Her role is basically the same as any other wife in the church to honour and support their husband. As a pastor’s wife she will not be necessarily employed by the church but would utilise her God given gifts to volunteer in different areas of ministry where her husband see fit. She then went on to say that her priorities are to God first, then to her husband and children, and then to the members of the church.”
Women in Samoan government
In the past and recent years the Samoan government has pushed for several initiatives for women. A Ministry of Women’s Affairs was established in the early 1990s; a forum for women representatives from each village was established in the late 1990s; and the government has adopted international conventions that support and protect the rights of women. [xxi] The same trend has taken place in relation to employment for women. While the matter hardly featured in the concerted development effort that immediately followed independence in 1962, there is no doubt that employment opportunities and conditions for women were certainly on the agenda in the early 1990s; since then this thinking and trend has continued to evolve. An initiative in the Samoan parliamentary process to increase the number of women in parliament was introduced at the most recent elections.[xxii]
My own observation of the church and society in Samoa at its appearance confirms the fact that the practices within village councils and mainstream churches deter women from assuming leadership roles. Therefore, only few women aspire to parliamentary careers, and hardly any of those who do, are elected. Thus, this may also economically disempower women in village life, and women playing leading roles in the urban economy.
Conclusion
To take seriously the culture and history of the Samoan women means that one will seek to use her experience in the development of one's missional perspective. It means that one will try to do mission in such a way that the Samoan women themselves will understand what one is saying and doing and why? History has it that the church too cannot be freed from the sin of imposing unspeakable prejudices on women. This has been evident in what Jagger and Rosenberg (1984) shared; “that patriarchal and hierarchical church structures elevate the role and status of males and allocate women to inferior role and status.”[xxiii]
Truly, the church is not doing justice to the mission of the church, as exemplified in Jesus’ mission of love and justice for all. Consequently, the church has persistently and systematically excluded women from ordained ministry. A role that can only be performed by an ordained male minister.
We can see from this report that the Samoan woman has a lot to say about this topic of the Christian mission. As Christians, we are called to preach good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free the oppressed. In the work of Asian and Pacific writers on ordination, it has been viewed that all through the ages the church has not been fair to women in its assigning of roles as societies would like to assume.
Let us take the Samoan culture for example. If in the culture of feagaiga the sister had the freedom to counsel her family, why is it that she cannot be ordained to preach the good news about Jesus Christ to her family which is the church? Although the church still operates on stereotypes that view persons basically as men and women; changes happening globally and internationally require the leaders of churches to reconsider their envisioning of mission to include women as co-workers and not just helpers to men.
Inspiring developments are facing women in the churches today as the global Christian communities assert fresh opportunities for women that impact on the life of the CCCS to the issue of ordained women. As women claim their rights to be ministers of the church, the church still set up walls and creates excuses using the Samoan culture and the Gospel.
An example of this was the wall created in 2012 when a Samoan woman who was ordained in the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand and a wife of a CCCS pastor was inducted to work in a Presbyterian Parish in Auckland. The Elders of the CCCS in Samoa after hearing a report about the event decided to strip the pastor of his ministerial credentials and ordered that the covenant between the pastor and his parish be broken immediately on the basis that this was unconstitutional and not in line with Samoan church protocol. In a letter presented to the couple about the reasons for the decisions made by the elders it stated that; “The cause of the elder’s action was because the pastor has allowed his wife to be inducted to another parish when he knew it is not church policy.”
This case reflects the attitude of the CCCS leaders towards women’s ordination and the expectation that the male leaders have of their wives. It is in line with what Latai conveyed that “the ordination of women has been viewed by the church as disrupting the vital relationship between the pastoral couple and the village and their appropriate spheres of activities”[xxiv] that men are the heads of the families and women are the helpers.
Ordination as this paper presents is for women to be given the same opportunity for ordination as it is freely given to men. If women choose to be a wife so be it. But if women choose to be ordained at least the choice is available. In relation to the culture and people’s lifestyle, the church leaders ought to pick up this challenge if they are serious about the mission of Jesus.
References:
1. Jimmy Carter, A Call to Action: Women, Religion, Violence, and Power, Simon & Schuster; 1st edition, 2014. Quote is from a public presentation offered at Yale University, Tuesday, December 2nd, 2014 based on his book.
2. Mercy Maliko, Fetausia’i (Reciprocal Caring) as a Relational Hermaneutical Approach for Gender Equality in the Pacific Churches” Paper presented at Pacific Council of Churches Conference. Pacific Theological College, Suva, Fiji (June, 2016).
3. George Turner Samoa, A Hundred Years Ago and Long Before: A Study of a Polynesian Society before the Advent of European Influence. R McMillan, New Zealand 1983. Pg 78.
4. Penelope Schoeffel, Daughters of Sina: A Study of Gender, Status and Power in Western Samoa. (Phd Thesis, Australian National University, Canberra, 1979); F J H
5. Malopa’upo Isaia, Coming of Age in American Anthropology: Margaret Mead and Paradise, P 39
6. Schoeffel, 1979.
7. Salamasina’s historical significance was that she was the means of drawing together all the great aristocratic bloodlines and links to supernatural power in a period of political transformation, to create a basis of legitimacy for the new power brokers of Samoa, the orator group Tumua of A’aana and Atua. For the next four centuries or so, they were to manipulate the new dynasty she gave birth to through control of the paramount titles which they were empowered to bestow (Schoeffel, P., and Daws, G., Rank, Gender and Politics in Asian Samoa: The Geneology of Salamasina, O Le Tapaifa. Journal of Pacific History 22; pg 174-194)
8. Malama Meleisea, Lagaga: A short history of Western Samoa, University of the South Pacific, Suva. 1987 pg 191
9. Jeannette Marie Mageo, Cultural Memory: Reconfiguring History and Identity in the Postcolonial Pacific, University of Hawaii Press, 2001. pg 60, 70, 72.
10. Schoeffel, Sisters and Wives: The dual status of women in Samoa, MA Thesis, Australian National University, Canberra. 1975.
11. There are several sayings in the Samoan language that bear out this service or tautua: O le ioimata i le mata o le tuagane lona tuafafine (The sister is the pupil of the eye of the brother) and E mu mata o le tama i lona tuafafine (The brother’s face burns for his sister). These sayings speak of the respect shown in this relationship where sisters are given privileged treatment. All of the brother’s services given to the sister must be agreeable to her, for it is generally believed that the sister has the power to curse him if she is not pleased. Sisters as sacred beings were therefore highly revered and feared.There are several sayings in the Samoan language that bear out this service or tautua: O le ioimata I le mata of le tuagane lon tuafafine (The sister is the pupil of the eye of the brother) and E mum mata o le tama I lona tuafafine (The brother’s face burns for his sister). These sayings speak of the respect shown in this relationship where sisters are given privileged treatment. All of the brother’s services given to the sister must be agreeable to her, for it is generally believed that the sister has the power to curse him if she is not pleased. Sisters as sacred beings were therefore highly revered and feared.
12. H., Cain, The Sacred Child and the Origin of Spirits in Samoa, Anthropos Institute, 1971 pp173-181.
13. E., Langland, “Nobody’s Angels,” Middle-Class women and Domestic Ideology in Victorian Culture, Cornell University Press, 1900Grimshaw 1989; Huber and Lutkehaus 1999; Langmore 1989.
14. Grimshaw, P, (1989), New England missionary wives, Hawaiian women and “the cult of true womanhood,” In M. Jolly & M. Macintyre (Eds), Family and Gender in the Pacific: Domestic contradictions and the colonial impact (pp. 19-44). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1989.
15. Latai Latu, “Changing Convenats in Samoa: From Brothers and Sisters to Husbands and Wives: Oceania, Vol. 85 Issue 1 2015. Pg 92
16. Schoeffel 1979
17. Journal – Women’s History Review, Volume 21, 2012 – Issue 4: Spaace, Palce and Gendered Identities: Introduction: Space, Place and Gendered: feminist history and the spatial turn, Kathryn Beebe, Angela, Davis & Kathryn Gleadle, Published online August 2012.
18. Neil Gunson, Messengers of Grace evangelical missionaries in the South Seas, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1978. Pg 324
19. D. S., Beauvoir, The Second Sex, Vintage Books: New York. 1974.
20. Extracted from: ‘Role of Womena and Rural Fisheris Development: A Case Study of Auala-Savaii by Tasha Shon. A major research project finding as part of a GE304 ‘Resource Management and Conservation’ assignment, 1997. SPC Women-in-Fisheries Information Bulletin #2 – March 1998
21. Women in Samoa’s Civil Service, Asenati Liki Chan Tung, The University of the South Pacific., Desmond Uelese Amosa, Pacific Islands Centre for Public Administartion, Tuiloma Susana Taua’a, National University of Samoa., Small States Digest Issue 1, 2013.
22. Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Pacific Women Shaping Pacific Development; Increasing Political Participation of Women in Samoa, Supporting Pacific Leaders Gendre Equality Declaration Commitments, Australian Government, 2014.
23. M. A., Jagger, S. P., Rosenberg, Feminist Frameworks, MC Grew-Hill: New York, 1984.
24. Latai, 2015, pg 101
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