Our rights across the Asia Pacific region – a snapshot

Paradise Camp (2021) explores the Faʻafafine experience including struggles and triumphs that comes with being part of Samoan culture, laws and customs. The following text written by Vaitoa Toelupe was presented as a keynote presentation at 2nd Asia Pacific Outgames, 17 March 2011.

Published with the permission of Vaitoa Toelupe.

Our rights across the Asia Pacific region – a snapshot

Vaitoa Toelupe

A keynote presentation presented at 2nd Asia Pacific Outgames, 17 March 2011
This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.

Vaitoa Toelupe: Thank you honorable ambassador for the introduction, and talofa everyone. "Ae oute lei utufia le vai sa male vai more na ite iai le Tagaloa. E muamua ona ou faapoipoi lilia ile paia mamalu ua e'e tai nei ile Maota. Iulou le fanua, le ele'ele ma ona tapu a fanua. Tulou na tagata a nu'u o Aotearoa. Tulou fo'i usu fono mai Asia male Pasefika. Tulou Samoa na lua le paia ma le mamalu ole "au malaga mai America Samoa ma Samoa, tulou, tulou, tulou lava."

Good morning ladies and gentlemen and distinguished delegations from across Asia and the Pacific. Thank you for this opportunity to hear the voices of the Pacific, and hopefully it will echo through this forum, through these hallways and across the vast Pacific Ocean so it may have an input and significant change in our purpose to advocate for our God-given, universally-declared, human rights.

As introduced, I am Vaitoa Toelupe, an Executive Member of the Samoa Fa'afafine Association, Incorporated. I am humbled to be given the opportunity to speak on behalf of our President, Roger To'oto'oalii Stanley, who could not be here today. Roger is one of the few fa'afafines who has been recently appointed at the Assistant Chief Executive Officer level for the Ministry of Women, Community and Social Development, an achievement the Samoa Fa'afafine Association is most proud of and is inspiring for most to follow. So, even though she is not here physically, she is with us in spirit, and it's a good thing she's not here because otherwise she would be snoring already in the front row, and asking when morning tea will be served.

[laughter]

But for those of you who know Roger, she may be snoring but if you're out of line she'll come back to life like a hungry lion, and considering her voluptuous Island delights, her attack is not a pretty sight. She is, after all, once, twice, three times a lady.

[laughter and applause]

It is probably one of our known attributes as fa'afafine: We say it as it is, with little consideration of how you perceive what is said. It is one of the reasons why we naturally become strong advocates for what we believe in, and in this gathering it happens to be our human rights.

I will speak today about human rights and the intricacies of navigating the minefield of traditional and cultural values versus the new-age laws and customs, and most importantly its relevance to the lives of fa'afafine.

Fa'afafine is a cultural identity. It is not a sexual identity. To understand the fa'afafine you must first understand fa'a Samoa, or Samoan culture. We are intrigued with the wealth of knowledge and learning from this conference, especially with the LGBT community, the history, the struggles and the finding the way forward. It is therefore necessary that the LGBT community has an opportunity to hear a perspective from a vulnerable group within a vulnerable group within a vulnerable group in Samoa called fa'afafine.

There is a Samoan saying: O Samoa ua uma ona tofi – Samoa has already been defined. The three main pillars of Samoa are culture, the church and its Constitution, or O le f'a'avae. Its social structure determines roles and responsibilities of each individual to uphold, to honor, respect and execute, to keep the stability and harmony and well-being of all. This definition of Samoan society predetermines the purpose of an individual and their entitlements. When a child is born, this child is born with its unique cultural identity and associated birth rights. They are the living continuum of family genealogy, heritage and history. They are heirs, or suli, to family land, 'ele'ele fanua; they are heirs to chiefly, matai title; and their birthright is to inherit all of the above plus the coconut tree and the mango tree in front of their house and fale – Samoan fale.

For the male, the tama, their identity is well established. They are the strength, o le malosi, the tautua, the pule, the authority.

For girls, or teine, they are the most sacred, or O le feagaiga tausi, o tama sa, auga faapaea. E osi taulaga ai tama tane i aso uma o latou ola. She is the covenant, the honor, upheld and protected by her brothers. E fa'amoemoe ai laina o gafa. From her womb our genealogy will continue. She is the provider, and the wealth of her family lies in her hands to protect and maintain. O pae ma uli. She is the peacemaker. It is the same identity given to Christianity as a founding principle in the Samoan culture.

Christianity was given the utmost respect, o le feagaiga, or the covenant, and the social structure will protect it and honor it as we do today.

Every Samoan inherits these rights from birth. It is why when a Samoan meets another Samoan the first questions are: What is your name? Where is your village? Who are your parents? What church do you come from? What land do you belong to? And never do we ask who or what do you sleep with?

Because of these cultural birthrights this is the basis of our existence. When a fa'afafine is born, like every Samoan boy a fa'afafine is an heir to land, matai title to the authority. It is our role to uphold family honor by preserving the covenants between boys and girls and God, o le va tapuia.

In their growth fa'afafines can also be providers and peacekeepers. It's the perfect cocktail of the two roles, and somewhat overprivileged, but it's inheritance that comes with a price. It is with these birthrights fa'afafines in Samoa have long enjoyed the Samoan people's sincere tolerance as they are children of the land and family. So, in my country, you, being Samoan, having the blood of your ancestors running through your veins, being a vessel to uphold family tradition and culture, having a purpose to care for your sisters and brothers and honoring your birthrights is your first measure as a human being. Me being fa'afafine is secondary, and so is what I do in bed.

Fa'afafines have sex with straight men. This is a fact, but it is not perceived a homosexual act, and this is the culture. This cultural identity is extremely important because it is the foundation to our approach to advocating for human rights. We fa'afafine are extremely proud of our culture, our place in Samoan society and recognition of our people is the reason we stand straight, we walk tall, we sing loud, and are often arrogant, thinking Samoa is bigger than Africa.

[laughter]

But our culture, the essence of our very being, is also our greatest enemy. The true test of Samoan people's tolerance was tested when sexual rights, sexual orientation, the term homosexual, homophobia, stereotypes, reproductive issues and marital preferences became apparent in the wake of the HIV and AIDS pandemic in the late 1980s. It severely challenged the status quo in the three pillars of Samoa. The culture became strongly influenced by labels, terminologies and its associated implications. Fa'afafine's embrace similar cultures such as drag artistry, entertainment and even gay lifestyles when travelling abroad. The unspoken fa'afafine having sex with men was immediately thrown under the microscope and our cultural identities became confused in the process.

The shameful realities of the silence with fa'afafine sexuality became more and more prevalent. Issues around child abuse and sexual exploitation of fa'afafine, generally by male family members, were unreported, and it was a fact Samoa had to face. Orientation by overseas experts focused on homosexuals and fa'afafine were immediately targeted because of assumed and apparent sexual orientation. It was the first time fa'afafines started to hear of LGBT.

The church: the fa'afafine community, despite its strong presence in church activities, became easy targets of the usual bullshit: You are an abomination and homosexuality is a sin, while ministers turn a blind eye to alcohol abuse, to crime, adultery, rape and murder.

For our constitution, pressures of consensual and nonconsensual homosexuality, and wearing and having articles of women's clothing on you in public was against the law and punishable by fines and imprisonment – a direct cut-and-paste, and what I like to call nip-and-tuck, from colonial New Zealand administration. In Roger's own words, "They say I'm breaking the law because I'm impersonating a woman. Well, show me a woman that looks like me."

[laughter and applause]

So, the realities of the sexuality of our cultural identities, tolerated by people before it became more apparent, was just as ugly and real as it is around the world. These realities you are too familiar with, which brings me to the second part of my address in which, with these surfacing realities and challenges, what did we do about it?

The fa'afafine community is a traditional part of the Ministry of Health since the initiation of the HIV Prevention Programme in 1987. It has established its role as the advocacy leaders that outreaches to the marginalized groups and those who cannot be reached by the official networks. It was the beginning of the fa'afafine movement. For the first time organized workshops and strategic gathering to discuss issues on health, sex and well-being for fa'afafine saw the potential with the fa'afafine community to take HIV and AIDS to the next level using nonconventional means of promotion. And for decades the Ministry of Health has capitalized on social and professional connections of fa'afafines to reach the marginalized and vulnerable groups.

This is where fa'afatama comes in. Because of the status of women culturally the fa'afatama community is not visible as a fa'afafine community. Their issues are often conservative and reserved within the comforts and security of their own families. Unlike fa'afafines who sometimes think they are in Hollywood, fa'afatama keep to themselves and keep their mamalu, their sacredness and their honor. Because their sexuality was also thrown under the radar, advocating for something that is not broken will probably go against them, so in one fa'afatama's words, "Let sleeping dogs lie." This is their preference and a position we must respect.

Prostitution and fa'afafines involved in casual, paid sexual activity also received an extended hand from the fa'afafine community, although this is never encouraged as an option for a full-time job in the Islands. There's a lot of land to work.

[laughter]

The awareness of HIV and AIDS and fa'afafine's taking the leading role eventuated in the establishment of the Samoa AIDS Foundation. Ken Moala is here today, and so is Teresa Apa were founding members of the HIV and AIDS agenda, and the HIV and AIDS agenda escalated to new heights.

By this stage in our movement the Samoa fa'afafine community was ready to take the bold step of establishing a collective to focus purely on vulnerable groups within vulnerable groups within vulnerable groups, and after cheap bourbon, as Tara puts it, and borrowed Coke at Roger's mansion, which could only fit five people, the greatest initiative of our time was conceived to establish the Samoa Fa'afafine Association. And sure enough, nine months later down the line the most beautiful, most manu manu bad, most beautiful Samoan Fa'afafine Association was born.

It gained instant political support with our Prime Minister as a patron, and instantly, vave, was in a position to make a stand. Fa'afafine's rights advocacy began to include the rights to our sexual orientation, our gender identity, cultural identity and gender expressions with the minor issues of same-sex relations, adoption and antidiscrimination.

Samoa Fa'afafine Association submitted last year a law, during a law-reform commission, to decriminalize punishment to homosexual activity and female impersonation. I am pleased to advise that the Samoan Law Reform Commission took onboard our submissions and recommended it to the government. We are waiting to hear the outcome of that exercise.

But nevertheless, we will still wake up every morning. We wear our puletasi, put on our big flowers and we go to work to provide for our families despite it being a crime. The police do what they want, do what they do, and we do what we do. It's like a mutual respect and understanding of our reliance on our gender expression as much as our reliance on our careers in order to support our families, just as the police do.

Sadly, the GLBT model is found wanting for us here because with the advent of HIV and AIDS in the Pacific, the issues are now often about sexuality and sexual acts, when for us, the fa'afafine and fa'afatama, we have this rich history in our heritage which we are woven into. Removing the association of our role to sexual acts, and in conjunction with the Samoan AIDS Foundation, we are making inroads into the general public in terms of making safe-sex acts campaigns a part of everyday life for all Samoans, not just fa'afafine. We are going back to our roots, our cultural identity and use that model instead of the GBLT model or the foreign terminologies. It's appropriating what works in our construct. Why should we use an outside model that will only insult and antagonize our elders, our culture, our people? It doesn't make any sense, and it is perhaps the reason why the sex-act models will continue to push an uphill battle in Samoa and the Pacific.

In our advocacy we want to make known the Yogyakarta Principles, as new as 2006, and we acknowledge their use, relevance to western societies or societies where there is consistent abuse and confusion in terms of citizenship, gender identity and sexual orientation, but because of its focus on gender identity and sexual orientation its application is flawed for us in the Pacific. We know our sexual orientation and so do all of our people. We know our place and our gender identity and so do all of our people. Our drive and strategic direction is for full steam ahead with capacity building for fa'afafine so they truly know their place in society. It's the only way they can contribute, by feeling a sense of pride, of belonging, to something that is part of you and your culture.

For us it's a long road from a humble beginning as a social gathering which then led to the formation of the Samoa Fa'afafine Association. And we are here, and we are humbled by the opportunity. So the question really is what do we want from this conference? We are able to share our cultural perspective and our cultural identity, but what do we really want from this conference? What do we want to achieve? And it's quite simple, and I think we have three main agendas that we want to push through.

One is funding. Funding, funding, funding, with the proper support structure to work with us on relevance of policies that work in our culture, in our context. We don't want you to give up on us. Real value is based on gathering real evidence. As a movement we need to hold you donors and people who are responsible for providing this funding accountable, but we must also determine if your structure and policies are effective and applicable in our context.

Two, AsiaPacific needs to be inclusive of the Pacific in bold, otherwise don't use the Pacific if you never want to see a fa'afafine again.

[laughter]

Officially include our cultural identities – this is the third point – in the documentation, in the language and the advocacy. We respect LGBT, but if the only excuse is adding all the names is too long, like commonly said, then let it be so. Have 10 papers with all the names; that's what we want.

Our world, yours and mine, is in trouble, and there is no argument at all. We live in a society bloated and filled with data and information. We ride the sub-highway of Facebook and Twitter and emails, yet we are starved for wisdom. We're connected to each other 24/7 through technology, yet we are filled with anxiety, fear, depression and loneliness, issues which are at an all-time high. Don't you feel or grieve with me that we need a correction in our course? The link between the past and the future is very fragile, especially more so for us in the Pacific. Our forefathers fought for our human rights; it's why we want to continue the battle.

So in closing I would like to offer you this: The AsiaPacific, we would like to see it as our canoe. Our people are the voyagers. True navigation begins in the human heart. It's the most important map of all. Together we can do it. Together we can genuinely help each other. There is nowhere else to go, and this is the message for our Pacific delegation and for everyone here today – there is nowhere else to go. What we are looking for is right here. What we are looking for is right here.

I would like to thank the Netherlands Government, the United States Government and also the Government of New Zealand for inviting us here today, and having the opportunity to sponsor our participation. We are very grateful. Thank you very much.

[applause]