Peace in the Pacific

A UQ researcher explains why policies and programs aren’t curbing extreme rates of violence against women of the Pacific Islands

Image credit: Getty Images/helivideo

Image credit: Getty Images/helivideo


With two decades of experience researching women’s rights in the Pacific, Associate Professor Nicole George was well placed to tackle the region's domestic violence problem. Looking at the issue from all angles, she came up with a two-step plan.


Domestic violence in the Pacific is a sensitive topic, in a region where tensions around the issue are high.

School of Political Science and International Studies Associate Professor Nicole George knew she needed a careful approach if she was going to help end its scourge on society.

“With so many women living with violence, I knew asking women directly about their experiences risked forcing the reliving of too many traumatic events,” she said.

“There is a taboo around these issues too. So, I also had to have these discussions in a way that would not endanger women by participating in a study.”

The Pacific is a region with a history of acceptance when it comes to violence against women.

“Fijian men use the idle hours of the Sunday Sabbath to kick either a football or their wife around”.
Former Fijian Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka

In 1994, then Fijian Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka told a crowd of fellow Pacific leaders that “Fijian men use the idle hours of the Sunday Sabbath to kick either a football or their wife around”.

This remark, meant as a joke, says a lot about women and violence in the Pacific Islands of the early 90s.

“His joke was cited in the media and women were outraged because it shows the political acceptance of violence towards women at this time,” George said.

“In the next 10–15 years, Pacific Island governments began to change their view and wanted to be seen as doing something about this issue.”

Policy reform, support services and more funding for non-government organisations working with women in crisis were seen across the Pacific.

“There was stronger legislation and harsher criminal penalties for violence against women.”

Image credit: Getty Images/Blaine Harrington III

Carved posts (totem poles), St. Maurice Bay, near Vao, Ile des Pins (Isle of Pines), New Caledonia.

It seemed like a good news story. But there was a problem.

“The violence against women was persisting. Even today, rates are still very high,” says George.

“My sense was something was going wrong. We see a lot of rhetoric and policy innovation, but we don’t see rates falling. That was my puzzle.”

George believed that a two-step plan to tackle the problem from a policy and institutional perspective could finally help tackle the problem.

“First, you have to look at the institutions and how policies are formulated, implemented and resourced,” she said.

“But I also wanted to see if institutional changes actually filter down to the thinking of an everyday woman.”


“My sense was something was going wrong. We see a lot of rhetoric and policy innovation, but we don’t see rates falling. That was my puzzle.”
Associate Professor Nicole George

George decided on a method known as photo-elicitation strategy to help navigate some of these ethical challenges.

Working with Fijian community theatre troupe Women’s Action for Change, she began by developing a book of photos.

“I would say to the troupe: we know from the literature that this scenario triggers gender tensions. How can we reconstruct this in a photo so Pacific Islands people will understand the situation and the questions I am asking about it?” she said.

“Together we would craft a story, then they would bring it to life. It was really fun."

A Pacific Islands woman looking at her phone while her male partner looks suspiciously over her shoulder

Image Credit: Researchers own.

A Pacific Islands woman shrugs while holding shopping bags. Her male partner points an accusatory finger at her

Image credit: Researchers own.

A Pacific Islands woman wakes up to her male partner cleaning the house

Image credit: Researchers own.

A Pacific Islands woman looking at her phone while her male partner looks suspiciously over her shoulder

Image Credit: Researchers own.

A Pacific Islands woman shrugs while holding shopping bags. Her male partner points an accusatory finger at her

Image credit: Researchers own.

A Pacific Islands woman wakes up to her male partner cleaning the house

Image credit: Researchers own.

“With this image we wanted to convey the idea of a male partner's reactions to suspicions of infidelity," George said.

“This image is focussed on women having financial independence and making decisions about spending.”

“Here we are looking at gendered responsibility and gendered labour roles. The male partner comes home from work and sees the woman has been sleeping and the house is in disarray.”

Two Pacific Islander women fill out Dr George's survey while a child paws at them

Image credit: Nicole George

Image credit: Nicole George

Two more Pacific Island women fill out Dr George's survey

Image credit: Nicole George

Image credit: Nicole George

George then used these images to design a survey.

This involved participants looking at an image and answering questions like “do you think this woman is safe? If not, why not?”

Participants were also asked what women could do to make themselves safer.

Thanks to funding by the Australian Research Council (ARC), and with the help of local women’s groups, George travelled to Bougainville, New Caledonia and Fiji to interview participants.

The pictures told a thousand stories.

George was struck by how Pacific Islander women's responses seemed to suggest they protect themselves from violence by self-policing.

“The women made a lot of comments like, ‘her behaviour is not right’, or ‘she is not acting in the way a good woman should act’”, George said.

“Often the person seen to trigger a dispute or violence was the woman rather than the man.

“Respondents were aware they have a right not to be exposed to violence, but authorities (the police, customary and religious leaders) often don’t help them uphold this right. Because of this, women’s reflections suggested that they respond by controlling their own behaviour to avoid tension and the risk of physical harm.”

“So, when a woman tries to talk about human rights, that can be seen as a kind of betrayal, or an attack on custom.”
Associate Professor Nicole George

Another barrier to change that George observed was when women’s rights were seen to conflict with Pacific Island customs.

“Human rights can be strongly resisted by some Pacific groups that say these are alien ideas,” she said.

“Customary values promote the idea of community and community obligation. In contrast, human rights discourse can viewed regionally as privileging the standing of the individual.

“This becomes difficult because many indigenous groups are doing all they can to protect their indigenous identity. It is very politically loaded because they feel, understandably, that they can’t let go of any more customary practices or values.”

Importantly, George saw that this perceived conflict may be exactly that: perceived only.

She found that some indigenous values that supported women’s standing and prestige in society had slowly been eroded by external influences, like European norms.

Working in a way that shows how these customary norms and rules uphold safety and protection for women is also critical to tackling high rates of violence.

“A Bougainvillian woman once said to me ‘it is against our custom for men to do housework’. I don’t think there has ever been a hard rule about women and housework in custom, but this is how ideas of custom have evolved,” George said.

George also saw how, despite well-intentioned policy, changes were not filtering down to the lives of Pacific people.

“One example is the Fijian policy stipulating police must investigate women’s reports of violence and go through all the processes,” she said.

““But we know in practice that often does not happen. If a woman makes a complaint against her husband, police may say: if you go through with this, your husband may be detained. He is the breadwinner, so what is going to happen to you?”

"This responses emphasises men’s economic roles, yet ignores the customary honour that is accorded to women because their reproductive and caring roles, give continuity to ancestral chains. Women should be supported and safe in this work too."

Making sure governments and advocacy groups understand the layered nature of Pacific Island institutions can help ensure vital efforts to improve the situation for women don’t miss the mark.

Most recently, in 2019, the Australian High Commission invited George to participate in a series of events to mark White Ribbon Day in New Caledonia.

She ran a public roundtable in Noumea and a workshop with police, women’s groups and local high school students in the territory’s Northern province.

While many well-intentioned policies and programs in the Pacific have failed to bring about the changes they aimed for, George said she is positive about the future.

It has been 25 years since the Fijian Prime Minister made those jokes about domestic violence and a lot has changed, George said.

“Now, we have several Pacific women as leaders of their countries. In Bougainville’s recent election, a young woman has just beaten 15 men to represent her region in the parliament,” she said.

But she knows there is still a long way to go to ensure the emancipation of women in the Pacific.

“Getting a law passed does not mean we can go home and put our feet up. That’s actually when the work starts in my view,” she said.

A group of people stand on the front steps of a building

Image credit: Nicole George

Image credit: Nicole George