How women brought peace to bougainville
Matrilineal and beautiful; women are the traditional leaders of Bougainville. Freda Talao, PNG mainland human rights lawyer and mediator, describes her first-hand account of the role of women played in bringing peace to Bougainville. In the words of Freda Talao, “Women care about people; men care about infrastructure.”
“The men are not in charge,” says Freda Talao. “Men are traditionally in power in the rest of PNG.”
Formidable yet warm Freda Talao has presence. Adept at negotiation and mediation Freda realises the value of connection. She has been offered positions on the bench three times but has turned them down. “I am not a judge type. I am an activist. I like to do the real hard yakka, creating things and empowering people.”
On the day of our interview she is dressed in an outfit for the Australian heat, a floral summer dress. Traditional, yet formal, you get the sense that Freda can connect with people from all backgrounds.
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Matrilineal and beautiful; women are the traditional leaders of Bougainville.
“The rest of PNG is not matrilineal, men are in charge.”
Men from the copper mine started the war. Bougainville was left ravaged, beaten and stripped. It was women who stopped the war.
“It was women who insisted on the war being stopped. Women are the ones who fought for peace; they were the peacemakers. This is the power women have to turn a nation around.”
War can happen in the most beautiful of places. Bougainville is different to any other place in Papua New Guinea. Its beauty was famed; as Lebanon was the Paris of the Middle East, Bougainville was the most prosperous and most idyllic of islands. Pristine seas glistening with clarity under the South Pacific sun. Forests bountiful with hidden fruit. Crystalline lakes. Caves. Mines.
It was like Australia. A Rio Tinto mine had turned paradise into copper, its golden streets prosperous and polished, like a well-to-do suburb of Sydney.
Educated, insightful and forthright, she has her eye on politics. She was nominated for the 1000 Peace Women Nobel Prize Project in 2005. She has helped changed marital rape laws in PNG and has assisted with the instigation of domestic violence initiatives. Freda has the pedigree and qualifications to be Prime Minister.
At the time, Freda says, the Premier of Bougainville was an old friend. “My office was right opposite the UN office. I heard that a man who I had attended university with, Sam Kaona, was deputy leader of the rebels. I said to his people if you see Sam tell him his sister Freda is here.”
“When Sam visited me, he gave me a hug. He said, please pray for me to get all of this evil out of my heart Freda. It’s good to see people I know coming back to Bougainville.”
“I went to Manetai. A no-go zone. No one was allowed there. I was only allowed there when they thought it was safe, any hint of trouble and I was not allowed to go.”
“The government of PNG had sent forces to fight the rebels. It was assumed that anyone with lighter skin was with the government, that they were an enemy. I have lighter skin. I stood out.”
It was dangerous to look different. To be singled out.
The children had no concept of law, they had never seen a policeman.
On the way, there she prayed: “Lord do not let one stray bullet come out of the bush. Let this be a breakthrough and let us bring some hope to these people.”
“Run when you hear guns going off. Run and hide. Look after yourself. In PNG even in the forest there is food. All they knew was a gun and how to hide in the bushes.”
“Villages had been destroyed so people were living in Care Centres.”
Freda was part of the Peace Foundation, an NGO which helped to train locals to go out and train others in conflict reconciliation. “We were training people in conflict resolution. Training them to become trainers and train others.” She was training them to move forward.“Talks were being held at high level but not at people’s level.”
Peacekeepers, soldiers without weapons in kakhi uniforms, had been sent from New Zealand, Australia, Fiji and Vanuatu. “When I saw a female peacekeeper from Vanuatu, a Melanesian, somebody who looks like me, my heart leapt with happiness. I sat next to her. I felt safe.”
She says that many stories are difficult to forget. People were killed in front of family members. She says sometimes the stories are so awful that all you can do is listen and cry with the them and “just be present.”
When she was asked to speak at a graduation service for those they had trained she witnessed a turning point a turning point. “It was my turn to speak but there were no words. So I just wept for a while. Then I said I am sorry. I apologise on behalf of everyone who came and hurt you and I ask for your forgiveness. I wept and wept. I wiped my eyes and looked around and all the people there, even the peacekeepers, were wiping their eyes. Because that was the truth. No one had actually come down to a human level and actually said I am sorry.”
The congregation wept and they sang hymns and worshipped God.
It is well
With my soul
It is well, it is well with my soul[1]
“It was the gospel that wept. Forgiveness comes, healing follows, and restoration follows. Peace is the way forward.”
“When we arrived, it was like a big cloud was hanging over us. During the service, it was like heaven opened up and the cloud lifted. The cloud lifted during the service through just saying sorry.”
Then there was a feast.
“There were men doing a traditional dance, standing in the middle with poles hitting the ground for the women to dance around. Some women and I went and danced. All the little girls ran to me, each taking a finger until no fingers were left. The ones who could not take a finger, the ones who couldn’t get to me, were holding onto their friends with me at the centre.”
“I could see them rubbing my skin and looking up at me. Thinking, this person looks like us.”
Perhaps they were looking up, dreaming. Looking up, thinking. Looking up, changing. Transforming. In their mind’s the image of who they could be and who they think they are perhaps changed. This is who I could be one day.
[1] All is well with my soul, Audrey Assad