Sistas, Let's Talk

We discuss the power of self care and community support to help you escape violence and create a path that's healthier and safer.

Women face many challenges, but there are many across the Pacific making it in business and leadership

Florence Swamy's job is to build peace, ranging from working with relocated climate-affected communities to dealing with violence in villages and working with Fiji's military.

Sistas, Let’s Talk is a show for women across the Pacific region.

Sistas, Let’s Talk is a show for women across the Pacific region.

Sistas, Let’s Talk is a show for women across the Pacific region.

Sistas, Let’s Talk is a show for women across the Pacific region.

This edition of Sista's Let's Talk was a repeat of the program broadcast on 28th September 2023 Changes to Australia’s PALM scheme have been life-changing to many families across the Pacific. We’ve heard from women who have made the sacrifice for their families, signing up to contracts that can be as long as three years. For those in Australia, it is often a culture shock, lonely and isolating. But what is it like for those left behind? Pacific governments have raised concerns about the brain drain and there are the personal costs too. We hear anecdotally of women being abandoned by their husbands – or those husbands finding another partner overseas. In Fiji and Vanuatu, there are reports of children being abandoned. So while there may be money flowing in, what are the societal and economic impacts at home? And what are communities doing to ensure the PALM scheme doesn’t drive families apart or leave communities and local businesses in the lurch?

Sistas, Let’s Talk is a show for women across the Pacific region.

Facing stigma can be one of the hardest battles for single mothers, along with financial hardship and lack of family support. Being accepted by their family or community can make a huge difference for single mothers. On Sistas Let's Talk, Natasha Meten speaks to mothers who have raised their children without a partner and want to share their stories so that women like them don't have to feel so alone.

When the Bougainville conflict erupted in 1988, Rose Pihei was living away from her village on the south of the island. After the crisis – which led to killed 20000 people and saw many more displaced – Rose saw the crucial role women played in rebuilding their communities. Inspired to create lasting change, she co-founded the Bougainville Women's Federation, empowering women and fostering peace in the region. Rose speaks to Natasha Meten on Sistas Let's Talk about the future for women in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville.

Child protection workers in the Pacific are seeing increased reports of child abuse including sexual abuse. According to a recent study by Save the Children, more than, 80% of the child protection workers who were surveyed in Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Fiji said emotional, physical and sexual violence had increased or significantly increased in their country. When it comes to sexual violence in the Pacific, the majority of reported victims under 16 are girls, and the perpetrator is someone they know. When atrocities happen too often in a community, people don't feel that they have the power to stop them. Sistas Let's Talk examines what it will take for communities to work together to bring an end to child abuse?

The Pacific corporate world still has a long way to go when it comes to being inclusive and supportive of both neurodivergence and mental health. It's an issue Samoan sisters Olisana Mariner-Hughes and Okalani-Mariner are addressing through their business Onelook Studio: a social enterprise helping companies with their digital transformation. But they're also addressing inclusion on a more personal level. They're sharing their own lived experiences with a touch of island humour on Instagram and TikTok, to connect with the neurodiverse community and raise awareness.

So many women in the Pacifc put up with persistent pain. It might be because they can't access the care they need. Or they can't afford to take time off work. Or it could be that women are conditioned to be stoic and put other people's needs before their own. So how do they get up every day and endure such pain? And more importantly, what needs to change so that they can actually stop and get the rest and the treatment that they need?

When Maakarita Paku was growing her family in the 1990s, it was a time of renaissance for Aotearoa's Maori people. People like her were looking to their mothers and grandmothers to learn about the rituals that enabled women to endure the pain and risk of bringing new life into the world. And she was one of many women who wanted to bring their children into a family that practiced those rituals. Now, as more and more midwives are being trained to incorporate culture into safe birthing practices, Maakarita works as a Consumer Reviewer for the New Zealand College of Midwives – in other words, a traditional Maori Birth advocate.

Bringing a baby into the world is one of the most important things a woman can do, and for millennia this experience has been shrouded in rituals designed to keep both the mother and baby safe. But in the 21st century, ancient birthing traditions have given way to lifesaving medical support. This week, Sistas Let's Talk examines the contrasting experiences of Pacific women in developing counties and colonised countries. In one place there are women who feel so disconnected from their culture that they seek out a traditional birthing experience, and in the other, the fight is to access modern medicine.

Life is easier for everyone when the household chores are done, but in most cases only half of the population is actually doing them. Women do 80 per cent of the unpaid labour in the Pacific. Work like childcare, domestic duties and caring for neighbours. And it's impacting their ability to make a paid living. It's been this way for decades so when and how is it going to change?

All over the world, dating apps have changed the way people get together, but is that happening in the Pacific? Or are there just too many logistical and cultural barriers for online dating to take hold in the region? When Natasha Yalo, a woman from Papua New Guinea living in Cairns, went looking for love on a dating app she found it hard to meet men from her culture. So she decided to try creating her own app especially for people from PNG.

This edition of Sista's Let's Talk was a repeat of the program broadcast on 15th June 2023 Casting a light-skinned woman to play a brown character in a Disney movie is one version of colourism, but in the Pacific it's just the tip of the iceberg. Polynesian voices have managed to find their way to the mainstream - even though it is still problematic - but has that been at the expense of people from the Melanesian and Micronesian regions? Surely there's space for all of us to represent and tell our stories.

More than ninety-five per cent of the popular music made in the last decade was produced by men. That's according to a 2022 study from the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative in the United States. So where are all of the talented women in the music industry? What does it take to break through and gain recognition, not to mention earn a living as a woman in the music industry? Especially in the Pacific where it's already so hard to gain global recognition. Sistas Let's Talk examines the ways that the gender imbalance in the music industry is being addressed.