TALANOA OPEN ACCESS

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Manoa S, et al. Pacific Health Dialog 2019; 21(4):196-198 DOI: 10.26635/phd.2019WOS.624

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TALANOA OPEN ACCESS

PASIFIKA FUTURES WHĀNAU ORA: F’INE – Nurturing the Future for Pasifika LGBTQI

Saneta MANOA,^1* Phylesha BROWN-ACTON,² Tatryanna UTANGA,³ Seini JENSEN⁴

F’INE Aotearoa, through Pasifika Futures Whānau Ora programme, is supporting Pacific Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Intersex (LGBTQI) individuals and their families to transform their lives and achieve their aspirations. The LGBTQI community in New Zealand experience significant disadvantage across a range of areas affecting wellbeing, including higher rates of poor mental health, depression and anxiety 1,2,3. For Pacific LGBTQI, the disadvantages are compounded further.

F’INE, an LGBTQI specific provider in New Zealand, is working to change this.

Director and founder of F’INE, Phylesha Brown- Acton, understands the great need for support in her community. Phylesha’s own experience as a Fakafifine or Niuean transgender woman in New Zealand, has shaped her leadership for Pacific transgender and LGBTQI people over the last 25 years.

“A lot of Pacific transgender people and their families fall through the gaps of justice, health, education, housing, social development and so on - with Whānau Ora’s model it allows them to be seen and it gives them an opportunity to address their complex needs.”

F’INE, which stands for Family Identity Navigate Equality, has a clear empowerment philosophy to establish a partnership with the family and individual, and ensure they are at the center of decision making. F’INE promotes independence and works towards empowering families and individuals to achieve their goals and gain more independence, reducing reliance on the service.

According to Phylesha, this kind of support is something she really needed growing up in Grey Lynn. When she reached out for support as a teenager and found nothing available to her, Phylesha instead connected to a group of Samoan Fa’afafine women playing netball

“I understood very quickly the collective unit and the understanding of family and support. They had created their own support unit because there was nothing else for them…”

Shining a light on the Pacific LGBTQI community and ensuring visibility on the challenges and aspirations is critical, says Phylesha.

To date, F’INE has worked with 75 Pacific individuals and their families, to support them to achieve their goals and navigate themselves towards better futures. According to Phylesha

“The positive impact that it has on the persons quality of life, … is huge and significant”

One example is Eden, a 27-year-old Cook Island Akava’ine or transgender woman. When Eden first heard of F’INE from a group of friends, she was living in a house with 14 other people and on the verge of homelessness. Not only was it difficult for Eden to focus on her studies at the University of Auckland, but she was also struggling financially.

Eden describes her first interaction with Phylesha and F’INE as an empowering experience, where she felt trusted and understood: “It was a very intimate conversation which immediately I began to listen more than question…as trans, we just don’t throw our trust to anybody, because I don’t truly believe that [other] people understand what we are going through. So, for the conversation and the information to be provided to me from another transwoman, the connection was strong and immediate.”

*1 Corresponding author; Evaluator, Pasifika Futures, Auckland, New Zealand [email protected]; 2.

Director, F’INE, Auckland, NZ; 3. Navigator, F’INE, Auckland, NZ; 4. Director of Performance and Evaluation, Pasifika Futures, Auckland, NZ.

Received: 20.06.2019, Published: 23.08.2019

Citation: Manoa S, et al. PASIFIKA FUTURES WHĀNAU ORA:

F’INE – Nurturing the Future for Pasifika. Pacific Health

Dialog 2019;21(4):196-198. DOI:

10.26635/phd.2019.WOS.624

Copyright: © 2019 Manoa S, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

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197 Through her Talanoa with Phylesha, Eden learnt

about F’INE and that it was set up specifically to support her and others like her achieve their goals and aspirations. Eden’s first goal was to legally change her name, this was a significant step in her plan for better wellbeing, and a key step in Eden’s decision to transition her gender identity. In 2016, Eden legally changed her name and gender on her birth certificate and passport.

“You have the whole pleasure of being called a woman because you are a woman, and that whole benefit of walking through a process and not being stopped and questioned.” Eden then decided to work on her goal of building her confidence, as her low self-esteem held her back from educational and employment opportunities. Eden started hormone replacement therapy and gender affirming treatments which were significant in increasing her confidence and ability to engage with others.

Before these treatments Eden would not apply for jobs for fear of attending job interviews and employers making negative judgements about her.

Since the treatments, Eden now has the confidence to connect and engage with others, and work towards achieving her long-term goals.

Eden has gained confidence and self- determination, gaining her driver’s license, making healthier eating choices and cutting back on smoking and drinking. Eden is now working to complete her psychology degree and is committed to be a voice for Akava’ine to educate the Pacific community on transgender issues. In 2018, Eden was awarded a full scholarship to attend the Pacific Human Rights Conference in Fiji. At the conference Eden joined leaders and advocates from the LGBTQI community and their allies to look at human rights and leadership development; exploring intersections within diverse cultural, political, gender and sexual identities and the interlinkages with the Sustainable Development Goals.

“I’m about educating others around transgender people and their issues, even the things that make us happy…I think it’s important that outside people are learning about us but also us learning about ourselves…what I hope for our community is more representation, positive representation.” Eden’s transformation is just one example of the difference F’INE is making in the LGBTQI and Pacific community.

According to Phylesha, an important part of the service is understanding families and individual’s cultural context. For Pacific, that centers around the importance of your contribution to the collective

“It is the same essence within all our Pasifika, that it’s not about your gender, whether you are prettier or stronger, it’s about what your role is and what you contribute to the collective. That’s what matters the most and as long as you’re doing something to contribute to the collective, you are embraced”

Phylesha emphasizes the importance of using the appropriate cultural terms for Pacific transgender people. Using Pacific cultural terms during large regional and international forums, like the United Nations in Geneva where Phylesha was recently a keynote speaker, is significant

“It is in these settings where leaders, especially Pacific leaders, get to hear and see us and connect to us as a people rather than thinking of the misrepresentations often associated with western constructs such as the acronym LGBTQI”

Phylesha, who is currently the co-chair of the Asia Pacific Transgender Network (APTN), coined the mnemonic MVPFAFF to represent the identities from different Pacific cultures that exists in New Zealand and are understood and used as cultural signifiers within Pacific communities.

“Pacific already have culturally appropriate identities which are relevant to our place in society. Examples of these terms are Mahu (Hawai’i) Rae rae (Tahiti), Vakasalewalewa (Fiji) Palopa (Papua New Guinea) Fa’afafine or Fa’atama (Samoa) Akava’ine (Cook Islands), Fakaleiti (Tonga) Fakafifine (Niue).”

One of F’INE’s goals is for the Pacific LGBTQI community to be accepted as an integral part of wider society, as they were with our Pacific ancestors. “We see it within writings in Hawaii, the Mahu played a significant role as front-line warriors being responsible for feeding the sacred priest and being the only ones allowed too. The same thing within Samoan culture - the dark nights – “Poula”’ the courting ritual between men and women. [The men and women] weren’t able to cross that line and it was only the Fa’afafine that were allowed to go in-between to relay messages. So, we had very important roles back in those days. I’m wanting to pursue and continue where our Pasifika [people] start to see us as strengths and how we play a very important integral role culturally”

Eden explains further. “The definition of an Akava’ine…is very different to the white transgender and that’s very important to us, to me especially, because when you say something, you throw Akava’ine inside there, it is ok in a Pacific setting. …but once you throw transgender inside, suddenly the whole thing changes…when

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198 I talk to my friends and family about

…transgender, they have no idea what it means, but as soon as I say it’s like Akava’ine…then [they understand]…they can relate to it…and making sense of it gives them peace and they are not so fearful.”

According to Phylesha the work of F’INE is also about “reclaiming the importance of who we were as Pasifika LGBTQI, as Fa’afafine, Fakaleti, Leiti, Akava’ine, Vakasalewalewa and Fakafifine…[it’s about] getting people to no longer see those words as derogatory but that they are actually saying them from a place of love, and from a space of strength, power and pride”.

REFERENCES

1. Mental Health Foundation of New Zealand.

Rainbow communities and mental health submission to the Inquiry into Mental Health

and Addiction.

https://www.mentalhealth.org.nz/assets/Ou r-Work/policy-advocacy/Rainbow-

communities-and-mental-health-submission- to-the-Inquiry-into-Mental-Health-and- Addiction-08062018.pdf. 2018. Accessed 21 October 2018.

2. Mental Health Foundation of New Zealand.

Rainbow Health. The Public Health Needs of LGBTTI Communities in Aotearoa New Zealand with Policy Recommendations.

https://www.mentalhealth.org.nz/assets/Re sourceFinder/Rainbow-Health-the-public- health-needs-of-LGBTTI-communities-in- Aotearoa-New-Zealand-with-policy- recommendations-Affinity-Mental-Health- Services-2013.pdf. 2013. Accessed 9 November 2018.

3. Te Pou. Mental health promotion and prevention services to gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and intersex populations in New Zealand: Needs assessment report.

https://www.mentalhealth.org.nz/assets/Re sourceFinder/mental-health-promotion-and- prevention-services-to-gay-lesbian-bisexual- transgender.pdf. 2012. Accessed 9 November 2018.