It poured outside but
Bernadette Rounds-Ganilau brightened the studio and turned the rain
into liquid sunshine.
As she and I talked to
prepare her and myself for the live interview, she shared that the
issues of her generation were mine too.
This was the worry.
The equality and
recognition of women in leadership, in areas of development, despite
generations of campaigning seemed fruitless; women and their
involvement were still a non-issue.
Why was this? Simply the
clutter of development. The focus has always been on the band-aid
solutions of road fixing and other infrastructural issues.
Women knew all the issues
and found themselves put second. More than half the population is
pushed aside and put with the sewing machines and occasional
tokenism.
Perhaps it is the women
themselves that need to affirm their need and right to be involved in
development issues that do not seem to be “woman’s work”.
Maybe these past three
generations are forgetting to talk to each other. I have been
privileged to have my mother and grandmother teach me what the
movement has done ans support my entry into it.
While I stand ready to
train young women to join what I am part of, as I hope I am doing
with my training of the young Maria through the Morning Waves
breakfast show on femTALK 89FM, I hope to see the ripples echo our
youth.
Development is not simply
work for men or women, but for the society as a whole. We women just
wish to be included; that is why we do what we do.
We thank those that had
come before us, we remember them being with us.
While Bernadette had left
the studio for a whole hour, Maria turned to me at the end of the
shift and said, “You can still smell Mrs Ganilau's perfume!”
Her impression did not
just permeate the studio, but I felt energised and looked at the
pouring rain and for a second did not feel the dread of the soaked
walk I was going to take, but looked forward to the sun rising on
Suva's newly cleaned buildings and plants.
I looked forward to the
freshness after the rain.
