Women Decolonising Melanesia: Female leadership challenges in West Papua and New Caledonia.

Join us for this evening lecture at the State Library of NSW. Refreshments will be served from 5pm and the talk will begin at 5.30pm. This public lecture will feature Nancy Jouwe, Rosy Makalu, Florenda Nirkani, and Annette Boemara discussing their involvement in the campaign for decolonisation and the role of women in this struggle. This event is hosted by the Sydney Pacific Studies Network (University of Sydney) in conjunction with the Oceania Network (Western Sydney University).

In West Papua and New Caledonia, the struggle for decolonisation is ongoing. Recently, however, independence movements in both of these territories have pushed referendums for independence onto the national agenda, though these initiatives are not well-known to outsiders. Women have played critical roles in these struggles. This lecture aims to draw attention to their work and, in particular, debate the constraints under which they labour and the possibilities they have created for themselves and others in pushing for independence.