Amelia Rokotuivuna

Amelia Rokotuivuna was a Fijian socialist and feminist community leader and activist, who was known for her opposition to French nuclear tests in the Pacific and to the Fijian military coups in 1987 and 2000.

Early life Amelia Vakasokolaca Rokotuivuna was born on 7 August 1941 in the village of Vatukarasa in Tailevu Province on Fiji's largest island of Viti Levu. Her childhood was spent at the Vatukoula mine, also on Viti Levu, where her father was a cook. Her intelligence enabled her to go as a boarder to Adi Cakobau School, Fiji's leading school for girls, where she became head girl. Rokotuivuna was the first staff member of the Fiji YWCA, which had been established by two Australians, Ruth Lechte and Anne S. Walker, in 1962. She worked as a receptionist and coordinator of the YWCA's Girls Clubs. In 1967, she obtained a diploma in social administration and development from the University of Swansea in Wales.

Career and activism With Fiji's Independence from the United Kingdom scheduled for 1970, there was widespread debate over the issue of political representation in the country's new parliament, and the number of seats reserved for each of Fiji's ethnic communities, Rokotuivuna and other YWCA members took part in a 1965 forum to hear women's views on the future constitution and electoral system. She used this opportunity to challenge the existing communal system of electoral representation, strongly criticising the colonial practice of reserving Legislative Council positions for members of the Great Council of Chiefs and arguing that the Council should be disbanded. The Council was finally disestablished in 2012, after her death, but at the time her ideas provoked considerable opposition, with indigenous Fijians arguing that she was putting forward an "Indian agenda".

In 1973, Rokotuivuna became general secretary of the YWCA. Under her leadership, the organization became an activist organization that worked for peace and democracy, in a country where there were often significant conflicts between the indigenous Melanesian population and the descendants of indentured Indian labourers who were sent to Fiji to work on sugar plantations. Although many Fijians opposed the YWCA's involvement in such activities, she led the fight for equal rights for women, a nuclear-free Pacific, and political reform in Fiji's multicultural society, and became the key spokesperson for all NGOs. Early members of the YMCA found that, unlike the well-established women's organizations whose leadership structures generally reflected age or social status hierarchies, the YWCA encouraged young, educated, community-minded local women with an interest in social and political change. Lacking the necessary social status, Rokotuivuna could never have risen to the top of other women's organizations in the country. She worked hard to establish strong links with university students. In 1974, the YWCA controversially presented a submission to government calling for increased activity in the area of family planning, and the legalisation of abortion, drawing attention to the number of deaths occurring due to back-street abortions. In addition to advocacy, the YMCA organized vocational training, attracting up to 500 students per year. Fiji: a developing Australian colony. 1973. International Development Action. In this paper, Rokotuivuna argued that Australia's position as the dominant economic power in Fiji would contribute to the exacerbation in the future of existing problems, particularly in light of the country's reliance upon a sugar industry that was largely controlled by the Australian company, Colonial Sugar Refinery.

Death Amelia Rokotuivuna died of cancer on 2 June 2005. She had one son.