Phylesha Brown-Acton

Phylesha Brown-Acton (born February 1976) is a Niuean fakafifine LGBTQ+ rights activist. In 2019, she was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit to recognize her work with LGBTQ+ communities from the Pacific countries.

Biography Brown-Acton was born in February 1976 in Niue. Her mother was from Niue and her father from Australia. At school, Brown-Acton was bullied by both students and teachers; at home her father was violent. In 2006 she began work for the Pacific Peoples Project at the New Zealand AIDS Foundation as project coordinator; in 2009 she managed their International Development Programme. Brown-Acton was the first person to introduce a Pacific specific acronym for western LGBTQ+ communities: MVPFAFF - Mahu, Vakasalewalewa, Palopa, Fa’afafine, Akava’ine, Fakafifine and Fakaleiti/leiti. This acronym was later extended to include a plus sign: MVPFAFF+. This academic activism in conference spaces as it disrupts western constructs of Pacific gender identities. She has also spoken openly about the colonial roots of homophobia in many countries in the Pacific. The same year she worked at Pacific Islands Safety & Prevention Project Inc. as service support manager.

Brown-Acton is Executive Director of F’ine Pasifika, an LGBTQI+ rights organisation based in New Zealand which she founded in 2015. In 2018, she spoke at the Human Rights Defenders World Summit. Other roles have included as an advisor to the Transgender Health Services Advisory Group, and a trustee of INA Maori. In 2020, she was selected as a member of OutRight International's Beijing+25 Fellowship program. Brown-Acton is number 82 in the 100 Indigenous women featured in Qiane Matata-Sipu's NUKU series and book.

Honours In the 2019 Queen's Birthday Honours, Brown-Acton was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to the Pacific and LGBTQI+ communities. She is the first Pacific trans woman to be recognised in this way.

Publications

Brown-Acton, P. (2020). Hands and feet: A reflection on Polynesian navigation—a Niue Fakafifine community practitioner perspective in Aotearoa-New Zealand. Te Kaharoa, 15(1).