Myths and Maidens: ‘A conversation starter’ to unpacking Pacific women stereotypes

A new documentary dives into the historically colonial portrayal and treatment of Pacific women.

Fresh from the Hawai'i Film Festival, Myths and Maidens examines the "sticky issues of colourism, fat phobia, and societal views on women of colour”.

The documentary features stories from politicians, artists, sportswomen, navigators, actors, activists, and farmers from Aotearoa, Tahiti, Sāmoa, Fiji, Hawai’i, Papua New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands.

Released on CoconetTV on Wednesday (20 November 2024), Lisa Taouma of Tikilounge Productions says that the women involved have engaged in meaningful talanoa about tough topics.

She says the project’s “uniqueness” highlights how they travelled to various islands to hear first-hand the trauma, challenges, and inequities faced by fafine Moana.

“I just want it to be a conversation starter. I’m just a curator of all these conversations with all these amazing women.

“It’s a really good chance to bring all this talanoa together in one place. You realise how similar a lot of these issues are and also how each island has their different types of issues and impacts that affect women and the region.

“I wanted to be a connecting device for people to then take them and create their own conversations around it.”

Taouma says the project was delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic and restrictions. She started the doco at that time to highlight the significant external challenges women face and their internal effects.

“There were lots of women that had told me their stories about issues that had impacted them. Around colourism, the way beauty pageants play out in their communities.

“All these conversations across the region and I just wanted to be able to platform them and bring all these conversations together into one piece.”

Climate activist and first runner-up Miss Sāmoa 2024, Brianna Fruean, shares her insightful and motivating words in the documentary alongside journalist and presenter Indira Stewart, ABC Australia’s Sera Naiqama, and former Deputy Prime Minister Carmel Sepuloni.

Taouma says the programme also highlights a tone of honest activism, which she deliberately chose because she believes it is time now to reclaim the narrative and present a complete range of Pacific women’s experiences.

The title - Myths and Maidens - is a response to the phrase “Dusky Maidens”, which refers to the romanticised and distorted stereotypes of Pacific women by European painters.

“They invented this term ‘Dusky Maiden’ which kinda meant ‘almost white, but not quite’.

“‘Dusky’ meaning almost white and ‘Maiden’ meaning women in their young infancy.”

This Euro-centric beauty standard, despite causing separation and a dislike for dark-skinned brown women, even among Pacific people, has not broken the resilience of melanated women.

They have been tainted with the Sāmoan term “meauli” or “black thing”, but they continue to stand strong.

Taouma says the doco’s title aims to challenge the stereotypes of Pacific women as naive and light-skinned while also working to dismantle divisions.

"Dusky Maidens" by Heath Wilkes

Taouma hopes Myths and Maidens empowers the next generation of Pacific women to become independent agents of change.

“I’m hoping that it’s gonna have an impact, particularly on young fafine moana so they can feel less alone. So that their voices are validated.

“And hopefully, some of the women who speak to their stories in the documentary can help them do that, and for other younger women to feel more comfortable about coming forward with things that are affecting them.”

She says the timing of the documentary’s release this week coincides with young, powerful female voices like Te Pāti Māori MP Hana Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke making a global impact.

“It felt like the right time now because we’re already seeing a lot of these discussions online and in visual media.

“I felt like this was the right time to present it to the world…there’s just a lot of younger voices that are becoming increasingly loud about the things that are impacting them, in the activism space, and in all the issues that are happening right across the region.”

Myths and Maidens is free to watch on CoconetTV and YouTube.