At the closing ceremony of the 55th Pacific Islands Forum in Palau, women were front and centre.
Young Palauan women took to the stage in traditional dress, performing dances passed down through generations in a country where women have long held significant cultural and traditional authority.
Among them were Kulei and Kimora, two young women raised in Palau who said the role of women as decision-makers was simply part of life.
“When it comes to the funerals and, like, Palauan and the baby showers, it’s like, the women are always, like, there and, like, leading of what’s going to happen,” they told Te Ao Māori News.
“They’re the ones who are pushing, they give us the okay, like, can we do this? And we have to, like, make sure the women are on board and agree on what we’re doing to proceed to take action.” Kulei said.
He wahine, he whenua
The performance itself was also an expression of that identity.
“It shows how we are different, we have our own identity, our culture, us as a Palauan, who we truly are.”
Traditional Palauan dance distinguishes between men’s and women’s performances known as ngloik, are characterised by meloik, or fluid movements
But the prominence of women throughout Palau’s cultural life stood in contrast to the political leadership gathered in the country this week, where women remained significantly outnumbered.
Marshall Islands President Hilda Heine, the first woman to be elected president of her country, was among those attending the Forum in Palau.
Winston Peters held a bilateral meeting with her on the margins of the 55th Pacific Islands Leaders Forum in Palau, with the meeting providing ‘an opportunity to strengthen Marshall Islands - New Zealand relations and discuss issues of shared importance to the Pacific region.’ Heine’s office said.
Tē kitea, tē rangona
But across the region, women remain a minority at the highest levels of political leadership.
And that imbalance followed leaders behind closed doors for their annual retreat on Thursday, where some of the Forum’s most consequential discussions and final decisions are made away from officials and media.
So, for a region where women continue to hold important roles within traditional systems of leadership and when decisions are being made about the Pacific’s future, how are women’s voices and priorities represented?
Te Ao Māori News put that to Palau President Surangel Whipps Jr following the Forum’s closing ceremony.
His initial response was to point out the leaders had female spouses.
New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, standing alongside him, quickly quipped: “That’s not the same, mate.”
Whipps went on to acknowledge the contrast between Palau’s traditional matrilineal system and its contemporary democratic political institutions.
“In Palau, we do live in a matrilineal society, so the way it works is that the women decide who’s chief,” Whipps said.
“They are actually the chairman of the board, the best example that I’ve heard of the system.
“So, when you talk about political leadership and us transitioning from our matrilineal traditional system to the new democratic system, it is a change to the way we govern.”
Palau’s traditional governance system places significant authority with women.
Kinship and clan membership are traced through women, while senior women have traditionally played a central role in selecting male chiefs.
Those systems have existed alongside political institutions introduced through Palau’s long colonial history, which included periods of Spanish, German, Japanese and United States administration before the country became independent in 1994.
Across parts of the Pacific, colonisation and imported systems of government and religion disrupted or changed traditional structures of authority, including the roles held by women.
Today, that traditional authority has not translated into equal representation within the region’s modern parliaments and governments.
Whipps said that was changing in Palau.
“What we see now in Palau, I’ll just give you an example of Palau’s majority, large majority of the justices are women. When it comes to management positions throughout government, they are a super majority,” he said.
“So, it’s just a matter of time as they continue to move into these new roles.”
Four women were elected to Palau’s 16-member House of Delegates at its 2024 election, up from one, while two women were elected to the Senate.
“A new woman president is not far away,” Whipps predicted.
“There is progress. Someday it will be 50 percent.”
When it was suggested it could one day be 100 percent, Whipps responded: “Or 100 percent. It might be better in some cases.”
Palau has previously had women serve as vice-president, most recently J. Uduch Sengebau Senior, who held the role from 2021 until January 2025, but the country is yet to elect a woman president.
The imbalance in political leadership also sits against commitments the Pacific Islands Forum has itself made to increase women’s participation in decision-making.
More than a decade ago, Forum leaders committed to measures aimed at accelerating women’s full and equal participation in governance and leadership.
In 2023, leaders revitalised the Pacific Leaders Gender Equality Declaration, acknowledging that despite increased support at regional and national levels, progress towards gender equality remained concerningly slow.
The issue was again on the agenda in the lead-up to this year’s Forum.
At the Forum Foreign Ministers Meeting in August, ministers stressed that renewed commitment to women’s political leadership was needed to advance the 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent.
They also agreed to convey guidance from the Pacific Islands Forum Women Leaders Meeting to Forum leaders, alongside calls for greater investment in preventing gender-based violence and embedding gender equality across regional decision-making.
The political commitment is there.
But the faces around the Pacific’s highest political tables show there is still some distance to go.
Luxon acknowledged that gap following the leaders’ retreat and after the closing ceremony.
“I think we want to be championing and advocating more women in leadership roles at the prime ministerial and presidential level, no doubt about it,” he said.
Luxon said investment further down the leadership pipeline, including professional development and creating opportunities for women to take on roles within regional organisations and individual Pacific countries, was important.
“For us, it’s just there’s more work to do, clearly.”
Asked whether Whipps’ initial response about female spouses had been flippant, Luxon said he did not believe there had been any bad intention.
“There’s no tension or bad intention at all. It’s just everyone acknowledges there’s a lot more work to do and there’s investment needed to make that happen.”
But when asked directly whether having a female spouse was the same as having a woman leader in the room, Luxon was unequivocal.
“No, I think they are two different things.”
For Kulei and Kimora, the authority of women is not an abstract discussion about political representation, it is what they have grown up with.
And as they took the stage in front of the region’s leaders to close the Pacific Islands Forum, they were representing a culture in which women have long helped decide what happens next.
