An insightful video documentary called “Women's Leadership in Crisis” was launched by the Talitha Project yesterday evening in Nuku'alofa.

Vanessa Heleta, founder of the Talitha Project for youth leadership development, invited Tonga's women candidates in last year's general election to attend the first showing of the documentary at the Waterfront Restaurant in Nuku'alofa.

Women candidates all failed to win seats in 2014 and Vanessa travelled around Tonga with a camera to talk to them after the election. It was the first time she has directed a documentary. The project was envisioned under the “Make it Happen” theme of International Women's Day and supported by the Canada Fund.

Big gap in politics

Christian DesRoches, counsellor with the High Commission of Canada in Wellington, noted at the launch that Tonga’s culture is strong and that many well-educated and competent women are making valuable contributions in many areas. “But there is a big gap in politics,” he said, adding that going forward it is important that women are involved so that parliament reflects their real place in the society.

Ana Bing Fonua, a woman candidate who ran against long time parliamentarian, 'Akilisi Pohiva, said that women would not give up trying to win seats in Parliament. In her experience she found the $10,000 cap on campaign spending was quite limiting for newcomers who were trying to make themselves known to their electorates.

Attitudes

Sipola Halafihi who polled the most votes of the women (686) said that it was very hard for women to get into parliament “because of the attitudes of the Tongan people.”

Vanessa’s documentary provides valuable insight to those attitudes. She acknowledges the few women who have succeeded in entering parliament in the past, and invites the reflections of the unsuccessful women candidates in 2014. Interviewed in Tongan, their comments were translated by Takenaka and subtitled in English, with narration by Koaneti Kanongata'a.

Vanessa said that their first steps into documentary-making was a good learning experience, but admitted that the role of a documentary Director was not easy.

Made by an all-male production unit, the video itself clearly demonstrates the difficulty of making women's voices heard in Tonga. Most of the interviews were drowned out by loud music.

Erling Ve'etutu of the Lionheart production team said they chose music from the villages associated with the women to play under all the interviews. He said the music was necessary “to entertain the audience”.