A white mini-van with a purple curtain painted on it is a familiar sight on our rural roads -- driven expertly by a slightly-built woman wearing lots of silver earrings, eccentric clothes and a wild haircut.
She is someone who believes in equality and has gone not just that extra mile, but many rough kilometres to give her belief a voice. Peni Moore is a strong, devoted and committed advocate who has done much for Fiji women. She is the creative director of Women's Action for Change, an NGO that stands for human rights, including the rights of sexual minorities and the prevention of violence against women.
Uniquely, the organisation uses drama and street theatre to do its work and runs Fiji's first and possibly only full-time professional theatre company.
WAC was founded in 1993 by a group of feminists who saw a need for more community-based, participatory work on gender equality issues for Fiji women.
Ms Moore was a leader in this group with a strong belief in giving women what they deserved. "Women will never be free until all people are free, and we need economic equality as well as racial equality to be truly equal," she said.
She felt the pinch of inequality from the time she was a little girl.
"From the time that I became conscious as a small girl that I got less than my brother, not just material things, but also respect and expectations, I looked for a different way of life. I thought that there must be other ways to live, which is why I started studying different philosophies including feminism, religion and political systems," she says.
"Us young women were being treated like objects and I saw other women downtrodden in every way."
It pushed her to become a women's advocate. The multiple and layered discriminations, often on the poorest individuals and communities, be they women or marginalised men or transgender people, are her concern. "It is the daily abuse that people suffer that frustrates me, and pushes me to support them to work for a better life," Ms Moore adds.
Her work involves writing and producing plays, performing playback theatre, running training programs in restorative justice mediation, and working on community building programs.
For instance, another NGO or campaign may want WAC's help to teach people about the value of pre-school education or make them more aware of the problem of child sexual abuse, or the group may see a need to work with people about how to deal with rape or damage to their environment.
The theatre group develops a dramatic story that explains the problem and allows the audience to see ways to prevent or deal with it.
Their stage comes alive with frightened children, happy brides, distraught fathers, wise old women, and environment monsters, as well as some of the beloved characters of Fiji culture and legend. Theatre techniques allow audience participants to work through some of their own problems and anguish, sometimes with tears, often with new insights.
Peni was also the first Coordinator of the Fiji Women's Rights Movement and served as a director of the SPCA.
Constantly fighting stereotypes is a major personal challenge for Peni
"For example, because I am a 'white woman', or a 'single mother', and nonreligious, or because of the way I dress or behave, people think I am not from Fiji, or not local, or that I don't understand life here and that I must be rich. In fact, I am a landless single mother and a working woman who is barely able to survive sometimes," she said.
She says networking amongst women is important in today's world because women are the ones who encourage women.
"It helps us not to feel alone, and we can teach each other tricks of survival and change."
Working with a group of nine other wonderful, committed actors and great network of mediators under the age of 25 from Nausori and Lautoka she counts as her biggest achievements. WAC's work in theatre for more than 15 years is her pride.
"Inside every woman is a bit of magic! Use it." Peni advises.
