In a bid to change the patriarchal and conservative outlook surrounding gender in Fiji, Eta Tale Maisolomone Phillia Apa has put her hand up to be a contestant in the 2022 Miss Tebara pageant.
The 19-year-old is among the seven contestants vying for the Miss Tebara title at the 2022 Vodafone Tebara Carnival which is currently underway at Syria Park, Nausori.
Sharing maternal links to Lomaiviti, Miss Pak and Save is in the process of completing her Bachelors in secondary education majoring in Industrial Arts at university.
“In the society I come from, they still have a very traditional view surrounding gender and I want to change that mindset,” she said.
“There’s this mindset that women only belong in the kitchen while men are supposed to be doing the hard jobs but I believe that men can be very good cooks and women can be very good builders.”
She said she fell victim to stigmatisation when she opted to study industrial arts.
“When they (some family members) got to know that I was taking technical drawing in secondary school, they were very angry.”
Miss Apa said being selected as a contestant came as a surprise.
“I stay in the university hostel and when one of the girls from the hostel came for the audition, they said they needed more girls – so I volunteered but never thought that I would be selected.
“I am doing my best to prepare for the competition while completing my school work as I try to do my tutorials and other activities during my free time in between classes.”
She said her parents would be travelling all the way from Vanua Levu to support her.
