Thorne Harbour Health & PacifiqueX

Sincere thanks on behalf of the PacifiqueX community to the Thorne Harbor Health organisation (Multicultural Health Educator, Michael Whelan & the Multicultural Portfolio) for supporting PacifiqueX in its website/communications. Fa’afetai lava.

We are proud to support the work promoted by Thorne Harbour Health.

PacifiqueX's Niuafe on Thorne Harbour Health's "The Bent Spoon"

Rainbow Family Represents Cook Islands at Midsumma Pride March

An endorsement by the Te Tiare Association given to the prominent Pacific Island LGBTIQA+ organisation PACIFIQUE X in late 2019, was the start of the process for preparation by the Pacific Islands diaspora community of lgbtiqa+ rainbow family of Victoria to march in the Midsumma Pride March, held on the 2nd of February in St Kilda, Melbourn

In the largest Pride March in history for Midsumma, celebrating its 25th anniversary and a total of 240 groups and organisations, Pacifique X marched under the umbrella of ‘Pacific Islands Rainbow Family’ with the theme of “In Solidarity with Pride Cook Islands”, where they visibly marched with the Cook Island LGBTIQA+ (and allies) leading the march group and holding signs of “Pride Cook Islands” and “Te Tiare” in a crowd of over 10,000 in attendance.

The Rainbow Family of the Pacific Islands had one of the most exciting marching groups with members from all representatives from the Pacific Islands marching behind the Cook Islands members in solidarity.

“We walk in solidarity with our pride cook islands family in their current challenge that they are facing, we are one family and when barriers are placed onto our communities in the islands (across all Pacific islands) it has an impact on our diaspora communities. As an organisation that has a strong cook islander contingent, we have a responsibility to do our best to amplify voices and bring awareness to issues that face their communities back on the islands.” President of Pacifique X, Tony K. Fretton

“Our LGBTIQA+ communities (and Pacific Islander communities) in the diaspora live in a time where suicide and mental health is in a crisis state, we cannot afford to lose another life in our most vulnerable segments of our community, both in the diaspora and on our home islands. When discussions are raised where bigotry and hatred is invited, discussions within families and churches are raised in conversations – not just that, but they are dangerous conversations that are usually unfounded and we do not have the capacity, or funding to run programs that counter these incidents, so for us, we have no choice but to result to bringing awareness on Social Media and engaging community through avenues like Pride March.

The people that you see marching in our Pride March, are marching because they believe everyone deserves the right to love, live authentically and be proud of who they are, not all our marchers are gay, lesbian etc. they are straight allies who see the value in standing up for something bigger than ourselves.”

“We support that fact that the Cook Islands have elected officials that will make sound decisions for the greater good of their constituents, our message is to urge the selected committee and the Government of the Cook Islands to please think of the larger impact that the reversal will have that affects every day people, these are people who are members of families, churches and communities. Please use your heart, we cannot keep burying children who commit suicide due to societal pressures – we are not fighting for our own children, we are fighting for the youth and children of straight parents.”

PacifiqueX will be marching again on the 9th of February in the Geelong Pride March (Australia) and in solidarity with Oceania Pride Auckland – who will be marching the day before in the Auckland Pride March (New Zealand) on Saturday February 8th.

Midsumma Pride March Prep Begins

Pacifique X prepares for Midsumma Pride March “Rainbow Family of the Pacific Islands” with a sign making & meet + meet at SiteWorks, the current home of Pacifique X.

Presentation and overview of requirements and march details by Director, Tony Fretton.

New faces and new passionate people of the community came along to meet, discuss and all looking forward to an amazing Pride March 2020.

Midsumma Festival + Talanoa + Org things

Midsumma Festival 2020 (Melbourne, Australia) is kicking off this weekend on Sunday with the Midsumma Carnival on the 19th of Feb.

Pacifique X put out a registration for participants to march in the “Pacific Islands Rainbow Family of Victoria” section, and to date - we have over 100 registrations from our community and allies.

Last year, VIKA Inc (former name of the group) marched in 2019 - and it marked the first time a Pacific Island group had marched in their own section as a group.

Saturday the 18th, is the planned ‘Poster & Sign Making’ session, held at SiteWorks, 33 Saxon Street, Brunswick from 2pm to 6pm and is the base Pacifique X meetings.

Upcoming TALANOA sessions, to be held in partnership with Sonja Hammer - and along the journey of TALANOA we’ll be joined by facilitators John Sinatale and Cassidy Poon - these sessions will be focused on LGBTIQA+ people from the Pacific Islands.

AGM is being scheduled for Mid-February and the new Pacifique X committee will be finalised.

The Re-brand | VIKA Inc to Pacifique X

It all begins with an idea. And so it has been for VIKA Incorporated. In a group that started through conversations and the shared power of wanting to contribute to the community, Sebastian, Katalyna and two others (who we’ll keep anonymous) were passionate about starting a group, and out of that, VIKA Inc (which was a play on the words Victoria and Pasefika) was born in late 2017.

We were then stuck with the question of, where do we start? We had to do our homework, we had to build our capacity and we had to start laying the foundations to ensure we got it as ‘right’ as we could.

The journey started by seeking out guidance from our elders in the LGBTIQA+ Pacific Islands community and we were embraced with open arms, encouragement and support - that we will never forget and will always be greatful for - we thank Resitara Apa, Latoya Hoeg, Fia’ailetoa Ken Moala, Ymania Gabriel-Brown, the Te Tiare Association - and many elders who were not from the lgbtiqa+ community, but who saw the value and the need and gave their encouragement and support, the Victoria Samoa Advisory Council, Pacific Connections and councillors from the City of Moreland (local goverment) and the former CEO of Multicultural Arts Victoria.

While these connections were being built, two of our members moved on to their own personal projects and we kept getting asked whether VIKA meant ‘Vika and Linda Bull’ (a music group) - and we knew we needed a review to ensure that our organisation name better reflected, or had an impact that was free from being associated with another brand.

Pacifique X was born. The idea is, “Pacifique” is the origin of the word “Pacific” we, living in the diaspora, live to honor our origin - and as such, every time we say “Pacifique” we can remind ourselves that, as much as words have an origin, we also have an origin, remembering to ensure that we uphold and we represent our pacific communities of origin with pride and respect. And the addition of X - is a nod to the tick box of ‘other’ ‘x’ gender, gender non-conforming, non-binary.

The hope is to celebrate our Pacific Islands Identity as well as our Gender Identity - as a general culture of the Pacific, we’re no stranger to having the space between male and female through our Fa’afafine, Fakaleiti, Aka’vaine etc communities.

Looking forward to navigating our space in Victoria, with a new core team and a stronger membership base, we will take control of our stories being told, our pacific/maori specific issues and areas to improve and we will look forward to working with established lgbtiqa+ pacific island groups and those from the broader lgbtiqa+ community. We support the #PassTheMic movement.

Thank you for visiting our space and join us on our journey.