Day 6: Sister Lorraine Promoting Peace, Reconciliation and Forgiveness in Bougainville

This year, friend of IWDA Sister Lorraine Garasu was awarded the Order of Australia Medal for her work as ‘a voice for peace, reconciliation and forgiveness’ in Bougainville, Papua New Guinea. This extraordinary honour is only rarely bestowed on non-Australian citizens, and serves to highlight Sister Lorraine’s remarkable contributions to Bougainville society.

Sister Lorraine emerged as a leader during Bougainville’s civil war (1989-1997) and continued to advocate for an end to violence against women once the Bougainville Peace Agreement was signed in 2001, founding the Nazarene Rehabilitation Centre for women and children facing domestic and family violence.

In 2002, Sister Lorraine authored an article titled “The Role of Women in Promoting Peace and Reconciliation”, an in-depth examination of women’s actions in relation to the conflict in Bougainville. The following excerpts from this article demonstrate the courage and drive of Sister Lorraine and the women working with her throughout the conflict and post-conflict periods in Bougainville.

All Bougainvillean women were affected by the war, but their experience differed in some respects depending on whether they were in government-controlled or BRA-controlled areas. For those of us in government-controlled areas, it was ‘life between two guns’. Women experienced harassment by both the BRA and the PNGDF forces. […] Women in the BRA-controlled areas bore the brunt of the war as they suffered sustained attacks by PNGDF and Resistance forces.

Individuals like Sister Lorraine and women’s groups played a major role working for peace and reconciliation at local and national levels during the decade-long conflict. Individual women used their influence in the home to negotiate peace in their communities. Mothers went into the bush to attempt to bring their sons home. Women went into the jungle to negotiate with the local Bougainville Republican Army (BRA).

In their communities women called for peace through prayer meetings, reconciliation ceremonies, peace marches and petitions. The first public display of women’s courage was a protest against a BRA blockade that was preventing the distribution of emergency medical supplies in Buka during September 1990.

Women also played an important role in raising awareness of the suffering of the Bougainville people in the international community. Sister Lorraine describes her involvement in the ‘Bougainville Women Speak Out’ Forum held at University of Technology, Sydney, on 12 October 1996:

I met many women, including Ruby Miringka and Daphne Zale. It was the first time that the three of us had met during the eight years of war, and for the first two days there was much uncertainty between us. We soon realized, however, that we were all working for the one cause – peace. The Forum provided us with an opportunity to discuss strategies for working together even though once back in Bougainville we would be living far apart. We produced a position paper that became our stepping-stone for further peace talks. While in Australia we also met with senators and had a session at the PNG High Commission in Canberra.

This meeting allowed us to speak with a united voice about our quest for peace and play an important role at the Burnham talks in New Zealand in July 1997. About 50 Bougainvillean women also attended meetings in Lincoln, New Zealand that led to the signing of the Lincoln Agreement in January 1998. Women drew up an adjoining statement on peace, which called for greater inclusion in the peace process: ‘We, the women, hold custodial rights of our land by clan inheritance. We insist that women leaders must be party to all stages of the political process in determining the future of Bougainville.’

Women continued to play an active role throughout the peace process, from the 1998 ceasefire to the signing of the Bougainville Peace Agreement in 2001. Groups such as the Catholic Women’s Association and the Bougainville Community Integrated Development Agency (BOCIDA), founded by Ruby Miringka, had provided emergency assistance during the conflict. These groups also became the backbone of development and peacebuilding activities.

With moves towards the signing of the final agreement gathering momentum, a number of us from women’s organisations organised a Bougainville Women’s Summit in August 2001 funded by the New Zealand Government. The Summit aimed to consolidate and expand existing networks between women’s organisations, create an opportunity for women to inform themselves of the content of the Peace Agreement, and to explore ways in which women could contribute to the socio-economic and political development of the new Bougainville.

Sister Lorraine’s work helps to ensure that women’s voices are heard in the future. The Nazarene Rehabilitation Centre gives young women opportunities for political involvement by educating them on their rights and providing training.

For some, the absence of women’s voices is a great loss and they fear that reversing this may be a long-term process. According to Ruby Miringka: “For women to be effective political leaders in shaping and developing the future Bougainville, political education for women is of great importance. Also girls must be given opportunities in formal education. Women need to be educated on the rights of women!”

To read the full text of Sister Lorraine Garasu’s “The Role of Women in Promoting Peace and Reconciliation”, please visit the Bougainville Copper website.

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The 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence is an international campaign originating from the first Women’s Global Leadership Institute sponsored by the Center for Women’s Global Leadership in 1991. For each of the 16 Days from 25 November to 10 December 2011, the IWDA website will be featuring a different piece to highlight the work of our partners and explore ways that IWDA supporters can take part in the effort to end gender-based violence.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 30th, 2011 under 16_Days, Front page, Papua New Guinea.