If the Pu o te Hau Shelter can save so many people in distress, it is thanks to three women who have marked its history.
About Founder Tuianu Legayic (1922-1995)
Tuianu Legayic is an emblematic figure in Polynesia. A pioneer of women’s involvement in politics, she was the third woman to sit in the hemicycle of the Territorial Assembly when she joined Gaston Flosse in 1972. Eleven years later, she was still making her mark in Papara by becoming one of the first women mayors.
Very committed to the defence of underprivileged children, Tuianu Legayic set up the schoolbag operation at the beginning of each school year in Papara. But her greatest struggle was for poor and isolated women.
In 1970, she was the very first president of Planned Parenthood. Four years later, she created Papara’s first women’s association, Tiare Rau. With the desire to bring people together, in 1982, she founded the Women’s Council, which has since become an institution. At its head, she was able to inaugurate the first World Women’s Day in 1983, but also had the first emergency shelter for women in difficulty, Pu o te Hau, built.
About the President of the Women’s Council Minarii Chantal Galenon
Originally from the island of Tahiti, raised in the traditional Polynesian values of “respect, sharing and solidarity”, Minarii Chantal Galenon discovered, at the age of 15, the story of her grandmother. “Today everything I live is thanks to the name I bear Minarii: Little Love, the name of my grandmother who was a battered woman.”
She tries to understand why these forgotten, invisible women have become the scapegoat of a society that no longer recognizes itself. “Three abused women a day is serious. It’s essential to fight this violence, to help each other, to get involved.” She decided to become a teacher, then a school principal. For her, education is the key to defend, value and respect women.
At the same time, Minarii Chantal Galenon became involved in politics. Elected representative to the Assembly since 2008, she is running for the first time as head of the list in the municipal elections of Papeete in 2020. For 25 years, she has embodied the resilience and awakening of Polynesian women. “Women have their say, women must be defended, women must be heard and above all, they must be respected for who they are.” Minarii Chantal Galenon fights for their rights and accompanies the distress of some. She chairs the association Vahine Piri Rava and, since 2014, the Polynesian Women’s Council, which manages the Pu o te Hau emergency shelter.
About the director Rowena Tuhoe
Since 2018, Rowena Tuhoe has been the director of the Pu o te Hau Emergency Shelter. She has had a difficult journey to this position.
After a “very happy” childhood and studies in Auckland, she returned to the Fenua to become a professor of eco-management. But the birth of her son will completely change her life. She decides to become a wife and housewife. Rowena Tuhoe then enters the circle of verbal and psychological domestic violence. She explains to Femmes de Polynésie: “I gained 120 kilos, I had no social life anymore and I had curled up on myself.” She is “internally destroyed”.
But in 2016, she chooses to separate from her partner. With the help of her family, the young woman rebuilds herself. “I could not remain the woman I had become and give this image to my child.”
Rowena Tuhoe applied for the position of director of the Pu o te Hau Center two years later. Since then, she has been accompanying women in difficulty to this peaceful haven on the outskirts of Papeete. For her, the important thing is that women who are victims of violence regain confidence in themselves. “The important thing is to love. First of all, oneself, by regaining self-esteem and self-confidence, and then the other person. ‘You are beautiful!” Every day, I like to say that to the women at the Centre. And it’s true.”
Next in Episode 3: Pu o te Hau shelter
Photo credit : Danee Hazama
Supported by Air Tahiti Nui
Océane Segura
