The membership of the Great Council of Chiefs will always be dominated by traditional leaders, who are men born into these positions.
These were the words of the Marama Bale Na Roko Tui Dreketi, Ro Teimumu Kepa while speaking to FijiLive this afternoon.
The Rewa High Chief said: “We leave in a patrilineal society where male take up the positions in a family setting, the Tokatoka (sub-clan), Mataqali (clan) and Yavusa (district).
Ro Teimumu said this is still the same now, which means that not many women are in the Great Council of Chiefs.
She said that her older sister, the late Lady Lala Mara, and she were privileged to be born into the position of the title Roko Tui Dreketi.
“So in terms of the Great Council of Chiefs, that is what it is today, which is just the nature of the sacred body,” she said.
When asked on the recommendation by the GCC taskforce that one woman is to be nominated as a rep from each province, Ro Teimumu said that will just have to take its course.
“With a lot of prayer, change will come,” she added.
Ro Teimumu is part of only three women attending the meeting.
The others are Adi Finau Tabakaucoro, President of the Soqosoqo Vaka Marama and Kadavu rep Bulou Suluweti Naikelekelevesi.
