25/05/2026
✨ IDAHOBIT 2026 | Webinar Wrap-Up ✨
"Pleasure is a Political Protest: Reclaiming Bodily Autonomies, Identities and Sovereignty"
Last week, ILGA Oceania and Youth OCEANs brought together some of the most powerful voices in the Pacific for a landmark IDAHOBIT webinar, and the room (virtual as it was) was electric. 🌊🏳️🌈
Here's a glimpse of what our incredible speakers shared:
🌺 Jessica Work (IPPF SROP) introduced us to the Pleasurenesia Pleasure Principles, a Pacific youth-led framework that puts pleasure, agency, and bodily autonomy at the heart of SRHR advocacy. Visualised as a woven mat, its six principles remind us that joy, safety, and dignity are inseparable. As Jessica put it: "Pacific people get to define how s*xuality, our relationships, and our well-being are discussed in our own communities."
🌺 Lady Rhonda (Co-Chair, ILGA Oceania) delivered a keynote that stopped us in our tracks. She was unflinching: the shame, rigid gender binaries, and criminalisation of our bodies are not Pacific heritage; they are colonial imports. "As Indigenous q***r leaders, we refuse to choose between our culture, our identity, and even our faith. We belong to all three."
🌺 Michelle Tovebae (Youth OCEANS, PNG) reminded us that young people are not just beneficiaries of this movement, they are its designers. She called for real investment in youth-led work and highlighted the power of existing Indigenous practices as entry points for honest, culturally grounded s*xuality education.
🌺 Quack Pirihi (ILGA Oceania, Aotearoa/Takatāpui) spoke from deep within te ao Māori, challenging the idea that gender fluidity is a Western concept. In Māori cosmology, fluidity is written into creation itself. Their tāmoko received earlier this year, intentionally weaving tāne and mokokauae traditions to honour their takatāpui identity, is living proof that tradition and identity are not in conflict.
🌺 Malone Wilson (Youth OCEANS, Fiji/Vanuatu) named it plainly: the silencing of pleasure was a deliberate colonial project. But he left us with a refrain full of hope: "The silence around pleasure is something that was taught. And because it is taught, it can be unlearned."
🌺 Dr. Penni Wolfgramm (ILGA Oceania, Tonga/Aotearoa) — clinical psychologist and co-founder of Sei Lelei spoke to the deep art of holding contradiction without collapsing. "We hold contradiction without collapsing. And that is honestly a strength." She reminded us that resilience shouldn't be a prerequisite for leadership q***r Pacific communities deserve safer structures, accountability, and care.
To everyone who joined us, shared their stories, and contributed to our interactive reflection, thank you. Your voices are the movement.
Our ancestors navigated vast oceans by reading stars and trusting currents. We carry that same wisdom into this work.
"Our ancestors did not cross vast oceans… just for us to forget who we are now." — Dean Tangata, Closing Reflection
The conversation doesn't end here. 🌟
