There are fewer women in politics in the Pacific Islands than in any other part of the world, according to UN Women. But this year Samoa elected a woman as its head of government - only the second Pacific Island nation to do so - thanks in part to a network of women friends who supported her every step of the way.
"This is the margarita circle," the first woman prime minister of Samoa says, raising a salt-rimmed cup. "It's a place for honest confessions."
Her friends raise their glasses.
"Manuia!" they reply - "Cheers!"
It's a Sunday afternoon and a group of around 10 have just left the village church to gather for a buffet lunch on the veranda of Fiame Naomi Mata'afa's family home in Lotofaga village.
Behind them, the clear South Pacific ocean twinkles just beyond a strip of white sand.
"Do you remember how this particular journey started for us?" asks Tauiliili Alise Stunnenberg, an independent tourism consultant and Fiame's distant cousin.
"It was just over a year ago," replies the prime minister, "the day after I resigned."
On 11 September 2020, Fiame Naomi Mata'afa quit her position as deputy prime minister for Samoa's governing Human Rights Protection Party (HRPP), objecting to controversial plans to remove the right of appeal against rulings of a traditional Samoan court dealing with land ownership and chiefly titles.
As she left office, the most senior woman in Samoa's government told the media she feared the country was "sliding away from the rule of law". READ MORE...
