Joey Joleen Mataele | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Tonga |
| Occupation(s) | Campaigner Executive Director International Representative Chairperson |
| Organization | Tonga Leitis' Association - TLA |
| Known for | Transgender and LGBTQ+ campaigning and advocacy |
| Movement | Transgender Women and LGBT rights movement |
Joey Joleen Mataele is an activist for the rights of transgender women from Tonga. [1]
In 1992, Mataele co-founded the Tonga Leitis Association, and became its executive director. She is also the Pacific Island Representative on the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association Executive Board and Chairperson of the South Pacific MSM (Men Who Have Sex with Men) Network Group. [2]
In 1993, Mataele founded the Miss Galaxy Queen Pageant as an annual event to celebrate the diversity and creativity of fakaleitis and the LGBTQI community in Tonga.
Mataele is also the co-founder of the Pacific Sexual Diversity Network, which was established in 2007 during the Pacific Games in Samoa. The organisation includes members from Fiji, Samoa, the Cook Islands and Papua New Guinea, and aims to work together to gain a stronger voice at regional and international gatherings. [3]
Mataele is the subject of the feature documentary film Leitis in Waiting .
Tonga: Knight of the Order of Sālote Tupou III [4] 
United Kingdom: Recipient of the Daily Points of Light Award [5] A fakaleitī is a Tongan male at birth who has a feminine gender expression. The term fakaleitī is made up of the prefix faka- and the borrowing lady from English. Fakaleitīs themselves prefer to call themselves leitī or ladies.
The American Samoa men's national football team represents American Samoa in men's international association football and is controlled by the Football Federation American Samoa, the governing body of the sport in the territory. American Samoa's home ground is the Pago Park Soccer Stadium in Pago Pago.
The Tonga men's national football team represents Tonga in men's international football and is controlled by the Tonga Football Association, which is a part of the Oceania Football Confederation.
The Samoa men's national association football team represents Samoa in men's international football and is controlled by the Football Federation Samoa, the governing body for football in Samoa. Samoa's home ground is Toleafoa J. S. Blatter Soccer Stadium in Apia. It was known as the Western Samoa national football team until 1997.
Miss Galaxy Queen is a beauty pageant held in Nukuʻalofa, Tongatapu in Tonga, where contestants are members of Tonga's fakaleiti community. Organised by the Tonga Leitis' Association (TLA) it raises awareness of LGBTQ+ rights issues and has become a regular event in the Tongan cultural calendar.
Faʻafafine are natal males who align with a third gender or gender role in Samoa. Fa'afafine are not assigned the role at birth, nor raised as girls due to a lack of daughters, as is often claimed in western media. Rather, their femininity emerges in early childhood, and Samoans recognize them as distinct from typical boys.
The bisexual community, also known as the bi+, m-spec, bisexual/pansexual, or bi/pan/fluid community, includes members of the LGBT community who identify as bisexual, pansexual, omnisexual, polysexual and sexually fluid. As opposed to hetero- or homosexual people, people in the bisexual community experience attraction to more than one gender.
Pacific Islander Americans are Americans who are of Pacific Islander ancestry. For its purposes, the United States census also counts Aboriginal Australians as part of this group.
The Hirschfeld-Eddy Foundation was founded in Berlin in June 2007. It is a foundation focused on human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBTQ) people.
Sport in Oceania varies from country to country. The most popular playing sport for men in Australia is Australian rules football, while for women is netball. Australian rules football is the most popular sport in terms of spectatorship and television ratings. Rugby union is the most popular sport among New Zealanders, while in Papua New Guinea rugby league is the most popular. Cricket is another popular sport throughout the Oceania region.
Akava'ine is a Cook Islands Māori word which has come, since the 2000s, to refer to transgender people of Māori descent from the Cook Islands.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Tonga face legal challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents. Male homosexuality is illegal in Tonga, with a maximum penalty of 10 years imprisonment, but the law is not enforced.
Hinaleimoana Kwai Kong Wong-Kalu, also known as Kumu Hina, is a Native Hawaiian māhū – a traditional third gender person who occupies "a place in the middle" between male and female, as well as a modern transgender woman. She is known for her work as a kumu hula, as a filmmaker, artist, activist, and as a community leader in the field of Kanaka Maoli language and cultural preservation. She teaches Kanaka Maoli philosophy and traditions that promote cross-cultural alliances throughout the Pacific Islands. Kumu Hina is known as a "powerful performer with a clear, strong voice"; she has been hailed as "a cultural icon".
India–Tonga relations are the international relations that exist between India and Tonga. The High Commission of India in Suva, Fiji is concurrently accredited to Tonga.
Leitis In Waiting is a 2018 feature-length documentary about transgender rights in Tonga. It was produced and directed by Dean Hamer, Joe Wilson and Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu. The filmmakers previously explored trans rights in the Pacific in their films Kumu Hina and A Place in the Middle.
The Rugby League Pacific Championship is a rugby league tournament for national teams in Oceania. Its inaugural tournament was in 2019 as the "Oceania Cup".
Joseph Hall Wilson is an American film director and producer, best known for documentaries and impact campaigns that explore oppression and empowerment among gender and sexual minority communities. He has received an Emmy, GLAAD Media and several film festival awards, and his work has been supported by the Sundance Institute, Ford Foundation, ITVS and Pacific Islanders in Communications.
The Tonga Leitis' Association (TLA) is an advocacy and education organisation in Tonga, and is the only organisation in the country dedicated to LGBTQ+ issues.
Toʻotoʻoaliʻi Roger Stanley (1976–2018) was a Samoan faʻafafine activist, who was President of the Samoa Faʻafafine Association from its foundation in 2006 to her death.
Vakasalewalewa are people from Fiji, who were assigned male at birth but who have a feminine gender expression. In Fiji, this is understood as a traditional third gender identity, culturally specific to the country.