Talei Aloesi Caucau

2024 Cohort

Pronouns: she/her

Talei’s hope for the future is to help with the sustainable development of villages in Fiji, enabling them to prosper with good education and decent healthcare.

Talei is from Mua Village on Batiki Island, which is located in the Lomaiviti Province, Fiji. She has been working as a researcher for environment, gender, culture and traditional knowledge. Her objective with research and writing publications is to record Indigenous Fijian culture.

“My dream is to help preserve Fijian culture, language and identity through research and writing. I also want to work to see our people prosper on our own land, protecting our land and qoliqoli (traditional fishing grounds).”

Social change work

Talei works with Melanesian Women Today, an organisation that focuses on collecting data about Pacific women in business, as well as supporting small and medium enterprises owned by Indigenous Pacific Islanders. By marketing the businesses of Pacific Islanders and giving customers access to their social media pages and contact details, Talei aims to cut out unnecessary middlemen and help women connect directly with their customers.