5 December 2013, Suva
Fiji -
A young woman in a
smart green dress - or jaba - stood before hundreds of people at the Vodafone
Arena and opened her presentation in her indigenous Fijian (iTaukei) language
with an introduction of herself.
Ms. Nunia Thomas hails from Drauniivi in Ra and in her introduction
she identified her clan and family animal totem. Then she addressed the rest of
the room in English to translate her introduction.
Acknowledging her cultural identity and mentors before
passionately advocating the importance of the environment and biodiversity is a
trademark of Ms Thomas.
The 32-year-old is the director of Fijian conservation group
Nature Fiji-Mareqeti Viti. She completed post-graduate studies at the
University of the South Pacific (USP) in 2007 and is now one of Fiji’s leading
herpetologists.
Ironically, Ms. Thomas talks about her path to her present
work as an accident and blessing.
Ms. Thomas is the middle child of five siblings of the late
Mr. Saimoni Aca Thomas and Mrs. Mereseini Thomas.
Ms. Thomas described her late father as a feminist who
encouraged her to be a strong and independent woman. She described her parents
as her mentors and advisors.
Ms. Thomas had a keen interest in language, literature and
law but followed her parents' advice to pursue science.
“I was naturally interested in science anyway so I kept at
it but at university level I wanted to do law,” she said. “I initially was
going to disobey my parents' advice.”
Ms. Thomas is a former student of St. Joseph’s Secondary
School and at school, her English teacher, Mrs.
Luvena was her mentor. After leaving high school she met her Mrs. Luvena
on a bus, who advised her to pursue science.
After high school, Ms. Thomas applied for admission to the
biology and chemistry program me at USP but because of limited space, she had
to consider the only other option - environmental science.
“I looked at it and I thought okay, I’ll go into
environmental science and I did. It was geography and biology and I fell in
love with geography right then and there,” she said.
Thomas said her main inspiration were her lecturers and
professors and the friends she made within the programme.
Ms. Thomas graduated in 2002 and became a graduate assistant
at USP’s South Pacific Regional Herbarium. She then secured a scholarship to go
into post-graduate studies and was approached in 2007 by Mr Dick Watling to
join Nature Fiji-Mareqeti Viti. After graduation, she joined Nature
Fiji-Mareqeti Viti as their first recruit and since then has been involved in
various projects and preparing of research papers.
Her message to young people is listen to the advice of
parents and mentors before making a decision. Ms. Thomas said she has had many
challenges on her journey but she was taught by her parents to view the
challenges as an opportunity. She hopes in the future, she could work with
children and instil values in young people to have a better appreciation of
their culture and nature.
Originally published
on the SPREP blog and the 9th Pacific Islands Nature Conservation and Protected
Areas conference bulletin
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