American Samoan is one of 17 Pacific delegates to Indigenous Youth Forum

Rome, ITALY — Sabrina Suluai-Mahuka is representing American Samoa at the biennial United Nations Global Indigenous Youth Forum (UNGIYF), which is the only Indigenous-related high-level forum hosted by the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

While there are 6,000 delegates selected for this event, there are only 186 indigenous representatives, and Sabrina is 1 of 17 awardees from the Pacific region and the only awardee from American Samoa. For this application round, 481 Indigenous Youth applied to travel to the FAO headquarters in Rome, Italy from 16 - 20 October 2023. At this forum, there was representation from 7 regions of the world, 51 countries, and 97 Indigenous People’s groups. 

Sabrina was invited to be part of a panel to share about the indigenous fishing monitoring systems in American Samoa. However, upon reflection, Sabrina instead relayed the importance of giving the space for Pasifika people as their own region. In a video circulating around social media, Sabrina made a bold statement that policies and regulations should not be made about the Pacific WITHOUT Pacific representation and input. 

On behalf of the Pacific delegation, Sabrina was one of three contributors to the Pacific Region Declaration of Indigenous Youth, which held four recommendations for FAO. The recommendation are as follows: prioritizing securing the legal rights of our people and community, synthesizing traditional and customary knowledge and practices with the innovations of modernity, centralizing areas for services, opportunities, and education, to be vehicles for change and impact upon our futures, and emphasizing the need for regional capacity building through the engagement and participation of young people of the Pacific.

She also participated in a side event as one of the 11 delegates selected to take part in an adjunct meeting Indigenous Peoples Fisheries hosted by the Fisheries and Aquaculture Department in the Equitable Livelihoods team (NFIFL) in FAO HQ. Here, Sabrina was asked to share the important role of artisanal fisheries within her community's food and knowledge systems.  Participants were expected to share about the current challenges in their fisheries-based food systems, to let NFIFL know the solutions they are working on and the calls to action for FAO to support in the way forward.

Sabrina was selected based on her role as the founder and executive director of Finafinau, a nonprofit organization catered to promoting youth leadership in environmental advocacy. Sabrina works with the youth to run Finafinau’s plant nursery, host coastal restoration efforts, conduct learning workshops and summits, and engage in awareness campaigns. 

BACKGROUND

The inaugural Forum was hosted online in 2021 by the Global Indigenous Youth Caucus, Indigenous Champions of the UN Food Systems Summit, and FAO. The online forum gathered hundreds of participants including Indigenous Youth, Elders, UN agencies, FAO Members, universities, and NGOs from all seven socio-cultural regions. The 2021 UN Global Indigenous Youth Forum resulted in the Indigenous Youth Global Declaration on Sustainable and Resilient Food Systems that fed recommendations directly in the 2021 UN Food Systems Summit.