Young Pacific Leaders alum Tahina Booth attended the inaugural YSALI Entrepreneurship and Civic Engagement workshop, staged in Colombo, Sri Lanka, in August. Photo credit: YSALI.
By Michelle Curran
Strategic Communications, Pasifika TV
Having witnessed some of the challenges her home country of Papua New Guinea is faced with every day, Young Pacific Leaders (YPL) alum Tahina Booth is a firm believer that collaboration between nations is a catalyst of change.
This belief has been reinforced after attending the launch of the United States Government’s Young South Asian Leaders Initiative (YSALI) in Colombo, Sri Lanka, along with her YPL alumni brother Shalom Ngaro.
Tahina Booth and Shalom Ngaro and YSALI friends in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
The pair were invited as YPL representatives, to the inaugural three-day YSALI Entrepreneurship and Civic Engagement workshop in August, where 80 youth leaders from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka gathered to network and address shared challenges.
Tahina says collaboration between the likes of YPL, YSALI and the Young Southeast Asian Leadership Initiative (YSEALI) is crucial, as no one country can face these challenges alone.
“Violence, natural disasters, and exclusion do not stop at borders,” Tahina says.
“Our ancestors navigated the ocean together; now we need to do the same through policy and programs.
“Collaboration means we don’t duplicate, we amplify.”
The 40-year-old from Port Moresby is the founder of the Grass Skirt Project, which pioneers social change in PNG by harnessing the unifying power of sports to address gender-based violence and promote equality.
In 2024, Tahina was selected to attend the YPL Sports Leadership Program in Los Angeles.
“That experience pushed me to launch Tahina Booth Consultancy and Ma Sports Diplomacy company, which are now operational,” Tahina says.
“It was there I saw the opportunity to address the leadership gap for women in sport across the Pacific.”
Tahina says she joined YPL because the movement reflects what her community has taught her – that leadership is collective; it comes from our ancestors and our land.
“I wanted to bring PNG’s truth into that space, to show that even in one of the hardest places in the world for women and youth, we are building new systems through sport.”
As a former tri-international elite athlete in rugby league, Olympic weightlifting and powerlifting, Tahina combines her sports expertise with social advocacy to drive impactful change and plays a pivotal role on the Department of Foreign Affairs Australia’s Pacific Women Lead Governance Board, overseeing a significant investment of $170M in gender equality initiatives.
“My interest is in how sport can shift power – not just games, but sport as ceremony, as platform to ignite important discussions and around kastom, healing and as a way to challenge violence and build leadership,” Tahina says.
She adds taking part in YSALI made sense to her as the struggles of violence, unemployment and exclusion in PNG are not isolated.
“Southeast Asia and the Pacific share challenges of youth, gender, and security – and these workshops are bridges for us to learn across the ocean.
“Young people are not waiting; they are already leading.
“From Sri Lanka to Fiji to PNG, youth are building businesses, peace programs, and climate action.
“The takeaway is we need more direct investment in youth-led models, not token consultation.”
Inspired, Tahina plans to continue working towards her goal of creating one million youth leaders by 2050 through the Grass Skirt Project.
“That’s not a slogan, it’s already happening through Gymbox, 10 Million Strong, and the Hevea Cup initiatives.
“I hope my work shows the Pacific can design its own solutions, rooted in kastom and accountability to ancestors.
“My impact will be seen in reduced violence, in youth who feel they belong, and in policies shaped by Pacific voices.”
Visit the YSALI and YPL websites for more information on the US Department of State initiatives.
