Vale Agnes Titus
28 Jul, 2025
Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre (FWCC) and the Pacific Network Against Violence Against Women mourn the passing of Agnes Titus. We pay our deepest respect to her humanity and remarkable decades of work for the people of Bougainville. We extend heartfelt condolences to Agnes’ family, friends and many colleagues. Agnes was an outstanding, dedicated and very effective leader, activist, advocate, educator, community mobiliser, peacebuilder and women human rights defender. She was also a warm, kind and committed sister in the women’s movement and a founding women’s leader.
As a well-qualified social worker, Agnes was already active in the global women’s movement in the 1980s. In 1985 she joined the PNG NGO delegation to the 3rd World Conference on Women in Nairobi. She built connections beyond the shores of Bougainville and PNG. When civil war broke out in Bougainville in the late 1980s, Agnes was vocal on the frontlines, highlighting the impact on women, girls and youth.
As co-founder of Leitana Nehan Women’s Development Agency, Agnes spoke out, documented and acted to address violence against women and girls in the context of conflict, long before researchers wrote on the matter.
Agnes has been a part of our network from the beginning. She was one of the very early participants in our Regional Training Program and attended most of our Regional Training Meetings over the past three decades. She was always willing to learn and share. We all learnt a lot from her, over the years. She applied all that she learnt through her training and networks. As an active member of our network, she translated her knowledge and understanding of gender equality and human rights into her work at home and connected the global women’s movement with the local struggles of Bougainville.
Agnes never let the horrors and hardship of twelve years of civil war in Bougainville overwhelm her. She made sure her local colleagues also attended FWCC’s training so that they could together build a united front in making women’s voices heard, recruiting men as partners standing in support of women and rehabilitating youth and healing families from the devastating trauma and loss of the Bougainville war.
Agnes had intelligence, focus and was steadfast in her very important work. She had an aura and gravitas in her persona and was a strategic politician in Bougainville’s critical years of peacebuilding. Agnes gave her life to the ending violence, building peace and preparing for autonomy in her beloved Bougainville.
We honour and applaud Agnes’ outstanding contribution to equality, development and peace.
