Tessa Fowler

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Tessa Fowler
Member of the Representative Assembly
In office
1975–
ConstituencyPort Vila

Tessa Fowler is a Vanuatuan former politician. She and Mary Gilu were the first women elected to the Representative Assembly, serving from 1975 to 1977.

Biography[]

Born Tessa Franklin,[1] Fowler earned an MA in philosophy, politics and economics at the University of Oxford. She subsequently worked as a researcher in the United States and England.[2] She relocated to the New Hebrides in 1958 to work as an economist for the British administration.[3] Although she moved onto Hong Kong in 1959 and then returned to England, she returned to the New Hebrides permanently in 1961.[2] She ran two trading stores and earned money from translating.[2] In 1964 she was the first person to be employed by the new Chambers of Commerce.[2] She also became a dealer of local artwork, selling to foreign museums.[3] In addition, she wrote articles for Pacific Islands Monthly and in 1971 began contributing to Nakamiel, a monthly news magazine.[4] She married an Australian builder and artist.[2]

A member of the (UCHN), Fowler was elected to the municipal council of Port Vila in the in a seat reserved for British nationals.[5] She was subsequently contested the Port Vila constituency for the UCNH in the November 1975 legislative elections.[5] Alongside Mary Gilu, she was one of the first two women elected to the territory's legislature.

References[]

  1. ^ Vanuatu - Tessa Fowler - Artifacts National Library
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e The sweet life of the Islands The Age, 20 February 1968
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b Hugo DeBlock (2018) Artifak: Cultural Revival, Tourism, and the Recrafting of History in Vanuatu p7
  4. ^ New Hebrides gets a political voice Pacific Islands Monthly, October 1971, p45
  5. ^ Jump up to: a b Zorian Stech (2017) Une confrontation comme nulle autre dans le Pacifique: la France, la Grande-Bretagne et la vie politique au condominium franco-britannique des Nouvelles-Hébrides (1945-1980)
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