Mary Laufa Gilu is a Vanuatuan former politician. She and Tessa Fowler were the first women elected to the New Hebrides Representative Assembly, serving from 1975 to 1977.
Biography After working as a staff nurse for the British Solomon Islands government,South Pacific Bulletin, volume 15 Gilu attended the SPC Community Education Training Centre, graduating in 1965.Report to the South Pacific Commission on Community Education for Better Family and Village Living in the South Pacific, 1970-72, p26 She subsequently became an assistant women's interests officer in Honiara,The Countrywoman, Associated Country Women of the World, 1967, p8 She later married Francis Gilu, a vicar,Fiji and Vanuatu The Australian Church Record, 11 February 1985 and moved to the New Hebrides.
She became a member of the New Hebrides National Party and contested the Santo Town constituency in the November 1975 elections. Although she was elected to the Representative Assembly, in May 1976, her election – and that of three other members – was annulled.Playing to New Hebrideans' gallery Pacific Islands Monthly, July 1976, p11New Hebrides runaround continues Pacific Islands Monthly, October 1976, p16 An appeal to Joint Court in July was unsuccessful, but Gilu was re-elected in the by-elections on 25 October, increasing her majority.Santo still 'National' Pacific Islands Monthly, December 1976, p17
The National Party boycotted the 1977 elections and Gilu lost her seat. Following independence she worked as a civil servant, becoming a social skills social development coordinator for the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports.Report: Alcoholism, South Pacific Commission, 1986, p6 In 1982 she was awarded the Vanuatu Independence Medal by President Ati George Sokomanu.The Honours Regulation, 1980 Republic of Vanuatu Official Gazette, 13 December 1982
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