LYNDA Tabuya is not afraid to express herself.
Whether it’s in her choice of attire or voicing an opinion in Parliament, the Social Democratic Liberal Party Whip likes to do it in style.
And while traditionalists may raise an eyebrow, for young females, Lynda is the epitome of the modern iTaukei woman.
Hailed from Tiliva, Kadavu — Lynda Tabuya believes she may have inherited her gung-ho traits from her father’s maternal bloodlines in Solotavui, Nakasaleka — the traditional builders or mataisau.
Her aunt, Lisi Tabuya, said she sometimes wondered if this was the reason that Lynda was always keen on building lives.
And much of her political career is spent looking for solutions to problems and always going the extra mile to mend and build what was broken.
Lisi, as she is commonly known, is married to Lynda’s father’s first cousin.
She said as long as she could remembered, Lynda had always been outspoken as a child. She added that her niece was not afraid to speak her mind.
Growing up in a family of educated minds, Lisi said her niece learnt a lot from her father who was an accountant.
Lynda’s father Jone Duikoro Tabuya was the eldest son of Josevata Duikoro Tabuya and Ane Lupe Tolelei Fatafehi from Sawana, Vanuabalavu.
Her father Mr Tabuya was educated and found work in Suva where he met the mother of their children.
Even though most of his children like Lynda were born and raised in Wakanisila, Kalabu, Mr Tabuya always ensured his children were taken back to Tiliva to learn about their origins and their people.
Lisi said this was one of the reasons Lynda and her siblings still had strong connections to their native island home of Tiliva.
“Just recently she was here at home for the Tiliva 7s and I joked to her that as an established politician she was just not right for our humble family home,” she said.
“Lynda is never shy of her humble beginnings and she is a very down to earth person who connects with the grassroots and her own people here in Tiliva who live humbly off the land and the sea.
“She has set a shining example for women here in the vanua o Vunimatolu within Tiliva.
“Like many successful men and women of Tiliva that have made their mark in various sectors of business and industry, they have served throughout Fiji.
“Lynda has also proved herself like our late chief Konisi Yabaki who was former minister for Fisheries and Forests in the Soqosoqo Duavata ni Lewenivanua Government.”
Lisi said Lynda was literally brought up with her other Tiliva relatives who had journeyed to Suva to try and start a new life.
Her father would always shelter them in the warmth of their two bedroom home in Wakanisila even though it got a bit cramped at times.
“This way the Tabuya siblings always had a connection to their people back in the island.
“She is a vasu to Nagasauva in Udu where her mother Taufa Tabuya who was instrumental in her upbringing is originally from, with maternal links to the Jafau clan in Moce, Lau, also originally builders from Tonga.”
Lynda was educated at Yat Sen Primary School and Adi Cakobau School where she gained academic distinction and was the dux, before gaining a Bachelor of Laws from Bond University in Australia and a Master of Laws from Washington University in St Louis, United States.
During her legal career, she worked at the Director of Public Prosecutions Office as state counsel, then University of the South Pacific as a lecturer in law and resigned from her role after being elected branch secretary for the People’s Democratic Party’s Suva branch.
In 1996 she was crowned Miss Hibiscus.
After being elected as PDP president in 2014 she contested the 2014 elections as a PDP candidate, but was unsuccessful as the party failed to meet the five per cent threshold and continued on with her work with the party re-elected as party leader, replacing Adi Sivia Qoro.
In December 2017, Lynda announced an alliance with the Social Democratic Liberal Party (SODELPA) to run candidates
on their list in the 2018 parliamentary election becoming a SODELPA candidate and subsequently resigning from the PDP.
During the election campaign she campaigned for a higher minimum wage and promised to be a “voice for employees”
in Parliament while also represented SODELPA leader Sitiveni Rabuka in his electoral fraud trial.
Lynda was the woman with the highest poll or votes last year and 5th overall candidate behind only the three political party leaders and the Attorney-General.
In her maiden speech in Parliament this year Lynda also saluted her mother’s enormous contribution in her life saying that she had taught her the quiet strength of a woman — and being resilient against the stormy weathers of life and the wisdom to shut out noise and distractions and to focus on serving others with a clean heart and malice towards none.
She was married but has divorced from her husband Robert Semann with whom she has six children.
