The conversations at ‘Women Deliver’ around gender justice extended well beyond policy rooms and into unexpected arenas – including the world of sport.
At the Women Deliver 2026 conference in Narrm/Melbourne, the session “Breaking Ground: Stories of Power, Sport, and Community Change” explored how sport can be used not only for recreation, but also as a tool to challenge violence, shift harmful gender norms, and create economic opportunities for women and girls.
Anchored in the documentary Breaking Ground, which follows the rise of women’s rugby in Fiji, the discussion brought together practitioners, policymakers, funders, and advocates to examine sport as an under-recognised pathway for investment in feminist movements. Reflecting the Women Deliver 2026 theme, “Change calls us here,” speakers highlighted how locally led initiatives are driving community change across the Pacific.
● Rusila Nagasu: Fijian rugby star, Olympic bronze medallist, team captain, and 2022 Sportswoman of the Year.
● Alison Davidian: UN Women leader working on gender equality and peace in the Pacific.
● Tahina Booth: Founder of the Grass Skirt Project, which uses sport to advance gender equality and community development in Papua New Guinea.
The session was moderated by Marlee Silva, an Indigenous Australian author and sports media presenter who uses storytelling as a tool for social change.
What emerged was not a simple celebration of sport, but a layered and critical conversation. One that recognised its power, confronted its contradictions, and pushed beyond easy answers to ask what it will take to deliver real, lasting change.
Sport has long been more than just play for women and girls – it has served as a powerful site of resistance, visibility, and social change.
Panelists drew on lived and professional experience to show how sport can open up conversations around gender, violence, and power in ways that are often difficult to have elsewhere.
Alison pointed to the benefits of investing in sport to drive gender justice, highlighting “the courage to step into a space that isn’t designed for them” – a reflection directed in particular to Rusila’s experience within women’s rugby in Fiji. She noted that “when you see women are strong, it challenges the idea that strength is for one gender”, shifting long-held messages about who strength belongs to. Through this, she argued that sport can disrupt ingrained beliefs about women and reshape gender norms in ways that are both visible and lasting.
Building on this, and as also reinforced in the documentary, Rusila emphasised that the priority remains “equal rights for everybody to have the same space as the men,” reflecting the hardships faced by the women’s rugby
team in Fiji as they worked to be seen and taken seriously within sport. She spoke to the importance of women being “seen and heard,” particularly in contexts where their participation is not only undervalued in sport, but also shaped by wider gender expectations in the community, where traditional roles around domestic responsibilities can limit time, access, and opportunity to participate.
Her focus extended to safeguarding opportunity and access for future generations of women and girls, recognising progress while making clear that meaningful equality in sport is still a work in progress.
This was further deepened by Tahina’s reflection on sport as a deeply personal space of healing and empowerment. As a survivor of gender based violence, she emphasised: “Sport connects any culture, any person, sport [for me] was about reclaiming my body and voice… I was able to find a way for me to heal, not them [perpetrator], but me.’
Together, these perspectives show that sport is not simply about participation, but a cultural space where gender norms are challenged and agency is reclaimed. It also creates opportunities for voice, visibility, and healing, while recognising that this transformation is still ongoing.
Structural inequality remains embedded within sport systems, influencing access, funding, and decision-making at every level. Panelists pointed to several key barriers that illustrate the gaps within current structures.
Tahina called for “the big powers to recognise sport as a mechanism,” urging stronger government commitment to “putting funds and resources around it,” particularly to “fund prevention” and address root causes of inequality and violence.
Alison echoed this, emphasising the need for “investment at the level of the system,” pointing to a disconnect highlighted in the documentary: while elite success can inspire, it is “sad if young girls are inspired by what they see but then there’s no transport, no pitches, no resources to get involved.”
Alongside this, there was a clear critique of how sport is currently funded and delivered, with rigid government models often relying on short-term or ‘tick-box’ approaches.
