Tahina Booth

Tahina founded Grass Skirt Project on a conviction that gender equity in Papua New Guinea requires more than advocacy- it requires architecture. The kind built into communities, not handed down to them.

She doesn't ask anyone to take that on faith. Under her leadership, GSP commissioned an independent Social Return on Investment analysis, validating that every $1 invested in GSP's model generates $7.90 in social return. Not through attitude change. Through structural conditions that allow women, girls, and young people to participate, lead, and compound value across generations.

A former elite athlete across Rugby League, Olympic Weightlifting, and Powerlifting, Tahina understands what sustained performance demands. She brought that discipline to a different kind of infrastructure- one designed to redistribute power, build leadership pathways, and embed gender justice into the social and economic fabric of PNG communities.

Gymbox. The Hevea Cup and Wellness Expo. The 10 Million Strong Leadership Program. These are not initiatives. They are entry points into a structural gender infrastructure system: integrated, locally governed, and designed to generate compounding returns long after any single grant cycle ends.

Tahina also serves on the Department of Foreign Affairs Australia's Pacific Women Lead Governance Board, contributing to a $170M investment in gender equality across the Pacific.

She builds structures that last. Because in PNG and in the economics of gender justice- compounding returns only begin when the infrastructure is in place.