by Lamanta Lano

With the pageant title under her belt, Elsie Polosovai, the newly-crowned Miss Solomon Islands is now turning her focus on the next big tasks – her advocacy role and next year’s Miss Pacific Islands Pageant.

Elsie scooped the Miss Solomon Islands title last Saturday night in a spectacular event that featured six beautiful girls, and watched by thousands.

At 23, Elsie’s  key advocacy is women’s healthcare.

“Now it’s time to focus on my advocacy on women’s healthcare,” she said.

“Already, I’ve started talking to authorities at the National Referral Hospital’s Gynaecology and Oncology wards,” Elsie added.

“We came up with some strategic practical plans to carry out my advocacy and hopefully I can reach out to Choiseul Province as well, where I lived and where my people are.”  

Elsie entered the Miss Solomon Islands title race as Miss Lauru, the traditional name for Choiseul, her home province.

She collected six of the 10 awards of the competition categories to take home the title. These include: Speech category, Social Media category, Introduction category, Talent category, Contemporary Traditional Attire category and Questionnaire category.

“I wanted to thank everyone that supported me through through this journey, as well as my parents for flying over from New Zealand to be here with me,” Elsie said.

She also encourages girls out there to come out and participate in such platforms.

“This platform is all about representation. I think representation plays a big part in empowering women.

“When you see women or people that look like you on big stages makes you confident and empowered.”

With the first hurdle over, Elsie now turns her focus on the Miss Pacific Islands Pageant, which will be hosted in Honiara later next year.

The pageant show’s first runner up was 25-year-old Kerrie Faradotolo, who participated as Miss Tourism.

Faradotolo is a lawyer who practices as a Senior Legislative Drafting Counsel in the Attorney General’s Chambers in Honiara. She advocated for Tourism, Law and Education.

“I feel very overwhelmed, it was collective team effort, it’s not just me in front there,” Faradotolo said.

“There’s a group of several sponsors so imagine, them, their families and others who are specialized in their field like makeup artist, hair stylist, photographers and designers who were pulled in everything.

“I’m just grateful to even have a chance to compete and have that support. I’m very thankful and overwhelmed.”

Pageant Director and Board Member of Miss Pacific Islands Pageant Joyce Konofilia spoke to In-depth Solomons about this year’s event.

“I think everybody is a winner, but we will have to have one winner overall,” Konofilia said.

“So I respect the judges’ decisions and that Miss Polosovai deserves the crown just like her other sisters, so yeah I’m happy and we’re looking forward to working together with her and prepare for the Miss Pacific Islands Pageant.”

Konofilia spoke highly of the six contestants featured in the show.

“This year’s contestants are very competitive, and it makes it easy for us organizers because they can take the initiative and do their own thing and aggressively advocate for the issues that they are passionate about,” she said.

The first competition for the Miss Solomon Islands was held in March 1974 and was won by Vicky Kakai from Sulufou, Malaita. 

That was 50 years ago.

The event is not just about beauty but a platform offering young women to showcase and display their talents.

Final results:

Banar Photo Caption: Credits to Coconut Wireless Solomon Islands