MICHAEL DOM

“In order to find solutions for socioeconomic improvement it is very important to define precisely what is good for a society within its cultural context”

LAE – A few years ago, Papua New Guinea’s prime minister, James Marape, was incredibly foolish not to support the development of a literary culture when it came knocking at his door in the guise of writers Daniel Kumbon, Caroline Evari and Betty Wakia (see photo).

Or perhaps he wasn’t being foolish. Perhaps the snub was purposeful.

EDDIE TANAGO
| Act Now

PORT MORESBY - A new report calls for urgent action by Papua New Guinea and overseas authorities to address long standing issue related to illegal logging, human rights abuses and environmental harm.

The report, published by community advocacy organisation Act Now and the Jubilee Australia Research Centre, focuses on Forest Clearing Authorities (FCAs), a type of logging licence.

AG SATORI

POT MOSBI - Wantok blo mi ya toksave olsem klostu em bai go long ples bilong maloons long kaikaim lanz wantaim ol lain First Nations Writers Festival.

Mi gat bikpla hamamas long em.  Mi yet mi bin igat bikpla halivim long em long despla buk.  Tok ‘moto-moto’ em toktok bilong mi na sapos yu rit insait long buk, yu ken tok tenk yu lo mi.

MICHAEL DOM

LAE - In my line of work as a research and development agent, I’ve often had the time to contemplate how we as a country could possibly figure a way out of the mess that our politicians always seem to drop us into, apart from those socioeconomic challenges that are a natural result of our environment.

There are definitely no quick–fix solutions, and I think the last fifty years of nationhood have taught us that much; for my generation, it seems we’re not getting out of this one alive.

MATHIAS KIN

KUNDIAWA - This article explains the significant Chimbu custom of gi alla paunga which in the Keri tokples of South Simbu literally means girl sleep inside at first menstruation of a young girl, which marks the transition from girlhood to womanhood.

The article features Olmi of Sua village of the Keri Horagan clan. I delve into intricate isolation rituals, the alla paunga, typically lasting about seven days but can take fewer depending upon the wealth, standing and ability of the family,.

PETER S KINJAP

Albert Maori Kiki visiting the hospital at Saiho 1951 (Albert Speer)

Ten Thousand Years in a Lifetime: A New Guinea Autobiography by Albert Maori Kiki, FrederickA Praeger (First Edition), New York, January 1968, 190 pages. This book is widely available in various editions from second hand bookstores. You need not pay more than $20 - $40

‘Ten Thousand Years in a Lifetime’ is more than an autobiography; it is a bridge between two worlds.

In this ground-breaking autobiography, Sir Albert Maori Kiki recounts his life journey from a traditional village upbringing in Gulf Province to becoming one of the key political figures in Papua New Guinea’s push for independence.

EDITED BY KEITH JACKSON

Michael Somare and John Momis - architects
and builders of the PNG Constitution

Call out for video & pictorial material
| Keith Jackson

NOOSA –Following the House of Assembly elections of early 1972, the Papua New Guinea parliament appointed a Constitutional Planning Committee to make recommendations for a constitution for the then self-governing territory, with a view to eventual independence.

Now film-maker and journalist Max Uechtritz has taken on the difficult task of honouring in film the work of the committee. Difficult because 53 years later the people involved have died or are aged and pictorial material of the committee and its work is rare and hard to come by.

DANIEL KUMBON

Iron bridge built across the Lai River at my Kondo village.
The road is now sealed but was previously
a log bridge and before that a vine bridge

KANDEP - I was born into a primitive world. I didn’t fully understand what independence was about. It was only after about 12 years schooling I saw my country gain its independence

But nobody - teachers, patrol officers, nobody - told us independence would come so early.

EDITED BY KEITH JACKSON

The Chinatown district of Honiara on 26 November 2021, the third day of violence (Genocide Watch)

Pacific unrest: Solomons & New Caledonia
| From Foreign Affairs Department, Australia

HONIARA - We continue to advise exercise a high degree of caution in Honiara. Political unrest can occur in Honiara during parliament sittings, elections and times of political uncertainty. Petty crime, break-ins, robbery and more serious offences including sexual assault can occur. There has also been an increase of mosquito borne illnesses, including malaria and dengue fever.

BUSA JEREMIAH WENOGO

Busa Jeremiah Wenogo (right)

Commemorating my attainment of a Master of Economics & Public Policy degree
on 30 April 2025 at the University of PNG’s 70th Graduation Ceremony

This is for you Papa,

For being rejected in school because of no school fees many seasons ago.

For leaving behind all that you know to come to a strange and foreign land.

For braving the harsh working environment at the risk of your own life to pay for my school fees.

PETER S KINJAP

My Mother Calls Me Yaltep by Sir Ignatius Kilage, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, January 1984, 121 pages. This book is widely available in various editions from second hand bookstore. You need not pay more than $30 - $40

My Mother Calls Me Yaltep is a deeply personal and culturally rich narrative that charts the journey of a young Papua New Guinean boy growing up in the Highlands during the transformative years of colonial rule, missionary influence and eventual national awakening.

EDITED BY KEITH JACKSON

Australia warns on local violence
| From Department of Foreign Affairs, Australia

DFAT continues to advise travellers to exercise an elevated degree of caution in Papua New Guinea due to high levels of crime, tribal violence and civil unrest. Even higher levels apply in some areas. Local level elections will take place across the country between this month and August 2025. Be alert to the possibility of tensions and violence during elections.

DANIEL KUMBON

The pig being lifted up for another person to kill as a sacrifice during a ritual performance at an Enga cultural show (Daniel Kumbon)

KANDEP - I was born a kanaka at Kondo village in Kandep, Enga Province, sometime in the mid-1950s.

As a small boy, when I played with other children, there were no roads: we followed bush tracks to play on the village square (kamapu).

EDDIE TANAGO
| Act Now!

PORT MORESBY - World Press Freedom Day was observed on Saturday, as it is every year, to raise awareness of the importance of freedom of the press and remind governments of their duty to uphold and maintain freedom of expression.

Papua New Guinea is one tough environment to be a journalist or an advocate for good governance and human rights.

EDITED BY KEITH JACKSON
| From a patrol report by Rob Barclay

NOOSA - In the mountains of Chimbu District in March 1973 a tragedy unfolded. A Council Services Unit vehicle, driven by a man from the Kamanagu clan, struck three people near Kundiawa township. Two died—a man and a woman from the Endugwa clan—while another woman suffered injuries.

What followed reveals the complex interplay between traditional compensation practices and modern administrative systems in pre-independence Papua New Guinea.

MICHAEL DOM

Illustration by Bing AI Image Creator

I must hold things inside until they are
mature and dried. I must bury them well,
so that they become a seed, sprouting with
beauty of life, in a new expression.

I must speak, not when the time might seem right,
not might nor right; my time must be needful.
The root that cracks the pavement has not might,
nor might it be right. Truth is powerful.

KEITH JACKSON & AI CLAUDE

NOOSA – I was casually browsing through my collection of the six Anthologies produced under the auspices of the Crocodile Prize between 2011 and 2016 when I came upon the hand-made card pictured here.

It was a thank-you card from barata blo mi the late author Francis Nii, whose death in 2019 was a great tragedy to the continuing development of a vibrant Papua New Guinean literature.

PETER S KINJAP

Sana: An autobiography of Michael Somare, Niugini Press, Port Moresby, 1975, 152 pages including 20 pages of illustrations and portraits. Sana is widely available from second hand bookstores and you need not pay more than $40 - $50

PORT MORESBY - As Papua New Guinea celebrates its 50th anniversary of independence, it is fitting to reflect on the legacy of the nation’s founding father, the late Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare.

His autobiography, Sana, is not just a personal account of his life but a profound historical document that chronicles the struggles, triumphs and aspirations of a nation that was emerging from colonial rule to sovereignty.

KEITH JACKSON

Photo: Keith's diary. A journey by
sea in the Maldive Islands, 1978

MALÉ, WEDNESDAY

Sinbad, which will take us to the northern atolls, is about 40 feet long and spacious—a civilised vessel. It's also equipped with a refrigerator, which gives me cause to bring a carton of Tiger Beer aboard, enough to last the week for Rod Thompson and me. Being Muslims my Maldivian colleagues Badurul Naseer and Hussain Mohamed and the Sinbad crew of four do not drink alcohol.

EDITED BY KEITH JACKSON

Innovation - AI is not science fiction any more.
It’s already working in PNG. (Photo: Peter S Kinjap)

Trump making centre-left winners
| The Washington Post | Extract

The (electoral) precedent set in Canada could soon be repeated in another Commonwealth country. Australia’s federal election is this weekend, and the incumbent centre-left government of prime minister Anthony Albanese appears to have been boosted by Trump’s belligerence.

MICHAEL DOM

I want to do that, I want to go where
My childhood was crushed. I want to go there
With the grandchild my father never saw

I want to stand in the room where he died,
Sit on the steps where I crouched, watching him
Press his cold back against the central heating

EDDIE TANAGO

PORT MORESBY - Act Now, in collaboration with Starbox Production, has launched a new music video as part of a wider campaign to protect and promote customary land in Papua New Guinea.

“We are glad to partner with Act Now to promote this very important message,” said Starbox Band Manager, Willie Sarenga.

EDITED BY KEITH JACKSON

John Menadue - What he has achieved with Pearls and Irritations is by any measure exceptional

 An eminent man & his website
| Keith Jackson

NOOSA – The Pearls and Irritations website was conceived by John Menadue AO in 2013 as a “platform for good policy discussion…. missing from the media” It has long since been clear that it has become a remarkable gift to Australians.

Menadue, its founder and editor-in-chief, is himself a remarkable man who, in a truly eclectic career, was to serve his country at the highest level: as Secretary for Prime Minister and Cabinet, and later as Secretary for Immigration, then as Ambassador to Japan and finally as the CEO of Qantas.

KEITH JACKSON

The six Anthologies of the Crocodle Prize

NOOSA, QLD - The Crocodile Prize was established in 2010 by Philip Fitzpatrick and me to boost Indigenous literature in Papua New Guinea which had flourished around the time of independence in 1975 and since fallen on hard times.

The first Prize and its accompanying Anthology of stories, essays and poetry made its public appearance in September 2011 and thereafter it was celebrated each year until 2016, with an Anthology published in every one of those years.

EDITED BY KEITH JACKSON

Today is World Malaria Day
| Keith Jackson with assistance from Medscape

NOOSA – I remember all too clearly my two bouts with malaria in Papua New Guinea. The first occurred without my knowledge until later blood tests. It was 1966 and I was at my remote school at Gagl in Chimbu District, as it was then. My second, and far more serious, hospitalised me for two weeks in Kieta, Bougainville, in 1972. That one came with pneumonia and bronchitis – a powerful mix. More than 50 year have passed, and so it seems has the malaria.

KEITH JACKSON

Carteret Islands,  Bougainville. “We have to move now” -
Islanders watch as their home disappears into the sea
(The Catholic Leader)

NOOSA, QLD - Project 2025 came to public attention when it was serially savaged by the Democrats as they sought to lose the 2023 US presidential election.

The project came to life about this time in 2022 when some of the more active minds of the Republican Party came together to plan their blueprint for changing the USA if their party under Donald J Trump won the election – which he duly did.

EDDIE TANAGO
| Act Now!

The government needs to ensure assure that millions of dollars
given to MPs are used for legitimate projects, not stolen
for personal use (Bing AI generated image)

PORT MORESBY – We at Act Now welcome the Papua New Guinea government’s announcement of extra funding for the Department of Implementation and Rural Development (DIRD) to allow the physical inspection of district projects funded under the Service Improvement Program.

Physical inspections will assure the government that the multi-million dollars handed out to PNG's members of parliament are used for legitimate projects and not diverted for personal use.

PHILIP FITZPATRICK

TUMBY BAY, SA - PNG Attitude was originally devised as a forum for people with a common interest in the relationship between Papua New Guinea and Australia

While biased to that end, the topics discussed on the blog are far reaching.

BERNARD CORDEN

Illustration by Create Bing AI

BRISBANE - The United States of Amnesia was founded by some rather bright people although we haven’t seen them since.

Its current education crisis is somewhat foreboding and reminiscent of the curriculum in Nazi Germany throughout the 1930s.

A dystopian propaganda machine has degenerated into a pedagogy of repression that is relentlessly endorsed as patriotic education.

PHILIP FITZPATRICK

A characterisation of the wealthiest and saddest nation on earth (Create Bing AI / Keith Jackson)

TUMBY BAY, SA - We all know about inequity and the envy and jealousy it can create. History tells us that in extreme cases it can cause violence and even revolution.

At a macro level it is almost axiomatic that a downtrodden people will eventually rise up against their oppressors.

PHILIP FITZPATRICK

TUMBY BAY, SA - The news that Pope Francis had died came part way through the television news.

It was presented as a short news flash. By the end of the program, however, there came a comprehensive biography of the pontiff and a tribute to him.

KEITH JACKSON

Maldive Islands (part)

MALÉ, NOVEMBER 1977 – It’s always the same. After a hectic morning finalising preparations for the voyage, I board Silver Beam dreading I’ve forgotten something important. As we’ll learn later, I should have remembered to purchase a life jacket. But that was never on my list.

Our first night was to put on a show at the Thaa Atoll chief’s island. But by late afternoon we're making such slow progress – one of the twin engines is playing up – that the gathering dusk compels us to anchor off the small island of Bandido at the far northern extreme of Thaa.

MATHIAS KIN

In this vintage photograph, Kora Kama of Kagul village
in the Sinasina Dom area holds a huge Gaima axe,
part of a bride prize (L G Vial, May 1939)

KUNDIAWA – For centuries, the Gorku tribe of Chimbu in the central highlands of Papua New Guinea produced the famous Di Gaima stone axe until the advent of steel axes in the 1940s ended the practice.

The production of the axe was of great importance in stabilising the lives of a once nomadic people who became the Gorku tribe of the vast Dom language group.

EDITED BY KEITH JACKSON

Our passionate Welshman passes on
| From Robert Forster

NORTHUMBRIA, UK – Arthur Williams’ daughter, Phyllis, has told me that Arthur has “finally passed away”.

His nemesis was cancer.

There was a pleasing response from friends of PNG Attitude to the news that Arthur was gravely ill.

Phyllis thanks her father’s former colleagues for the effort they made in writing to him.

And she confirmed the family will add the many stories they received to the memorial book they are putting together.

Phyllis added that if anyone wants to send others they will also be used for the memorial book.

Her email address is [email protected].

Marape untroubled to win no confidence vote

| From Keith Jackson

NOOSA, QLD - It was not much of a vote of no confidence that incumbent prime minister James Marape won the other day.

Opposed candidate, entrepreneur and philanthropist Sir Peter Ipatas, managed only 16 votes to Marape’s 89.

So the spoiled MPs will again eat well this Easter on the tens of millions of kina that will continue to flow their way.

This is a good opportunity to remind readers of the prime ministers who have governed PNG over the past 50 years since independence:

Sir Michael Somare, East Sepik Province

Sir Julius Chan, New Ireland Province

Paias Wingti, Western Highlands Province

Sir Rabbie Namaliu, East New Britain Province

John Giheno, Eastern Highlands Province

Bill Skate, Port Moresby, National Capital District

Sir Mekere Morauta, Gulf Province

Sir Sam Abal, Enga Province (briefly acting)

Peter O’Neill, Southern Highlands Province

James Marape, Hela Province

Stories of the fabled trusty typewriter

| From Keith Jackson

NOOSA, QLD – Phil Fitzpatrick and I exchange the occasional missive as our pleasure dictates, and most recently this concerned the elemental subject of the writers’ favourite typewriter, or mangle as my mate the author Brian Hungerford would call it.

While studying at ASOPA, the much lamented Australian School of Pacific Administration, I purchased a Hermes’ Baby which followed me around like Mary’s little lamb for the 12 or 14 years.

At that stage of my life it mainly clattered out academic work and scripts and freelance news items for the ABC, Pacific Islands Monthly et al.

Here's my, my, my Corona, never used in anger but some good ol' boys bashed it around before me.

It's a Corona 3 and was manufactured in 1919. Just in time for the Americans to come into the war (that's a joke, right?)

| From Philip Fitzpatrick

TUMBY BAY, SA - I had a trusty Olivetti Dora. It went to ASOPA with me and I remember taking a train to Redfern where I had it “tropic proofed” ready for the move to PNG. 

I think they probably gave its innards a spray with WD40. I typed all my University of Queensland External Studies essays on it and all my journalistic efforts. I dropped it off at an Op shop after buying my first Amstrad computer.

While I was in Queensland I came across another typewriter in pristine condition and bought it for sentimental reasons.

The vinyl case was buggered so I made a wooden one in the same style and colour. It’s now sitting beside my desk. I occasionally take it out and bang out the odd letter.

I didn’t have too much trouble getting ribbons for it because, like the old manual cameras, there are people who still sell them and their accoutrements along with renovated machines. I believe Tom Hanks has got a fine collection.

I didn’t carry a notebook on patrol because we were required to fill out a daily Field Officers Diary (I’ve still got the vinyl folder). I occasionally got comments back after submitting the copies and I think I was chided more than once for my more colourful observations.

I also took the typewriter on the less arduous patrols…..

SIMON DAVIDSON

Simon Davidson

Yesterday, in Papua New Guinea's parliament, prime minister James Marape - who turns 54 on Thursday next week - survived a vote of no confidence. And so far, the son of a Seventh Day Adventist pastor has also survived his public image. He's widely known as Mausmarape, a corruption of the term mausmara (empty talk or bullshit). Simon Davidson tells why - KJ

PORT MORESBY - Since the founding the nation, the incumbent prime minister has been given different descriptive nicknames by the people and by the press.

Some of these monikers were given as a badge of honour; others as pure mockery.

A G SATORI

The rejection letter (Bing AI Image Creator)

“This year, we received 7,920 stories from across the globe, a new record. After careful reading and thoughtful deliberation, we’re sorry to let you know that your story was unsuccessful this year. With sincere thanks” [Message to a new, and unsuccessful, Papua New Guinean contestant in the Commonwealth Short Story Prize]

_____________

Mi pilim sorre long wantok blong mi.

I feel sad about my friend.

A G SATORI

"The police helicopter was out...."

There is a serenity in the air this morning.

Perhaps it was the rain last night.

The police helicopter was out

but the general public was going about its daily activity.