PNG ATTITUDE

PNGAA proposes major shift in objectives

A historic meeting of the management committee of the Papua New Guinea Association yesterday decided to ask the Association’s membership to agree to extend and reprioritise the organisation’s objectives to give pre-eminence to strengthening the Australia-PNG relationship.

After a vigorous but amicable discussion, the 15 members of the committee present voted unanimously to a set of seven objectives, which will be put to a vote of all 1,600 members at a Special General Meeting to be held in April 2009.

If members agree to the changes, and a great deal of informal support for them already has been expressed, the first objective of the PNGAA will become “to strengthen the civil relationship between the peoples of Australia and Papua New Guinea”. Other new objectives will formalise the Association’s activities as a publisher and give it a role in providing “appropriate financial, material or intellectual assistance to projects of benefit to Papua New Guinea” whether on its own or in conjunction with other agencies.

While all the Association’s existing activities will be maintained under the new objectives, the additional functions will provide the PNGAA with a role that will take it far beyond its origins as an organisation for retired expatriate PNG officials.

They will become the focal point of energetic efforts within the Association to recruit new members whose interests lie in the current Australia-PNG relationship as well as in the historical relationship.

The new objectives which will be put to the membership are:

(1) To strengthen the civil relationship between the peoples of Australia and Papua New Guinea;

(2) To foster and encourage contact and friendship with Papua New Guineans and promote friendly association among members;

(3) To foster and maintain an interest in contemporary and historical events in Papua New Guinea;

(4) To provide appropriate financial, material or intellectual assistance to projects of benefit to Papua New Guinea as an Association individually or in conjunction with other agencies;

(5) To publish journals, magazines, newsletters, websites, books and other media to inform and educate people about Papua New Guinea and to provide a means of communication among members of the Association and others;

(6) To encourage the preservation of documents, historical and cultural material related to Papua New Guinea, including the production and recording of oral and written histories;

(7) To continue to safeguard and foster the retirement conditions of superannuated members of the former services in Papua New Guinea.

A PNG magazine worth signing up for

The most recent issue of the PNGAA magazine Una Voce will be in the hands of readers early next week and as usual its replete with fascinating articles about PNG. I’d like to give you a glimpse into the contents. If you’re not already a subscriber (just $20 gets you both PNGAA membership and four issues of the journal) you can sign up here.

“A group of ten village leaders wearing face and hair decoration confronted Emanuel and Feeney. One of them, William Taupa appeared angry and excitable and was shouting “the title to the land is not right”. He approached Emanuel and they spoke briefly before Emanuel took Tapua by the arm and they moved away from the main police party. Taupa then guided Emanuel towards a path into the bush and they both walked off out of sight.” [The murder of Errol John (Jack) Emanuel GC, Derek Bell]

“Lombrum in the 1960s was a capital-B Backwater. Social life consisted of seeing the same faces in different houses. Lombrumites even had the same entertainment: at parties, invariably, they played charades; in the mess, every night, it was liar’s dice or pontoon. Once a week there was a movie; the Sydney Sunday papers came on Tuesday or Wednesday. The big excitement was the six-weekly visit by the Burns Philp liner MV Malaita, with stores and fresh food.” [Lombrum, Jerry Lattin]

“The Chief explained that it had been very hard to kill the white men as they had ‘iron skins’, but this very factor made them more vulnerable as the weight of their bodies caused them to sink into the marshy ground. It was quite obvious from this description that the ‘iron skins’ he referred to were really armour.” [Island trader, Gordon Harris]

"I figured 32 3lb packets of rice to a 100lb, in some cases perhaps 33. In one of these I would put 1/-. The native that found a 1/- in his packet would tell everybody, consequently my sale of 3lb packets of rice was fantastic! My Chinese friends were at a loss to know why their sales had dropped, so like a good friend, I was naturally sympathetic. Wouldn’t you be?” [Bilong gut taim bipor, Henry G Eekhoff]

“We were coming in to land when a jeep, without a hood, containing a group of Chinese teenagers, went racing along the only sealed strip and Cliff yelled some derogatory remarks and said ‘We’ll have to go round again”. So he gave the Moth a boost and we shot up and around again. This was too much for my fragile control [and] there were no ‘sickbags’. In desperation I struggled out of my waist length slip and used it to save the situation.” [How embarrassing, Pat Murray]

There are also articles by Jim Eames on the PNG press, Warren Martin on Emirau Island, Robin Mead on aviation, Max Hayes on the Montevideo Maru, Charles Betteridge on judo, Graham Egan on revisiting PNG and Graham Taylor and Keith Jackson on the future of the PNGAA as well as poems by Bernard Oberleuter, Jim Toner and Geoffrey Baskett.

In the aftermath of Guba, there’s hope

In the aftermath of catastrophic Cyclone Guba that devastated the Oro Province (the old Northern District) a year ago, a group of Australian educators visiting the region decided on a bold idea. They’d work with the Oro people to deliver assistance in education, health and agriculture.

It sounded like one of those schemes dreamed up after a good dinner and a bottle of red, but it’s now becoming a reality. Support has been activated in Australia and PNG, a detailed on-ground assessment made, a planning conference held in Canberra, and fundraising has begun. The delivery of assistance is to begin later this year.

The initial commitment of the Oro Community Development Project is to support Hohorita and Gona Primary Schools and St Christopher’s Mechanical Training School. When improvements have been achieved in these places, the focus will shift to health and agricultural support.

The PNGAA has selected the Oro Project as the first beneficiary of what is hoped will be a regular commitment by the Association to provide material and in-kind assistance to worthy projects in PNG. Association members John and Jan Kleinig, Mike Bourke, Dr Anthony Radford and Riley Warren AM, who is chairman, are all engaged in this project.

The PNGAA has organised a raffle at $5 a ticket – and we encourage your participation. We’ve been helped hugely by Air Niugini, which has donated two return economy Sydney (or Brisbane) - Port Moresby airfares as the prize.

If you wish to buy tickets, or sell them to your friends, we encourage you do so by clicking through to the page containing the order form here. The winning ticket – for a prize valued at about $2,350 - will be drawn in Sydney on Sunday 7 December.

Early returns come in on PNGAA review

The first responses are arriving in the Papua New Guinea Association’s consultative process on a revamped constitution. The PNGAA decided to canvass people's views before asking them to vote on a new constitution.

Steering groups were established in six States and Territories and individual members are being consulted through a questionnaire. The process will conclude in January 2009 and, next April, members will vote on the changes.

Early feedback has been positive, apart from one view suggesting that the very act of asking people for their views is indicative of a lack of leadership. A typical response came from Eric Johns: “If these changes go ahead I would feel encouraged, and would be willing, to be a more active member”.

New objectives proposed for the Association – especially one to focus the organisation on working to strengthen the relationship between Australia and PNG – are meeting with approval.

Paul Oates commented: “I suggest one of the most important requirements is to strengthen our relationship with PNG and thereby with our Pacific Rim neighbours. PNGAA can achieve this by providing a forum for interaction and ideas and contact between members from both countries. As an NGO, PNGAA could also provide a healthy input to government policy making by offering non-political lobbying to the governments of both countries.”

The proposal to initiate new classes of membership is turning out to be more controversial. One member said: “I am quite opposed to this. We speak with one voice – we should have one class of membership.” And another: “If people want to pay more to support PNGAA projects, they should be able to - and get some recognition into the bargain. If the price is ordinary membership is protected, what's the big deal? It can't be discriminatory because the voting and representational entitlements of all members will remain as now - exactly the same: one member, one vote.”

I urge you to participate in the review by taking a few minutes to complete the PNGAA’s online questionnaire here.

Win PNG trip in our Christmas raffle

Air Niugini has donated return Sydney-Port Moresby air fares for two people as the major prize in a raffle the PNG Association is holding to provide funds for an innovative project in PNG’s Oro Province. Tickets go on sale soon.

The winning ticket, valued at about $2,350, will be drawn at the PNGAA’s Christmas lunch in Sydney on Sunday 7 December. The Association selected the Oro Project as the first beneficiary in what it hopes will be a continuing series of fund raising enterprises designed to provide assistance to worthy civil projects in PNG.

Since its inception in 1973, and with an extensive domestic network travelling over that spectacularly rugged terrain we remember so well, Air Niugini has made it possible to experience the best PNG has to offer. Air Niugini operates a Boeing 767 on its Sydney-Port Moresby route.

The Oro Community Development Project was established after the loss of life and destruction caused by Cyclone Guba in November 2007. Following the catastrophe, a group of Australian educators decided to work with people in the Province to provide sustained and targeted assistance in the areas of education, health and agriculture.

The initial undertaking includes support to Hohorita Primary School, Gona Primary School and St Christopher’s Mechanical Training School. When improvements have been achieved here, the project’s focus will shift to other areas. In addition, planning is well advanced for specialist teams to visit Oro later this year to deliver mentoring and other professional services.

The objectives of the Oro Project are to improve access to quality education and community health and to improve agricultural practices. Support bases have been activated in Australia and PNG and a detailed on ground assessment has been made.

The partners in the Project are the PNG Anglican Diocese of Popondetta, Lindisfarne Anglican Grammar School, Reddam House, Shore Preparatory School, William Clarke College, St Paul’s College, University of Sydney, Modern Teaching Aids and many individuals in PNG and Australia.

Time to change the focus of the PNGAA

The objects of an organisation define what it is, where it reckons it's heading and how it’s likely to act. At present, the constitution of the PNG Association calls upon it to “foster and encourage contact and friendship with Papua New Guineans”, but there’s nothing more directive. Nothing to propose, for example, that the PNGAA might seek to work more actively to strengthen the relationship between Australia and Papua New Guinea.

It’s this kind of change that I reckon can give the Association a sense of renewed purpose to both give it a role that’s worthwhile and preserve a legacy of Australian civil partnership (that is, involvement amongst ordinary Australians as differentiated from government, business, church and NGOs) in PNG.

A big part of preserving the legacy of the PNGAA is preserving the organisation. Established 58 years ago as the voice of retired members of the PNG public service, the average age of its membership is now 70. Project that forward ten years and you immediately see the problem.

The imperative is to make that demographic younger, and a lot of us are beginning to get smart about how that can best happen: by providing the PNGAA with a role that appeals to younger people. I believe that part of that is to provide the Association with a more active role in relation to maintaining relationships between Australians and Papua New Guineans. Stop me in the street, and I preach that!

Over the last three months, the PNGAA has signed 37 new members. Their average age is 63 (my age, as it happens), and this is a sign that already a slightly younger group is infusing the organisation. But there’s a long way to go.

Providing the PNGAA with a new set of objectives that embrace its previous goals and add some new ones more focussed on strengthening the Australia-PNG relationship is a basic building block. From there we can develop programs that will make the Association a more attractive proposition to younger members and a greater diversity of members – and that will encourage more people to join.

Here I list the objectives I’m proposing for the PNGAA. The new ones are in bold. A refinement of the existing objectives is in regular type. Your comments will be welcome. I think developing the people-to-people relationship between Australia and PNG is too important an issue on which to remain silent.

The objects for which the Association is primarily established are:

(1) to strengthen the civil relationship between the peoples of Australia and Papua New Guinea;

(2) to foster and encourage contact and friendship with Papua New Guineans and promote friendly association among members;

(3) to foster and maintain an interest in contemporary and historical events in Papua New Guinea;

(4) to provide financial, material or intellectual assistance to projects of benefit to Papua New Guinea in the PNGAA’s own right or in conjunction with other agencies;

(5) to publish journals, magazines, newsletters, websites, books and other media to educate and inform people about Papua New Guinea and to provide a means of communication among members of the Association and others;

(6) to encourage the preservation of documents, historical and cultural material related to Papua New Guinea, including the production and recording of oral and written histories;

(7) to continue to safeguard and foster the retirement conditions of superannuated members of the former services in Papua New Guinea.

You can click through to a detailed discussion paper and questionnaire to enable you to participate in the PNGAA’s current review process here.

Join the big PNGAA reform debate

The last issue of the Papua New Guinea Association journal, Una Voce, included as a supplement a detailed questionnaire (which you can read on the net here) seeking members’ views on the future of the Association.

This has already stirred considerable debate – including criticism from people who don’t see the need to consult at all and opposition from people who do not wish the organisation to change. The consultation process will conclude early January when the PNGAA committee will frame recommendations for constitutional change, which will be put to a vote of the membership.

I’ve written a piece on what and where we’re up to for the PNGAA website. You can read the whole thing by clicking through here, but first an extract:

My own position, of course, is crystal clear. I do not believe the Association should be allowed to wither and decline as its members age. Yet, under its present objectives, which ordain an organisation with a predominant social networking role, I fear this is exactly what will happen.

If the PNGAA is to survive – and if it is to flourish – it will have to change and it will have to define a new role. I do not see this as ‘lofty idealism’, as some people have described it, I see it as a stark necessity.

The really big change being proposed is to provide, as the first priority of the PNGAA, a role in strengthening the civil relationship between Australia and PNG. The current objectives will all be retained, but this new objective would define the central future purpose of the organisation.

Even after we ‘behains’ are gone (few ‘bifos’ are left), the new objective means there will remain an organisation with a positive and a productive purpose, and with a clear reason to continue to exist. If members agree to adopt a role for the Association in strengthening the relationships between Australians and Papua New Guineans, they will also provide it with a rationale for expanding its activity and extending its membership. This will, in addition, mean that the PNGAA will have a legacy not of an organisation that once flourished and then died, but of an organisation that was able to define a meaningful new role for itself.

The revised objectives are generally more action-oriented than the existing objectives that they will augment. The new objectives will provide a reason for Australians with post-Independence PNG experience to join. They will provide for Australians interested in PNG but with no PNG experience to join – including university students and young public servants working on PNG affairs (and there a lot of them). They will provide a better reason for Papua New Guineans resident in Australia to join.

Keen ACT response to PNG engagement

Dr Chris Ballard, convenor of the ACT steering group looking at whether a PNG Association branch may be feasible in the national capital, says he has found “considerable enthusiasm” in the national capital for reviving Australian engagement in PNG at all sorts of levels.

“I would say that the outlook is very favourable for an ACT chapter,” Dr Ballard reports.

The six-person ACT advisory body has a splendidly diverse composition, including Dr Katherine Lepani [left] (lecturer in the social foundations of medicine at ANU and an expert in PNG primary health care), Menzies Librarian Deveni Temu, former senior PNG and Canberra public servant Tim Terrell AM, Dr Bryant Allen (who specialises in PNG agriculture and rural development), and veteran journalist Don Hook.

“There is certainly no shortage of people with an interest in PNG in the ACT,” says Dr Ballard.

The ACT also has one of the most energetic Papua New Guinean communities in Australia. It is about 300 strong and is very active particularly in cultural matters.

 

PNGAA consultation now electronic

The technological wizards who manage the Papua New Guinea Association website have made it dead simple for people to contribute to help define a new direction and structure for the Association. You can now make your submission electronically by completing the web-based form here and clicking the ‘Send’ button.

The PNGAA has embarked on the biggest overhaul of its constitution since it was founded in 1951. Central to this process is the goal of providing a more effective structure for the PNGAA: national in scope and capable of adequately representing and delivering services to members throughout Australia.

Extensive consultation with individual members is taking place through the PNGAA website and journal Una Voce, and steering groups have been established across the continent as part of this major consultative process.

Why don’t you take a few minutes to look at the form, fill it in and send it off to us without leaving your chair. Right here.

Overcoming Noosa torpor to get in touch

Noosa, Sunday: With the weather on the Sunshine Coast finally breaking out in Sp[ring's great splendour and the Nossa Jazz Festival in full swing, not to put to fine a point on it, the ASOPA PEOPLE blog has loomed a little less importantly in my daily routine. Apologies for that.

The Papua New Guinea Association's steering group in South Australia will hold its first meeting on Friday under the capable chairmanship of Jan Kleinig. In addition to Jan, the eight-person committee includes former PNG Director of Health Dr Roy Scragg, Peter Routley, Jim Moore, Ian Hopley, Graham Taylor, Graham Inns and Allan Jones – a great line up by any measure.

Meanwhile, Nick Booth has been appointed to manage the PNGAA website and plans are already in train to refine the site and make it more interactive. The site will be redesigned and modified include up to date PNG news (edited by former ABC and AAP journalist Bob Lawrence) and a Readers' Forum that will operate to better connect PNGAA members as well as people who are generally interested in PNG affairs.

Another thing. If you haven't yet responded to the PNGAA's discussion and consultation paper on its future, go to the PNGAA link [left, under ASOPA PEOPLE Extra] and give us the benefit of your views

Revealed: the bird men of ASOPA

In the latest issue of Una Voce, mailed to Papua New Guinea Association members last week, Bill Brown writes an intriguing article on the bird men of ASOPA, the 30 or so former World War II air crew – including fighter ace Gordon Steege [left] - who attended the School and went on to careers in PNG. This is just one of many fascinating stories that make Una Voce a ‘must-have’ journal for anyone interested in the history of PNG.

You can receive the quarterly journal only by becoming a member of the PNG Association, for the incredibly economical membership subscription of $20 a year. Sign up here now.

By the way, the PNGAA has made it easy for you to participate electronically in decision-making about its future direction and structure by going to the consultation document on the Internet here.

PNG – in the bones & across the nation

During my stay in Canberra this week, not only have I met with a number of old Papua New Guinea buddies who, if they’re not members of the PNG Association as I write this, soon will be, but I also met for the first time Dr Chris Ballard and Prof Clive Moore, respective chairs of the Association’s steering groups in the Australian Capital Territory and Queensland.

I was delighted to learn that Chris is the son of Prof John Ballard, now resident in Canberra, who during the mid seventies taught me political science at the University of Papua New Guinea. Chris grew up in PNG and, through both his academic work and personal interest, maintains strong ties there. As he says, “It gets in the bones”.

Chris is lining up a dynamic steering group in Canberra, which I’m sure will successfully guide the development of a PNGAA branch in the national capital. He has a number of first rate ideas for the development of the Association nationally and for the expansion of its membership to not only include younger Australians but also the many Papua New Guineans who live in Australia (there are 27,000 and few are PNGAA members).

One who is a member, and one of 300 or so Papua New Guineans in the ACT, is Diveni Temu, a librarian in the RG Menzies Library at the Australian National University. Diveni told me the PNG community in Canberra is not only very cohesive but has also been very active culturally for many years. He’s excited about the Association’s plans to embrace a wider and more diverse group of members.

With work powering ahead to set up PNGAA steering groups in Queensland, the ACT, Victoria and South Australia, the Association is being well served by members who have jumped in to assist its efforts to be more expansive and more active.

You can join the Association for just $20, receive its superb quarterly journal, Una Voce, and assist its growth by going to its website here and clicking on to the membership application form.

PNGAA can play positive role - Kerr

On Wednesday, in my role of president of the Papua New Guinea Association, I met with Duncan Kerr, Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific Island Affairs. His political adviser, ‘Alopi Latukefu, also joined the meeting; of particular interest to ASOPA habitués of the early 1960s as he is the son of Dr Ruth Fink Latukefu, the Anthropology lecturer highly regarded by her erstwhile students.

Accompanying me to the meeting was Prof Clive Moore, head of the School of History at Queensland University and chair of the PNGAA’s Brisbane steering group which, along with groups in other States and Territories, is being consulted on constitutional change in the Association.

The hour we spent with Duncan Kerr was encouraging in terms of his positive attitude to the role the PNGAA can perform in making its views known on matters affecting the Australia-PNG relationship.

Mr Kerr says the relationship with PNG is very sound at a political level and that personal links are being restored. There are few issues of disagreement between the two countries.

I briefed Mr Kerr on the changes we’re seeking to make to the PNGAA. emphasising our key objective of strengthening of the Australia-PNG relationship at civil level. The Parliamentary Secretary is very supportive of this.

Overall, a useful initial meeting if not one big on tangible achievement. The Government sees the PNGAA as an important party in informing Australians about PNG and in helping to strengthen the relationship between our two countries. That’ll do for starters.

The PNGAA is consulting people about its future role. Download the discussion paper here.  Download ConstitutionQuest.doc

 

Towards a more action-oriented PNGAA

There was a view in the Papua New Guinea Association of Australia that had a long tradition: that it would not involve itself in issues. This was another way of saying it would eschew engagement in some of the real challenges of developing the civil relationship with PNG. As an ordinary member of the PNGAA, I couldn’t understand this approach. It seemed to defy the very name of the Association.

One of the central features of the move to update the PNGAA Constitution is a revised set of objectives that will make for a more relevant, purposeful and action-oriented organisation. This will not only be a good thing in itself, it will also give the Association more appeal to a new generation of potential members.

At present, the Association faces the prospect of dying on its feet. Something like 90% of members are over 60 and 55% over 70. The average age is about 70. I believe greater engagement with PNG, which the PNGAA should be undertaking anyway as its central purpose, will give it more relevance and help it attract more members.

So how will the new objectives look? Well we’ve just started a process of consultation, so there’s no definitive answer to this yet. But here’s my version, a slightly revised set of objectives from the present Constitution with my additions in bold. The revision shows clearly the challenge. The revision represents the difference between an organisation seeking to build a relationship with PNG and an organisation content to cater to members who once lived there.

The objects for which the Association is primarily established are:

(a) to work at a civil level in Australia to strengthen the relationship between the peoples of Australia and Papua New Guinea;

(b) to promote friendly association among all members and to foster and encourage contact and friendship with Papua New Guineans;

(c) to foster and maintain an interest in contemporary and historical events in Papua New Guinea;

(d) in its own right or in conjunction with other agencies, to provide assistance in the form of financial or in-kind effort to projects of benefit to Papua New Guinea;

(e) to publish journals, newsletters, websites, books and other media to educate and inform people about Papua New Guinea and to provide a means of communication among members of the Association and others;

(f) to encourage the preservation of documents and historical material related to Papua New Guinea, including the production and recording of the oral and written history of Papua New Guinea;

(g) to continue to safeguard and foster the retirement conditions of superannuated members of the former services.

You can participate in the consultation about the future direction of the PNGAA. Download the discussion paper and questionnaire here. Download pngaa_consultation.pdf

PNGAA’s future: your views required

I’ve mentioned in these Notes a number of times previously that the Papua New Guinea Association of Australia is embarking on a major overhaul of its constitution – the most comprehensive since it was founded nearly 60 years ago. The review is being managed by a four-person group: Ross Johnson, Andrea Williams, Riley Warren and me.

The Association is seeking input to this process, which it is hoped will conclude in April next year when a Special General Meeting will be asked to vote on changes.

The review is sweeping in its scope and covers fundamental changes like:

- updating and refining the objectives of the Association

- introducing new classes of membership

- comprehensively restructuring the organisation

- clarifying procedures governing the conduct of elections

- defining specific roles for the eight national officers of the Association

These and other issues are canvassed in much more detail in a discussion paper you can download here.  Download pngaa_consultation.pdf

You are invited to provide responses to me by 2 January 2009. But, of course, the sooner you get on to it, the less I’ll have to harass you. Email responses to me here, fax me at 02 9904 0960 or mail them to me at Jackson Wells Pty Ltd, PO Box 1743, Neutral Bay NSW 2089.

PNGAA – a seminal essay by Jim Moore

I gave a Jim Moore PNG tee-shirt to a Year 7 Class at Mosman High when I gave a talk there last week. Bedecked with the Australian and PNG flags as well as the flags of each PNG province and splashings of Tok Pisin, the shirt was enthusiastically received and made a great conversation piece. You should get one [see ASOPA People Extra, The Mail, July 2008 at left for details].

Jim has enjoined the debate about the future of the PNGAA, flourishing on the Ex-Kiap website, with a few well pitched remarks. “More than anything else,” writes Jim, “I think the PNGAA needs to act as a carrier and promoter of public knowledge and as an agent of opinion and policy change, to push public debate here about what PNG means to Australia, and what Australia can do to assist PNG become a better place for the sake of its people.

“It’s a two-way street – we can learn from PNG about what it means today to be a developing society that (as we can understand better than most) probably has gone through more societal change in a quicker time-frame that just about any society on Earth has ever done.

“If we don’t understand it as it is now, and only keep in mind our view of what it was like back in the good old days, we’ll be condemned to crying in our beer for evermore about ‘if only, blah blah blah’. To me, that leads to a sorry, cynical cycle that becomes increasingly destructive of our view of humanity.

“In brief, I think what Keith Jackson suggests [‘What activities should the local Branch undertake? Contribute to PNGAA policy on major issues affecting the Australia-PNG relationship; local advocacy on matters affecting the Australia-PNG relationship; organise talks and seminars on PNG issues; organise reunions and other social events; provide a contact point for visitors from PNG; identify and record PNG materials of historic interest held privately by members’] is a good summary of where the PNGAA could go.

“As Paul Oates succinctly puts it in this forum: ‘The second factor we ought to think about is our collective ability and knowledge to help foster good relations with our closest neighbour. This should be of vital importance as the world's balance of power is shifting from day to day, and our region is probably more volatile than it has been for 50 years’.”

“Of course, the PNGAA can and must change - it can't go on the way it was. We will all continue to do our own individual thing, but may I respectfully suggest we help a renewed and reinvigorated collective effort as and when we can.”

Well said, Jim.

You can read Jim’s full contribution on the Ex-Kiap website here.

Kiaps debate future of the PNGAA

Iain Millar has initiated an interesting discussion about the future of the PNG Association on the Ex-Kiap website. Headlined ‘PNGAA revitalization under new management’, Iain’s piece asks “Is the organisation worth saving?” Iain says he is “disheartened by the collapse (in PNG) of the organisations I and others laboured to set up, and by the disappearance, caused through neglect, of the infrastructure of the bush which again, I and others gave sweat, blood and tears” and argues that the “PNGAA should be allowed to die slowly and peacefully as it has outlived its usefulness”. Well, that’s an interesting debate to wake up to on a bright Winter’s morning.

Iain is supported by Ross Wilkinson (“Many organisations with an aging raison d'etre are facing similar issues… I, like you, am greatly disappointed at the way our efforts [in PNG] have been for nought”) and sort of supported by Harry Topham (“What’s the point once the original charter of the organisation becomes redundant. Look to new directions, I guess”).

Paul Oates, however, urges readers “to think about is our collective ability and knowledge to help foster good relations with our closest neighbour… If we don't encourage and promote good relations with PNG, someone else will, possibly at our expense. Is that a future that we want for our children?”

Paul says that he “would like to see a new, national body that openly encourages more contact between our two countries and actively promotes a stable and mutually beneficial relationship at all levels.”

I have my say, too, of course. But I’ll refer you to the Ex-Kiap site to read all the contributions in the appropriate context. The opening shots of what I hope will be an extensive and lively debate can be found here.

Photos: Iain Millar [top], Paul Oates and me in TPNG, at a time when we found life much more uncomplicated

PNGAA appoints review heads in 4 States

An expert on Melanesian history, a top rugby league official and a businessman and academic have been appointed to chair steering groups in Canberra, Perth and Melbourne to review the structure and operations of the Papua New Guinea Association of Australia.

Dr Chris Ballard is a Fellow in the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies at the Australian National University where his research interests include Papua New Guinea land reform, large natural resource projects and cultural heritage. His other specific areas of study include violence and human rights; racism, concepts of race and colonial encounters; social and agricultural transformations; narrative and memory; sacred geography; theory in the disciplines of history, anthropology, archaeology and geography. He has regional interests in eastern Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu.

Val Murphy is Operations Manager Val and a life member of the Western Australian Rugby League. After graduating from ASOPA in 1962 and an earlier teaching career in Papua New Guinea, Val continued in catholic education in Perth, being a headmaster for 30 years. In 1990 he became the first lay Principal of Aranmore Catholic College, run by the Sisters of Mercy and one of the most culturally diverse schools in Western Australia.

Writing about a notorious rugby league match at ASOPA in 1962, Richard Jones nominated as one of the game’s highlights “the fortitude shown by Val Murphy who stood up to a lot of tough punishment but gave as good as he got”. Val’s generally robust approach to life was also summed up in a Sivijs caricature from the same year.

Wes McMaster is an authority on financial advice business models and the issues associated with financial advice. He runs McMaster Securities Pty Ltd in Melbourne and is Adjunct Professor (Financial Planning) at RMIT University. Before PNG Independence he was executive officer to the National Education Board and executive. He later became the chief accountant of the Department of Posts and Telegraphs (1975-78) and advised the National Investment and Development Authority until he left PNG in 1981.

These appointments take to four the number of steering groups established by the PNGAA to assist with a major consultation on its future structure and operations. Membership of the Canberra, Perth and Melbourne groups should be finalised in the next two weeks.

Cartoon: ‘Mrs Murphy’s little boy Valmore’ by Georg Sivijs, ‘Vortex’ magazine, 1962

PNGAA consults about its future

The next few months could be a major transformational moment for the Papua New Guinea Association of Australia. And it’s a long moment. Extending from now to next April.

It’s all about moving the PNGAA from where it is now - a benign organisation, unlikely to be sustainable without change – to a more active body with a chance of making a real difference to the Australia-PNG relationship.

Right now the PNGAA does one thing that is truly exceptional. It produces a quarterly journal, Una Voce, that is a tribute to editor Andrea Williams and the many contributors who support her.

Oh, the Association does another thing too. It keeps going. This is high praise of treasurer and membership officer Ross Johnson; although Ross would characteristically shy away from such recognition.

As I write this, the PNGAA is inviting the formation of State and Territory steering groups as it consults on its future structure. The Queensland group has already formed and Western Australia, South Australia and Victoria have indicated they also will participate.

The PNGAA will also consult individual members through a questionnaire that will appear soon on ASOPA PEOPLE, and which I encourage you to respond to. After everyone who wants to has had their say, the proposed changes will be put to a vote of members at a Special General Meeting next April.

I must admit I’m concerned about the future sustainability of the Association given its ageing membership. More than half our members are aged over 70 and 85% are aged over 60. The inescapable conclusion is that, unless action is taken to recruit younger members, the organisation will decline significantly over the next ten years.

Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific Island Affairs, Duncan Kerr, recently told me that he sees the PNGAA as a ‘valuable contributor towards maintaining the people-to-people links that are so critical to the continued dynamism of our relations with PNG’. In truth, these words are too kind a description of the PNGAA’s current contribution, but they do reflect where the organisation needs to be heading.

We need an active membership to achieve a position where the PNGAA is working more purposefully to strengthen the Australia-PNG relationship, and this should involve as many members as want to be involved.

We also need to move away from Sydney-centrism. The PNGAA national committee is entirely Sydney-based. This is both unrepresentative of the geographical distribution of members and it is not tapping the best of what members have to offer.

Leading academic heads Qld PNG team

The head of the School of History at Queensland University, Prof Clive Moore, has accepted an invitation to lead the PNG Association’s Brisbane steering group. The group will participate in a national discussion to recommend a new Federal structure for the PNGAA and also advise on whether a fully-fledged branch can be established in Queensland.

Prof Moore [left] graduated from James Cook University in 1974, completing his PhD there in 1981 before teaching at the University of Papua New Guinea until 1987. His teaching interests include Australia and the Pacific, colonial and race relations history, and the history of gender and sexuality. He has written a number of books about Pacific history and has served on an enquiry into the restructure of the University of PNG. He is also President of the Australian Association for the Advancement of Pacific Studies.

Sean Dorney AM MBE, a steering group member, is the veteran PNG and Pacific journalist, now the Brisbane-based Pacific correspondent for the ABC and Radio Australia. He was seconded as a journalist to the PNG National Broadcasting Commission in 1974. During his early years in PNG, Sean was better known as a footballer, captaining the national rugby league team, the Kumuls. Sean has written two books - Papua New Guinea: People, Politics and History since 1975 and The Sandline Affair - Politics and Mercenaries and the Bougainville Crisis. He won a Walkley Award in 1998 for his coverage of the Aitape tsunami disaster and in the same year the Pacific Islands News Association honoured him with its Pacific Media Freedom Award. The PNG Government awarded Sean an MBE 1991 and he received an AM in 2000 in recognition for his service to Australia as a foreign correspondent.

Joycelin Leahy [right], a steering group member, is the owner of the tribal and contemporary art shops Beyond Art in Port Moresby and Beyond Pacific Art in Brisbane. Joycelin grew up in Wagang, a small fishing village north of Lae. She is a trained journalist (Post-Courier and Niugini Nius), a mother, an advocate of Pacific women’s issues and a strong believer in developing self-reliance through entrepreneurship. She has worked in the performing arts with the then National Theatre Company and Waigani Arts Centre in Port Moresby in 1980s and 1990s. Joycelin is completing a Masters in Museum Studies at the University of Queensland. She was Miss PNG in 1989.

Dr Max Quanchi, a steering group member, teaches Pacific Island History at Queensland University of Technology. His expertise is in Pacific islands contemporary events, Australia-Pacific island relations, Pacific island history and colonial photography of the Pacific. Max has taught at primary, secondary and tertiary levels in Australia and the Pacific. From 1995-2001 he coordinated a regional professional development program for history teachers in the Pacific Islands.

Colin Huggins, a steering group member, has worked for the Brisbane City Council formany years. He trained at ASOPA in 1962-63 and then taught in Rabaul, Dregerhafen, Finschhafen, Kambili, Wau and Pindiu until 1969. Colin ran hotels and related businesses in Queensland from 1970-94 before joining the Brisbane City Council. He was the principal organiser of the 2006 ASOPA cadet education officers’ reunion in Brisbane, which was attended by about 200 people.

There may be other appointments made in the next few days, but the PNGAA is delighted that it has such a strong and diverse planning group that will, along with people in other States and Territories, guide it through a period of profound change in its structure and operations [see story below]. Discussions are being initiated to do this, and interested people are asked to email me here.

Planning groups to discuss PNGAA future

People in State and Territory capitals are being invited to establish steering groups as part of a major consultation process about the future structure of the Papua New Guinea Association of Australia. The purpose of the groups is to contribute to a discussion about how the PNGAA can be decentralised and transformed into a Federal organisation.

As a part of broader constitutional change, it is likely a recommendation will be made to decentralise the PNGAA leadership and operational structure to create a national body with branches in States and Territories. The goal is to enable the 58-year old Association to evolve as a more sustainable and more functional organisation.

From this month, the PNGAA management committee will extensively consult members and others as part of this process of constitutional change, which will be put to a vote of members next April.

There are four main drivers for decentralising the management of the PNGAA:

▪          The ageing of the Association’s membership, with more than half aged over 70 and 85% aged over 60. The inescapable conclusion is that, unless is taken action to recruit new, younger members, the organisation will wither over the next 10 years. This means the focus of the PNGAA and what it offers to members need to change.

▪          The need for greater PNGAA engagement with Papua New Guinea and with Papua New Guineans. Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific Affairs Duncan Kerr has described the PNGAA as a "valuable [contributor] towards maintaining the people-to-people links that are so critical to the continued dynamism of our relations". These words are too kind as a description of the PNGAA’s current contribution but they do reflect where the organisation needs to be heading.

▪          The need for an active membership. There are many initiatives that can be taken to achieve a condition where the PNGAA is working more energetically and purposefully to strengthen the Australia-PNG relationship, and they should involve as much of the membership as possible.

▪          The need to move away from Sydney-centrism. The PNGAA national committee is entirely Sydney-based. This is both unrepresentative of the geographical distribution of Association members and it is not tapping the best of what members have to offer.

In order to move forward, as President of the Association I am now appointing State and Territory steering group convenors and will work with them to select and lead local planning committees. The Queensland steering group has been appointed (more information on this in my next post) but interested people in other places can contact me here.

The steering groups will participate in the national discussion about an appropriate Federal structure for the PNGAA. They will also enable the PNGAA to determine whether sufficient local interest and resources exist to establish a fully-fledged branch.

People who are not able to join these groups will soon be asked to respond to a comprehensive discussion paper on constitutional change, which will be published in Una Voce, the PNGAA website, ASOPA PEOPLE and The Mail.

Duncan Kerr to speak at PNGAA lunch

The Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific island Affairs, Duncan Kerr SC MP, has accepted an invitation to be the guest speaker at this year’s PNGAA Christmas luncheon on Sunday 7 December.

“I look forward to this very much,” Mr Kerr said. “Australia and PNG are bound together by a strong sense of shared history, and the PNG Association of Australia makes a really valuable contribution towards maintaining the people-to-people links that are so critical to the continued dynamism of our relations.”

Mr Kerr will talk about the significant changes that have occurred in Australia-PNG relationships recently under the Federal Labor Government, his observations on where the partnership is heading and his views on the role of civil organisations like the PNGAA in assisting to maintain and enhance such relationships.

A booking form for the lunch, which is the highlight of the PNGAA’s social activities each year, will be included in the next issue of the Association’s journal Una Voce, to be disseminated late September.

PNGAA begins to get active in Canberra

On behalf of the Papua New Guinea Association of Australia, I'll be meeting with the Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific Affairs, Duncan Kerr [left], and the PNG High Commissioner to Australia, Charles Lepani [below], next month. The meetings will discuss the Australia-PNG relationship and, in particular, how the Association and its 1700 members may best be able to assist this relationship at a civil level.

We will also discuss a number of PNGAA initiatives previously put to government - including the School of the Pacific ('new ASOPA') proposal, an exchange scheme between Australian and PNG public servants and a donation of The Blatchford Collection ('Documents on the Development of the PNG Educational System') to PNG. If there are other subjects that you believe should be discussed, you can let me know by email or by adding a comment below.

Meanwhile, David Epstein, Principal Adviser to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, has referred the Association's request for the government to fund the search for the Montevideo Maru to Joel Fitzgibbon, the Minister for Defence.

In other PNGAA news, following the resignation of Rebecca Hopper, Harriet Troy has been appointed to the national committee and has taken up the position of chair of the Fellowship & Caring Sub-Committee which, among other things, organises the Association six-monthly luncheons.

Kerr seeks meeting with PNG Association

 

The Parliamentary secretary for Pacific Island Affairs, Duncan Kerr, has reacted positively to concern expressed by the Papua New Guinea Association about his Department’s responses to Association representations.

On 29 June I wrote to Mr Kerr saying: “Since I was elected President of the PNGAA two months ago, the organisation has initiated major changes to strengthen its role in building a better relationship between Australia and PNG. As part of this new approach, the Association has, for the first time, established a PNG Relations function on its national committee and begun to make representations on matters that its members believe will enhance the PNG-Australia relationship at a civil level.

“The Association’s membership, now numbering nearly 1,700, has expanded rapidly over the last year. It seems Australians who served in PNG are rekindling their interest in that country, its people and its affairs. I think you would agree that this is a very positive development.

“Surely if a body such as this makes positive and practical suggestions about the PNG-Australia relationship, the government should respond in a considered way that seeks to encourage dialogue. Form letters, replies that misinterpret the points made and, in the case of the Prime Minister’s office, which I know is not your responsibility, long silences, are disheartening and disrespectful.

“Our members know of your time in Port Moresby and respect you as person who is both knowledgeable of and sympathetic to Papua New Guinea. For our part, I think the PNGAA can be strong advocate for PNG in Australia and a useful resource. In this context, I believe the Association must be engaged with properly not treated dismissively, which has been the sub-text of communications with us so far.”

The next day Mr Kerr asked his chief of staff, Bruce Mitchell, former editor of the Fremantle Herald, to respond in these terms: “Thank you for your letter of June 29, addressed to the Parliamentary Secretary, in which you detail your concerns regarding the Association's relations with the Government. Mr Kerr is seeking to build relationships with people and organisations that share a common interest in broadening Australia's engagement with the Pacific and he welcomes the inclusion of the Papua New Guinea Association of Australia as part of this important network.

“Following the election of the Rudd Government-and Mr Kerr's appointment to the Pacific Affairs portfolio-relations with Papua New Guinea have improved markedly. Mr Kerr is keen to further build up these encouraging foundations and he looks forward to meeting with the Association at a mutually convenient time in order to further discuss its ideas.”

Readers will be kept informed of the meeting between the PNGAA and the Parliamentary Secretary, which we hope will be held in the near future. Among matters we wish to raise are the School of the Pacific proposal, the Richardson-Oates initiative for an exchange scheme between public servants in Australia and PNG, funding to locate the wreck of the Montevideo Maru, and seasonal work in Australia for PNG labour.

Photo: Duncan Kerr, replete with bilas, visits a school in PNG

PNGAA looks at a Federal structure

The Papua New Guinea Association of Australia is about to embark on the biggest overhaul of its constitution since it was founded nearly 60 years ago. At a national committee meeting in Sydney yesterday, a four-person working group chaired by veteran PNGAA identity Ross Johnson was appointed to review the objectives and shape of the organisation of 1,700 members.

Central to the review is a desire by many people to provide a more effective structure for the PNGAA, to make it truly national in scope and capable of adequately representing and delivering services to members throughout Australia. The working group has been asked to propose recommendations defining the membership of the national body, the establishment of State and Territory branches and how the relationship between national and State and Territory bodies will work.

In terms of control and management, the PNGAA has been a Sydney-centric organisation since its inception and, while this seems to have been effective in the past, it is not necessarily suitable for an Association with an ageing membership and which needs to recruit people who did not necessarily work in Papua New Guinea pre-Independence. Their ranks are thinning rapidly and there is a need to augment them with new, younger members: people who were born and raised in PNG, people who worked there post Independence or simply people who have an interest in Australia’s relationships with our closest neighbour.

The working party will also look at updating the objectives of the Association to include aims not envisaged by the original drafters of the constitution, including publishing, advocacy and philanthropy. It will also look at how the PNGAA can identify new revenue sources to provide it with opportunities to support worthwhile projects in PNG, offer scholarships and fellowships and underwrite exchange schemes involving young Australians and young Papua New Guineans.

The review group will report progress to the next meeting of the national committee, which will need to endorse recommendations for change before they go to a special general meeting for adoption. It is intended that the changes be effected before mid 2009.

Time for your shoulder to the wheel

The Papua New Guinea Association of Australia (PNGAA) added nearly 70 new members in the three months to June this year to take overall membership to a record 1,700. As I remarked in a letter to Duncan Kerr - the Federal Government’s Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific Islands Affairs – this rapid expansion indicates that Australians who served in PNG in the past are rekindling their interest in that country, its people and its affairs, which is a very positive development in PNG-Australia relations.

Over recent months, the PNGAA has initiated a number of major changes to strengthen its role in building better relationships between Australia and PNG. As part of a new approach, the Association has, for the first time, established a PNG Relations function on its national committee and begun to make representations on matters it believes will enhance the PNG-Australia partnership at a civil level.

There can be no better way for you to assist this process than to join the PNGAA or, if you’re already a member, to recruit other people as members. At just $20 a year for membership, which includes a subscription to the excellent quarterly journal Una Voce, it is a steal. So scour your email address list for family, friends and colleagues who might have an interest in Papua New Guinea and ask them to join. Today. The membership application form is available on-line here.

Strengthening the PNG Association through expanding its membership is a certain way to give all Australians with an interest in PNG a voice in how the relationship should be conducted in future.

 

Greetings from the old Soviet Union

 St Petersburg, Monday: It’s said that Melbourne can get all the seasons of the year in a single day. Well St Petersburg gets them in a single hour. A local joke is that the population here spends nine months anticipating Summer and three months being disappointed. No wonder they never smile.

I’m not smiling much either. The Oceania Line, with which Ingrid and I are luxuriating, didn’t make it clear that the ship’s visa is not good for independent touring in Russia’s golden city. Being confined to barracks except when on a guided tour is not my idea of a fulfilling travel.

It’s good to see Colin ‘Huggiebear’ Huggins stirring the chalkie pot to encourage former members of the PNG teaching profession to join the PNG Association. As I’ve mentioned in these notes previously, the subscription to the Association’s quarterly journal, Una Voce, is alone worth the $20 PNGAA membership fee. You can join the PNGAA by clicking the link at right.

Sending emails and making posts to ASOPA PEOPLE from our ship, the Regatta, is slow, cumbersome and expensive, so I’m trying to find Internet cafes when ashore. Keep the emails flowing – and if you can help William James Kewo and David Craig with their requests (below) either email me or post a comment to this site.

 

Helsinki tomorrow, from where I hope to resume what will be a more regular report.

There were many contributors to PNG