Lemach Lavari speaks with two prominent Papua New Guineans – civil servant and diplomat Dame Jean Kekedo and UPNG Chancellor Sir Robert Igara – about how they think the country has changed since independence. 

Dame Jean Kekedo (left) and Sir Robert Igara (right). Credit: Norman Ketan (NKW Photography)

Dame Jean Kekedo DBE, Civil Servant and Diplomat

A highlight of Dame Jean Kekedo’s working life, which began in 1966, is the role she played as a welfare officer for a troubled young man. She wishes for the man to remain anonymous, except to say he later became a top Papua New Guinean politician.

“He was a very clever boy, but he was rebellious,” she says.

Dame Jean says that when the politician realised his political ambition, he called and said: “Come to parliament. Without your help and guidance I wouldn’t have had the upbringing I had.”

Dame Jean always wanted to work in a profession where she would impact people directly. After she finished high school in 1964, her ambition was to become a kiap (a patrol officer for the colonial government) but she was told that women weren’t allowed to be kiaps. She then found work as a welfare officer.

Dame Jean is one of three in her family who have been appointed the Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE).

Her mother, Dame Mary, was appointed DBE in 1987 for her services in education and community, followed by her sister, Dame Rose, in 1995 for her service in sports and commerce.

In 2020, for her work in community, diplomacy and leadership roles at the University of Technology and St Johns Ambulance, Dame Jean received her DBE.

She worked as a welfare worker in her early career, involving travel to various parts of PNG. She later took up executive roles in the government, including serving as PNG’s Ombudsman, Secretary to the Department of Civil Aviation, Deputy Secretary to the National Executive Council and High Commissioner to the UK.

She attributes her family’s prominence in public service to their Christian upbringing. “Church was very important in our lives. Every morning, we would have to say our prayers and our rosary in the evenings. Mum came from a very strong Catholic background.”

Dame Jean grew up with nine siblings in Kokoda, in Oro Province. Her father, Walter, worked for the colonial administration and her mother, Mary, built a school.

Dame Jean believes PNG has progressed well in terms of its physical infrastructure in the past 50 years but has not adequately addressed its social challenges. She hopes to see development that is conducive to PNG’s social needs such as building accessible public spaces and upgrading facilities in rural areas.

Dame Jean says it is great to see PNG’s progress in education, with more people moving into professional ranks. She worries that this progress, though, may create an elite class.

“I wish more people become not just schooled but also educated. When you’re educated, you appreciate the standards of living of society and respect each other’s culture. It (education) cuts out misunderstandings that lead to people reverting to their traditional ways and foregoing the national ideals that make us a united country.”

Sir Robert Igara, KBE CMG, Chancellor of the University of PNG and the Former Secretary to the PNG Government

“More and more I am seeing women in PNG being appointed to executive roles in the public and private sector and taking up roles in professions that were traditionally held by men. So, in my view, for my daughters and grandkids, PNG is their place of opportunity,” says Sir Robert Igara.

Sir Robert is the Chairman and Chancellor of the University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG), a role he has held since 2019. He spent 26 years in public service where he held senior roles in the PNG government and the National Executive Council. In the private sector, he continues to serve on the boards of several companies and operates his family business in hospitality and marine products.

When asked about what he envisions for PNG in the next 50 years, Sir Robert spoke about how he would like his children to live.

“As a father, I want my children, especially my daughters, to feel safe to move around freely in their own country.”

“This is the same for my students at UPNG. As Chancellor, I see my students as my sons and daughters, and I want the best for them. Best in the sense that when they leave university, they are capable to stand independent and in confidence and hold their own value anywhere in the world.”

Sir Robert says that in recent years, there has been an increase in female graduates from UPNG, notably in the schools of medicine and humanities. He believes that this shows that more citizens are being enabled to participate in PNG’s development.

UPNG graduated just 14 students in its first graduation in 1970, including Sir Rabbie Namaliu, who later became PNG’s fourth prime minister.

Sir Robert also attended UPNG and graduated in 1976. He met his wife in 1975, the same year PNG gained its independence. His wife, Fiu Williame from Rotuma Island in Fiji, was an exchange student studying a Bachelor of Arts at UPNG while Sir Robert was studying economics.

Sir Robert grew up on Samarai Island in Milne Bay Province and, as a young man, lived through PNG’s colonial period.

He witnessed first-hand the inequalities of the colonial experience. But it was only when he started attending university that he was immersed in discussions about independence and the rise of a united PNG identity.

Sir Robert acknowledges three fundamental achievements since independence: a viable sovereign and independent state composed of a “thousand tribes and clans”, with no prior existence and experience as a state; a national identity and pride (before 1975, citizens were described as ‘natives’ of PNG); and constitutionally enshrined freedoms and rights that many in other parts of the world do not have.

Sir Robert says PNG’s real opportunity for progress rests in embracing and empowering its youth, who are 38 per cent of the population, and empowering most of PNG’s population, who live in rural areas, to meaningfully participate and take responsibility for PNG’s own progress and development.

This article was first published in the August-October 2025 issue of Paradise, the in-flight magazine of Air Niugini.