Thinkers Timeline

Sir Albert Maori Kiki was a Papua New Guinean pathologist, trade unionist, politician, and writer. He was a co-founder of the Pangu Pati (Pangu Party), Papua New Guinea's first major political party, and served as the country's first Deputy Prime Minister from 1975 to 1977. His autobiography, Ten Thousand Years in a Lifetime (1968), was the first major book to come out of Papua New Guinea written by an indigenous author and remains a foundational text of Pacific literature. He was born on 21 September 1931 in Orokolo Village, Gulf Province, in what was then the Territory of Papua under Australian administration. He was raised in his Elema people's traditional culture and in the Protestant faith of the London Missionary Society. He later wrote that he had completed his first traditional initiation in the eravo (men's ceremonial house) before the colonial administration's pressure caused such structures to be destroyed; by the time he was old enough for the second initiation, the eravo no longer existed. He was selected by Dr John Gunther, the Australian Director of Health, as one of a small group of promising students to study medicine at the Suva Medical School in Fiji. He failed his medical exams and was redirected into a pathology technician course. He returned to PNG and worked as a laboratory technician at Ela Beach Native Hospital. He became Papua New Guinea's first indigenous pathology technician. In 1958 he married Elizabeth Arivu Miro, a Roman Catholic, in one of the first 'mixed' Protestant-Catholic marriages in the Territory. He helped found the first trade union in Papua New Guinea, then in 1967 was a co-founder of the Pangu Pati. He became its national secretary. After the 1972 elections he entered the House of Assembly. He served as Minister for Lands and Environment under Michael Somare. When PNG became independent on 16 September 1975, he became its first Deputy Prime Minister. He held the role until 10 August 1977, when he was succeeded by Julius Chan. He was knighted as Sir Albert. He died in Port Moresby on 13 March 1993, aged 61.