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.

Bernard Mullu Narokobi was a Papua New Guinean philosopher, jurist, parliamentarian, and poet, best known for developing the concept of 'the Melanesian Way' as a guiding philosophy for newly independent Papua New Guinea. He is one of the most important political thinkers the Pacific has produced. He was born around 1943 in Wautogik village in the Prince Alexander Mountains of what is now East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea. The exact date is not known; he was born during the Second World War. His people were the Arapesh. His father Anton (also known as Kukum) Narokobi had been taught by Catholic missionaries and worked as a catechist serving Boiken and Dagua villages. His mother was Maria Mokoi. Narokobi was the second eldest of five siblings. His younger brother Camillus is also a lawyer. Narokobi left home in 1960 to attend Kerevat School in New Britain, one of the first government-run schools educating Papua New Guineans at high levels. He went on to study law in Australia and became one of PNG's first generation of indigenous lawyers. He served on the Constitutional Planning Committee that drafted Papua New Guinea's constitution before independence in 1975. With John Momis and others, he drafted the National Goals and Directive Principles and Basic Social Obligations that form the preamble to the constitution. He published Foundations for Nationhood in 1975 and his most famous work, The Melanesian Way, in 1980. He served as a Member of Parliament for Wewak Open from 1987 to 1997, three terms, and held senior positions including Minister for Justice. He was a strong supporter of West Papuan independence. His wife Regina died of breast cancer in 2007. He was serving as Papua New Guinea's High Commissioner to New Zealand at the time of his own death in March 2010. He was about 67.

Nora Vagi Brash OBE CMG was a Papua New Guinean playwright, poet, actress, and director, widely regarded as the country's foremost dramatist. She was the first major woman playwright in Papua New Guinean literature and one of the founders of modern PNG theatre. She wrote in a distinctive style that mixed Papua New Guinea's three national languages, Hiri Motu, Tok Pisin, and English, often within a single play, reflecting how Papua New Guineans actually speak in daily life. She was born in Dagoda village, Central Province, Papua New Guinea, into a Motuan family. The exact year of her birth is given variously as 1944 or in the late 1940s. She was educated locally and went on to teach at Kila Kila primary school, where she wrote her first performed play. She later returned to formal education and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Literature from the University of Papua New Guinea in 1982. She had begun writing and performing in PNG's theatre scene in the early 1970s. She became a lecturer in puppetry, dance, and drama at the Creative Arts School in Port Moresby. She went on to become Artistic Director of the National Arts School and one of two artistic directors of the Papua New Guinea National Theatre Company. The Theatre Company toured villages across PNG to perform and raise social awareness, and toured internationally including to New Zealand, Nigeria, and England. Her most famous play, Which Way, Big Man? (1976), is widely studied across the Pacific. She wrote her first performed play, The High Cost of Living Differently, in 1975. Other major works include Black Market Buai, Sold Outright, Taurama (for which she received the PNG Independence Medal in 1985), Pick the Bone Dry, and City Spirits. She also wrote substantial poetry. She served as deputy chairperson of the PNG National Cultural Council and on the board of the Institute of PNG Studies. Oxford University Press published her collection Which Way Big Man? and Five Other Plays. She was awarded both an OBE and CMG. She died in April 2024, mourned across the Pacific theatre community.