KIUNGA CELEBRATES NATIONAL WOMENS DAY MARCH 2019

It was a restless two hour flight I took from Port Moresby to Kiunga, my first time travelling that route and I must say, it was a tiring one and the distance is similar to Honiara. An Abip man who sat next to me took advantage of my boredom and started telling me about how beautiful the place is and the challenges it is encountering each day. Something struck me during our conversation was the lack of information to make informed decisions among the people. Although the communities have access to telecommunication infrastructure in the district, my Abip friend said literacy level is still low. This in itself highlights a lot of obvious issues that hinder their growth. Nevertheless, the people strive each day to make ends meet. Kiunga is just like any other peri-urban town in the country, what makes it more important is its location. It is situated right next to the Fly River, making it an important hub of economic development for the North Fly district. It is a fast developing district in the country and has been a life line and an important source for major mining developments that is taking place in Tabubil. There are two ways of getting to this part of the country, a two hour flight from Port Moresby or few days travel by ship through the Gulf of Papua and up the Fly River. On the 22nd of March 2019, the small town came alive to celebrate its first ever women’s day celebrations. Dressed in their various colours, escorted by the marching band, the women groups marched through the centre to the main oval, halting traffic surprising the commuters, all stood in awe as each of them walked passed with their colorful uniforms. ‘’women…. Beauty, women….beauty’’ as their voices echoed down the dusty road.

It was a time to have an impact, a time to have their voices heard and a time to appeal to their men folk to work together for the better of their district, LLG and communities. While so much of positive empowerment messages bombarding the mainstream media, Papua New Guinea despite its transition into the so- called modern way of doing things, maintains very traditional systems, norms and ways of doing things. The role of women as traditionally defined may not prima facie conform to, many accepted international standards. Hence the integration of women and girls into economic activity has its challenges. For women in Kiunga and Western province for that matter, they are gradually realizing the need to work together as a team to address all the inequalities among their communities. Friday 22nd of March was a significant day set aside by businesses, government and churches to celebrate the National Women Days. I understand the National Women’s Day falls on Sunday 24th March but due to most of the population attending church service, the celebrations were brought forward on the 22nd March.

For far too long the participation of women in decision making was not as good as it supposed to be explained Mary Swokin, who is North Fly Women’s District President. She said there were a lot of differences between women because of obvious reasons, thus prompting her take up the role as leader and challenges each women association to put their differences aside and work to build their communities. ‘’We have an existing network but it wasn’t operating until I took office. The structure was there but the network wasn’t organized. I really wanted women to come together, I wanted them to see change, just like other districts or provinces are experiencing,’’ said Mrs. Swokin.

Mrs Swokin receiving uniforms from ExxonMobil reps. She claimed that the women’s day wasn’t recognized by the district and for far too long there were no celebrations. ‘’It was there but we never got to seriously look into and have women come together to celebrate it. No one took the initiative to make it happen especially in Western Province. It was celebrated in other parts of the country, not here in Kiunga. ‘’When we took to the streets for the first time marching, bystanders and street vendors began to read the slogans, placards and understand the key messages of the event’’. That is when some of them noticed the day’s significance’’. ‘’I had to include all women from all sectors, women’s fellowship groups, nurses associations, teachers associations, public servants and women from local level government areas’’. We want PNG to know that Western Women are with them and are willing to work with their men’’, said Mrs. Swokin. For this event Mary has seen a spark among men. And said, few of have been behind the scene helping their wives, mothers and sisters. This in itself is a positive development for them. ‘’because of issues and in differences between us women, men are not keen into assisting us. Maybe if we put aside all those problems and take the lead in whatever we do, they will come in and support us. We, women talk too much, the way forward for us is to network and partner with other stakeholders’’, she added. The theme Women and Beauty describes them as Western Queens, a flower growing wild in the marshes of the province. Betty Wan a women leader from North fly District health and social sector government urged her women folk to raise their heads high and walk with pride. ‘’We forget ourselves and carry the whole world on our shoulders and loose that passion and luster we once had. We walk in silences, in all walks of life nobody knows our struggles, we still keep silence of all the abuses we go through every day. But we must not keep silence. We need to rise up, lift our head up and walk with the rest of the women fold in the country. We have to do business together and help each other’’, Mrs. Wan said.’ ‘’We must not to keep in silence. For the past 40 years there wasn’t any steady women network in Western Province. Western women have been kept on the sides and bowing our heads low. But not this time, we have to raise our heads up and work with our men and other women folk from other provinces, she said.

She believes that responsibility falls on all heads either in a village setting, public office or town, inclusivity of women’s voice will have to be adhered to, whether the man like it or not. ‘’There must be a recognition of co responsibility of men and boys in advancing this agenda. Promoting male champions is an important part of this in nation building and applies to all sectors’’ she added. ‘’ I would like to call on the North, Middle and South Fly district governments to seriously look into women issues and address them accordingly and must include them in decision making’’, said Mrs. Wan Acting district administrator for North Fly Steven Karl couldn’t say more but with deep respect commended the women leaders for taking the initiative to organize such an event in the district. He acknowledge their efforts in mobilizing themselves to work together to see change in their respective communities. ‘’This is just the beginning of good things yet to come. All of you seated and standing here are marathon runners. It starts like this when, you wake up in the morning as early as 4 or 5am, you start walking to the kitchen, fetching water, making fire, have the breakfast ready for your husband and kids. How many steps you do in a day covers many kilometers, just to manage the house, go to the office or whatever. You add all that in a day, in a week or year, you cover more kilometers than a marathon runner’’, He said.

The Acting District Administrator second from left. I’m honoured to be part of this event and I thank you for including the district in the district this. Obviously without these beautiful women before me our communities won’t be able to enjoy all the good things’’, said Mr. Karl. Recalling the conversation I had with my Abip friend, he surely is right about the challenges, but one thing for sure that I see as an outsider is the change and the gradual shift of mindsets among the people here. END!!