Alice Wedega, Papuan teacher, c1952

Dame Alice Wedega, DBE (20 August 1905 – 3 December 1987) was a Papuan politician, educator, peacemaker and conscientious objector.

Born in Ahioma in Milne Bay, Wedega was raised in Kwato. She worked to educate her people and evangelise Christianity, and helped foster peace by "making enemies into friends" derived from her own education by Charles Abel, a missionary who established a school on the island of Kwato.

Wedega was knighted in 1982 as DBE. She once travelled to Northern Ireland to help resolve conflict. She was appointed to the Legislative Council of Papua and New Guinea in 1961, the first indigenous woman to sit in the legislature.

Quote

• "... ur people used to kill and eat men. They would practice payback. That is, if one of your side killed one of mine, my side would kill one of yours. But the missionaries came from Europe to stop us doing all that. And now I have been back to Northern Ireland to help the Europeans there stop doing it." (A. Wedega)

References