Dame Jean’s work recognised

By LULU MAGINDE
FOR her community, diplomatic service and her leadership roles at the University of Technology (Unitech) and St John Ambulance, Dame Jean Kekedo was awarded Dame Commander of the British Empire (DBE).
Dame Jean was the first of her 10 siblings to be born in Kokoda.
Her father is from Wedau in Milne Bay and mother is of mixed race.
“Although we are not from Kokoda, that is the only place I call home and will never leave until I die,” she said.
On becoming the third member of her family to receive the honour, she described it as hard to believe.
“It’s a strange world, I don’t even know how I got recommended for this,” she said.
“It feels surreal, that three female members in my family have received it.”
After completing high school at Dreghaffen, Morobe, in 1965, she wanted to become a doctor but her father asked her and her older sister Rose to help educate their younger siblings instead.
So she left medical school and joined the public service in 1967 as a welfare officer in Milne Bay, Northern and Western Highlands.
By 1969, she was recommended by the Western Highlands District Commissioner to be offered a place at university while receiving full pay.
After a year at the University of Papua New Guinea, she won a Commonwealth Scholarship to attend university in Adelaide, South Australia, still while receiving full pay. After her graduation in 1973, she noted how things were changing in the country with talks of self-governance and independence.
Joining the Department of Family and Home Affairs, she worked as a child probation officer in the capital.
“This was a rewarding job working with children in trouble with the law and abandoned by their parents.”
In a long and illustrious career, Dame Jean has been the acting deputy secretary of the prime minister and the National Executive Council, the first female Ombudsman, secretary of Civil Aviation, managing director of the Forests Authority and High Commissioner to the United Kingdom (UK).
All while raising three children, Jeannie, Robert and Richard Haugie as a single mother.
“The journey was tough but I did not have a choice. God has been good to me, I worked hard and it wasn’t easy.”
She explains how, before her return from the UK in 2011, the Duke of Gloucester personally asked her to oversee the operations of the St John Ambulance service.
To date, she is the first and only female chair of the Police Promotion and Selection board and has positively impacted operations at St John Ambulance as its chair. Originally intending to decline the honour, she was encouraged to accept it on behalf of the people of Northern.
Through her attire, she made a statement to bring to attention the serious environmental challenges the province faces, inspired by the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) currently taking place in Scotland.
“My dress has the design of the ‘Queen Alexandra Birdwing Butterfly’, which is found in Oro but is now endangered.”
She dedicated her honour to her parents Walter Gill Kekedo and Dame Mary Angela Kekedo for introducing formal education for children living in and around Kokoda along with her school teachers, her family and friends.
She acknowledged Northern Governor Gary Juffa for his stand on sustainable development.
“I echo his and our people’s concern of the illegal raping of our forests, the polluting of our river ways by chemicals used in the palm oil and mineral extractive industry,” she said.
She also dedicated her award to the memory of those, especially women, who had helped her and her siblings attain an education in Northern.