Women’s war role revealed

THE experiences of Oro women in World War Two were not fully recorded in history says an Australian anthropologist.
“PNG women (Oro women) are kept in the sideline” in recorded WWII history,” Dr Victoria Stead of Deakin University said during a lecture at the National Museum and Art gallery. Through her research project called Women remember the war, Dr Stead found that “women are barley represented at the museum in Kokoda station and the Australian-funded war memorial in Popondetta.”
The study was undertaken with the help of local research partners Margret Embahe and Mavis Tongia. “Even men spoke about the experiences of their mothers and sisters,” Dr Stead said. “Women played a part in the war by caring for children and helped in the war work by looking after vegetable gardens.”