To celebrate the 50th anniversary of independence in Papua New Guinea, for the month of September Australian Policy and History is publishing policy briefs written by students studying at Honours, Masters or Doctoral levels who attended a June 2025 intensive workshop on Papua New Guinea and Australia, sponsored by DFAT and run by Deakin’s Centre for Contemporary Histories, at the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra.
Attention
The Hon Jason Clare MP, Minister for Education
Purpose
As neighbours which share security threats amid a rapidly changing world order, Australia and Papua New Guinea have a relationship that should not be overlooked by Australians, but too often is. This policy brief therefore offers suggestions for how to increase Australians’ awareness of Papua New Guinea and the two countries’ shared history, relationship, and future. Education about the relationship is vital. This brief suggests four ways to address this problem: revising the primary and secondary school curricula, supporting the broadening of library collections to reflect the relationship, developing new excursions and visits to schools, and ensuring that museums reflect the relationship in their collections.
Background
Despite the two nations’ deep and rich shared history, a solid contemporary relationship, and a future unarguably shaped by geography, many Australians are generally not very knowledgeable about Papua New Guinea nor the importance of the relationship. The relationship should be prioritised not only by governments but by the Australian people.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has reignited and refreshed Australia’s relationship with Papua New Guinea through his association with Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister James Marape. This momentum must be sustained, however, through educating the Australian public, and fostering grass-roots, people-to-people relationships between Australians and Papua New Guineans.
Policy Options
- Revising the school curriculum
Topics concerning Papua New Guinea’s culture and history, as well as the relationship and history between Papua New Guinea and Australia, should be included in the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) Australian curriculum. There are ample opportunities across various year levels to introduce students to Papua New Guinea, most easily in English, history, politics, creative arts, sport, and science.
- Broaden library collections
The Department of Education should offer funding or grants specifically for primary and secondary schools to purchase texts by Papua New Guinean authors to add to their library. Fiction and non-fiction books could include A Thousand Coloured Dreams by Josephine Abaijah, He is Victor by Andrew Kuliniasi, and My Walk to Equality: Essays, Stories and Poetry by Papua New Guinean Women, edited by Rashmii Amoah Bell
- Excursions and Visits to Schools
In order to promote people-to-people contact, the Department of Education should allocate funding to primary and secondary schools explicitly for schools to arrange visits to schools and excursions of Papua New Guinean organisations, academics, projects, and activities. These visits to schools or excursions can educate children about Papua New Guinea, and Australia and Papua New Guinea’s history and relationship, while also serving other educational outcomes. For example, Papua New Guinean members of 350 Pacific could lead visits to schools, educating students about Papua New Guinea and simultaneously, environmentalism.
- Australian Museums
As a way of boosting Australians’ understanding of PNG, the Department of Education should provide funding to museums explicitly for Papua New Guinean and Australian exhibits. For example, the Immigration Museum in Victoria could introduce living abroad and migration stories from Australians and Papua New Guineans across the 20th century. It could be as simple as updating existing exhibits, to add a Papua New Guinea lens. For instance, Papua New Guinea’s contribution and relationship with Australia throughout the two world wars could be inserted into world war exhibits.
Policy Recommendation
This policy brief recommends that priority should be given to first policy alternative provided above: Option A, Revising the school curriculum. As the curriculum is already criticised for being too dense, the suggestion is not to create new study areas, but incorporate Papua New Guinea into existing priorities. Some ways in which this could be achieved include:
- In the foundation year, students study the alphabet and phonetics. The curriculum could be altered so that specific words significant to Papua New Guinea are used as phonetics and spelling examples;
- In year 5, students learn to write letters. This could be elevated to students corresponding with a pen pal in Papua New Guinea. In this way, students in Australia and Papua New Guinea could learn about the other’s culture while improving their literacy skills. This would also foster long-term relationships between students and could lay the foundation for students to want to utilise Australia Awards or the New Colombo Plan in future;
- Some schools use plastic tubes called ‘boomwhackers’ to teach students about music. Instead, they could be introduced to Papua New Guinea’s uptake of bamboo tubes and plastic flip flops, which operate similarly to boomwhackers. Students could study ‘The Wagi Brothers’ and use these instruments instead. This could also meet cross curriculum priorities as a sustainability dimension can also be analysed here. Substitutions like these where the examples used to teach broad concepts include Papua New Guinea, join current curriculum priorities with educating students about Papua New Guinea, serving two ends simultaneously.
Contact: Annina Mueller
Student – Bachelor of Arts (Honours) Australian Catholic University
Email: s00250344@myacu.edu.au
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