Alice Wedega

Dame Alice Wedega, DBE (20 August 1905 in Ahioma, Milne Bay, Papua New Guinea – 3 December 1987) was a Papuan politician, educator, peacemaker and conscientious objector.

Alice Wedega was raised in Kwato, Milne Bay in a traditional culture of violence, including "witchcraft" and headhunting. Her work in educating her people and encouraging them to listen to the "good spirit", she 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 traveled to Northern Ireland to help resolve conflict (see quote below). She became the first woman member of the appointed Papua New Guinea Legislative Council in 1961.

Quote

  • "... [o]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)[1][2]

References

  1. ↑ Michael Henderson, All Her Paths Are Peace: Women Pioneers in Peacemaking, Kumarian Press, pp. 81–92 (1994).
  2. ↑ Biodata Archived 2006-11-27 at the Wayback Machine., mcc.org; accessed 19 June 2017.


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