Put PNG first

Around the time of the 30th Anniversary of Independence, there was a writing competition put out by the Cultural Commission (or some such body) for students to write a poem on the theme of putting PNG first.

At the World Teachers Day celebration a few weeks ago, Mrs Bobone (one of our English/Social Socience teachers) read aloud her poem which she'd written on the theme. I was really moved by it, so asked her if she could make me a copy. Thought maybe you'd appreciate it too.

Put Papua New Guinea First

When you’re first, it entails responsibilities
Obligations real or unrealistic rest upon your shoulders
When you’re first, you’ve got to try to please the rest
Cause you’re first, that’s your responsibility
If seasoned with justice and fairness
I’m not complaining cause you’re first, I put you there.

When you’re first you’ve got to be last in order to be first
When you’re first, serving is your calling
Whether they’re big or they’re small
Middle class or second class,
You serve them all cause
He’s your brother, she’s your sister
Despite the fact that they’re uncultured and unlearned
You treat them all the same
Cause he’s your brother she’s your sister

When you’re first, jumping the queue is not the norm
When you’re first you don’t deal under the tables, that’s for losers
When you’re first you don’t attend through the back door, that’s for cheats
You invite them through the front door and serve at your front desk
Cause you’re first, integrity and honesty are your middle name

When you’re first, feathering your nest shouldn’t be your best
Showing me the way then getting there is our shared dream
When you’re first you try to see the world through my eyes
Try on my shoes and walk a mile with me
Then when you’re first and deciding, you’ve got me at the back of your mind
The Utopia of our dreams is in the same distance within our reach

When you’re first, you don’t slap me across the face
When you’re first, you don’t stab me in my back.
You don’t leave me on the roadside to wither and die.
You don’t drag my name through the gutters or sell me out to gamblers
Because you’re first you love me and nurture me
Cause I’ve got within me the nature to hold you close to my heart and love you with my all

So that even when you’re first and I’m last we are a kindred spirit
Formed from the depths of the restless Pacific
A multitude of cultures do not pose a threat for we are survivors
Even when you’re first and I am last, we must find a rock amid the thousand storms
And merge we must
So that your dreams become my dreams and your aspirations become mine.
Guiding us towards the Utopia we dream of
So that you’re being first and my being last can be a force
That brings us out of that cyclical bondage
To set us upon a journey that has a goal at the end
A destination that has been forged by you’re being first and my being last

Eileen Bobone, 2005