YUKULI KOLO

          NO LANDING ECHO (coming soon)   Shila Yukuli Paia For Nathan Randupi  You were my wish before me You looked cool In your yellow boots Yellow Tee and yellow hat Hands in your six pocket short You didn’t smile I didn’t ask for it I felt love Instantly With those big blue eyes I wished for a child In my dream I saw you And you were

     1.       Introduction My adopted son Pandawi Paia has been to Randupi, my birthplace this morning to cut timber to build my father’s house which has been burnt down in a tribal conflict last year. He sent me photos of my avocado tree, my pandanus trees, my rock caves, my garden fallow land, my Rivers Randupi and Hituku, and the bush overgrown hamlet on the hilltop where our houses used to be. Tears of longing the belonging flowed freely as I carefully scanned through the photos sent as I had requested. A sense of awe, simplicity, and sacredness overwhelm me. I believe I have missed out on so much basics. My horizon on the Gospel itself, where Jesus born in a manger, on hay come to life. From hay to hero, Jesus is the truth, hope and the peace this and every Christmas, for me at least. I just feel like writing about my photos!   2.       Randupi our birth cave Randupi is the perfect, lushly flourishing Eden. We were surrounded by an untouched celestial beauty even before we were bo

  The Power of Your Subconscious Mind by Dr Joseph Murphy The Soil, the seed and the sower  I first laid hands on the ‘Power of Your Subconscious Mind’ seven years ago at QBD Bookstores in Marion. It took me a whole day to read the twenty chapters for the first time then. I since tugged the book away. This year, when I started updating my iPhone kindle and syncing some of my books from my laptop, this book was recommended to me. I downloaded a cheaper kindle version and read it again for the second time.  Not surprisingly, I find new treasures every time I flip the pages. I have read most of Dr Murphy’s other books on similar topics and find him easy to read. He has a way with words. He makes the most profound insights simple and friendly to the reader, any reader. So I got wired into this book as if I was reading it for the first time.  Dr Murphy outlines a road map for every person at every level and path of this walk of life in the simplest way possible. In the twenty very provoking

  Written by   Shila Yukuli Paia   on Friday, 01 April 2016. Posted in   Papua New Guinea A COMMUNITY WORKING TOGETHER TO PROVIDE BASIC EDUCATION FOR THEIR CHILDREN When I divorced in 2008 my people almost disowned me. I made it my business to raise awareness on gender based violence, human rights, education, health and poverty, both in my village and within settlements of Port Moresby. This talk was my last in my village before I came to Australia in January 2011. My people have learnt so much and are mobilised to make a positive change. This has been one of the milestone achievements of my career.   Numerous consultations, mobilising women, raising awareness and capacity building have been carried out since 2008 to increase women’s understanding of benefits and risks associated with the PNGLNG (Papua New Guinea Liquid Natural Gas) project in order to establish the best possible strategies on how women could participate in the development. This is a picture of women leaders listening

 Accolade: Chief Dr Jean Murray and Chris Murray 1. How we met  I was working on building my network soon after completing my MHID* from the College of Medicine and Public Health at Flinders University. My cousin brother and his girls traveled from NSW to attend my graduation ceremony at the Adelaide Convention Center on the 12th December 2012. Since graduation, I did bits and pieces to start building my network for my 'grand vision' for PNG. After I returned from Alice Springs on a 3 month work placement as part of an Australian Prime Ministers Pacific Leadership Program award in August of 2013, I started doing some short term freelance tutorial work with the Gender Consortium of the Flinders University through the Director Cara Ellickson. Since then Cara engaged me more and more as freelance tutor to her students on topics of gender, public health and international development.  Through this connection, I was attending a Gender Consortium symposium at Flinders University, Vic

Written by  Shila Yukuli Paia  on Friday, 21 August 2015. Posted in  Papua New Guinea "POVERTY CAN NEVER BE DEFINED AND ADDRESSED UNLESS THE VOICES OF THE POOR ARE HEARD." In a dark, cold cave, a lonely young woman gives birth to her first child. The world outside waits to share the joy of her first born child who has to be a boy. But not just yet. She can’t show off her baby boy for at least three months after this dirty process, this disgusting process of giving birth. After three days of hard, long excruciating labour, her baby is finally born. She looks over at her newborn with tears of joy, only to realise her baby is a girl. She is overwhelmed, frightened, anxious, confused, lost at the thought of disgrace and shame for giving birth to a female first-born child. The girl grows up mostly with her grandmother who is fearless of what society believes. As elegant and intelligent as she was, her grandmother taught her the skills of hunting, gardening and laws and customs ab