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Showing posts from March, 2025

My Mother's Story (Mercia Paliou)

On this International Woman's Day, I wanted to share my mum's story on her journey and her aspirations in life. To also give us a glimpse into what life was like back then and what they did to build the young PNG nation. I would not be where I am today if she did not first embark on her own journey of education, career marriage and life.   My mother's journey began in her village of Dogur in the Dagua LLG of the East Sepik Province. She was born on the 6th of September 1947. She already had 5 older siblings and she was the 5th born with 2 others after her. Born to parents who were subsistence farmers their lives revolve around fishing, gardening, hunting and gathering food to feed the family. A typical village day would consist of women going to the garden, to work on their vegetables patches whilst the man would go hunting/setting traps for bandicoot or fishing in the small creeks, rivers or the sea. Their stable diet is sago so each family has their own sago plots in th...