THE GENERAL LACK OF INTEREST in Papua New Guinea-Australia relations in Australia since PNG?s independence in 1975 has been a disappointment and point of confusion to many people in PNG.
No less to those former expats who remain connected to their friends and one-time colleagues across the Torres Strait.
Australia, once an amenable administrator in the often sorry annals of colonialism, became a bad mate who never called to see how you were going.
(?Maaate, I?m givin? yer the moolah, what else d?y'want??)
This attitude has trickled down, in unfortunately bipartisan fashion, from the upper echelons of Australian government, through the tortuous corridors of diplomacy and the excesses of the mass media?to the rest of us, the Aussie rank and file.
What became apparent, when we paused to think about it, was that real re-engagement would have to come from relationship building at a personal or kunairoots level, as Paul oates terms it.
This is what is done every day by readers and contributors to PNG Attitude, the good people at the Kokoda Track Foundation and the work the Crocodile Prize team have achieved.
(Note for 4 November 2012: Julia Gillard and Bob Carr have not yet deigned to set foot in PNG, unlike the Royal Household.)
With such thoughts in mind, Keith Jackson and I set out on another re-engagement project.?Jackson PR Associates is a collective endeavour of diversely skilled and culturally aware communications professionals with international experience in Australasia, the Pacific and Asia.
The new company?s Associates include names familiar to PNG Attitude regulars (bit like the bar where everyone knows your name): Martyn Namorong, Emmanuel Narokobi, Phil Fitzpatrick, Marsali Mackinnon?and Martin Hadlow.
But they have peers among the Associates who have had outstanding careers in communications and iron-clad connections to PNG. Here are a few.
Bernard Yegiora
Bernard says he ?writes with the aim of influencing public perception? and he?s well versed in using social media like Twitter and blogs to effectively disseminate information.
Right now one of his responsibilities is as a member of the Faculty of Arts Writing Committee, tasked with developing a new first year course in English writing.
He?s also involved with preparing health management students for their later degree studies at James Cook University in Queensland.
Phil Donnison
He began in the film industry in 1977 after a career as a high school teacher in PNG, and went on to produce television commercials, documentaries, tourism films and radio jingles in Fiji, Tonga, Western Samoa, PNG, Micronesia, New Zealand, the USA and Australia.
Phil has won 14 Australian and international awards for his film work, including a prestigious Australian Cinematographers Society Gold Award.
He?s worked with Keith Jackson on a number of occasions over the last few years in making documentaries, including one commemorating the sinking en route from Rabaul to Hainan of the prison ship Montevideo Maru.
Ed Brumby
All of this is underpinned by postgraduate qualifications in English literature, applied linguistics, educational media and communications.
Most recently, Ed?s been building and managing business relationships in the financial services sector in China and the ASEAN region.
His writing career began during 10 years in PNG where he wrote and edited material for primary school students and policy papers and speeches for the Director and Minister of Education.
Like Keith Jackson, he was a regular in the sports pages of the Post-Courier and the National Broadcasting Commission?s sports programs.
Ed retains a strong interest in Pacific affairs and organised and substantially funded the Yokomo students? writing awards in PNG?s national literary competition, the Crocodile Prize.
The full list of associates can be seen on the Jackson PR Associates website here
Ben Jackson is a director of Jackson PR Associates
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