Iambakey Okuk

Iambakey Palma Okuk (May 5, 1945- November 1986) was born in the Simbu Province of Papua New Guinea. He is known as Papua New Guinea's "most colorful and controversial politician". Iambakey was an independence leader in Papua New Guinea and served as Deputy Prime Minister, the nation's first Minister for Agriculture & Fisheries, and repeatedly in the capacity of Minister of Transport, Minister of Primary Industries and Opposition Leader.

Iambakey first led protests against unfair labor practices, and then once elected to office, worked to reserve sectors of the economy for citizens as a method of returning a complex economic role to Papua New Guineans. In the post-independence decade, Iambakey built a coalition of minority political factions which forced the successful change of government, in which he became Deputy Prime Minister.

Iambakey's life began the year World War II ended, 1945, in what is now called Simbu province of the Central Highlands of Papua New Guinea. At birth, the world of his immediate contemporaries was primarily made up of people who had lived isolated by tribal boundaries until a decade previous. Europeans were now part of the world of Iambakey's contemporaries, but were spatially and socially removed from the intimate village life of his childhood. Iambakey's earliest memories were from Gambagogl village in Simbu province, just outside of the provincial capital, Kundiawa. Simbu province is the most densely populated region of the highlands, and the laborers participating in the Highlands Labor Scheme were predominantly from this area.

Iambakey's father, Okuk, became a policeman and was subsequently stationed in the Western Highlands. His father was a local leader, Palma of Gambagolg village in Simbu, Papua New Guinea. Not long after his birth, his father died, and he was adopted and raised by his eldest brother, Okuk. Iambakey spent eighteen years in the area around Hagen, learned the local language and went to school. His firsthand experience of racism began with the deference and privilege demanded by Europeans. In his schooling, he was treated in almost a privileged manner, being among the first of the Highlands students, but after graduating high school, Iambakey described himself as "an angry young man, full of bitterness." The ideals that he had learned were not realized, and his achievements could not overcome the constraints of race discrimination. Although he was being groomed for higher education in Australia, he opted to take up an apprenticeship program to become a mechanic. This program allowed him to learn a trade of great symbolic significance, the control of European technology, which could be used in the Highlands (not just urban centers), while allowing him to stay and participate in local political developments. In retrospect, Iambakey saw his political aspirations emanate from the same period as the push for self-government, starting in 1964.

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