Mobility, Modernisation and Agency: The Life Story of John Kikang from Papua New Guinea

In this project I focus on the life of John Kikang, a man who played a key role in modernising his region of origin in north-eastern Papua New Guinea. John Kikang's determination to create a chronologically ordered life history in which he presented himself as an individual agent cannot be separated from this process of modernisation.His autobiographical narratives and writings permitted Kikang to highlight his capacity as intermediary between the colonial world of the whites, his rural home in the Rai Coast hinterland, and the dream zones of the Christian Beyond. My approach to Kikang's life story takes its cue from three modes of construction. First, I combine his written notes with transcriptions of his narratives in such a way as to allow inter-referentiality, yet without depriving either of its autonomy. Second, I respond to Kikang's endeavours to fashion for himself an individual life story which is chronologically ordered. Third, if I reproduce selected dialogues between Kikang and myself, it is because I consider this to be an apt way to highlight our co-constructing of his life story. The arguments I adduce concerning representation are then linked to the issue of what relevance alterity has for the making of Pacific biographies.