News Archive

Not very far from the northern coast of Australia, children as young as six are involved in dangerous child labour, clearing bushland, fishing in rough seas, and carving dug-out canoes.

Kanau Sion, a PhD candidate from Papua New Guinea, said that 80 per cent of the PNG population lived in traditional rural communities and their children were involved in these potentially dangerous jobs and other physically and mentally damaging work.

Mr Sion, a social worker and university lecturer, aims, through the publication of his thesis, to help PNG nationals to see the dangers in child labour and for the rest of the world to understand why it is still happening in PNG.

"From the PNG perspective, it is not child labour, it is simply child work. The parents want their children to learn life skills and to get experience to prepare them for adulthood," he said.

"From the western perspective, it is wrong. If the physical, social and emotional health and well-being of the child is compromised by this work, then it is what we call child labour, which goes against many international conventions," said Mr Sion, who is supervised by Dr Sue Young, Chair of the discipline of Social Work and Social Policy.

"But it is not my intention to simply tell the people it is wrong. They must come to that decision themselves. Implementation of solutions must involve the people themselves, so in my research on my island of Manus, I have stepped aside and let the people tell their stories.

"I hope that by reflecting on their own experiences they will learn and be inspired to take appropriate actions. And some of the people are already deciding that child labour is an issue.

"The title of my thesis is Understanding for action: child labour in the PNG context , and I hope that it will inspire change in my country as well as help the rest of the world to understand that these people believe they are doing the right thing by their children."

Mr Sion is funded by AusAID to study at UWA . He brought his wife and five young daughters to live in Perth after he found the separation from them, in his first six months here, unbearable. His wife works part-time to supplement the scholarship.

He has been awarded a Prime Minister's Pacific-Australia Award, a prestigious award offered to recipients of long-term development awards (Australian Development Scholarships and Australian Leadership Award Scholarships). They are for postgraduate students from the Pacific, Papua New Guinea and East Timor, who are leaders or potential leaders in their countries.

Deborah Pyatt, Manager of the International Sponsored Student Unit in UWA 's International Centre, said the PMPA awards were a breakthrough for postgraduate students from the Pacific islands and PNG. "It means they can get three months' experience before they go back to their countries, much better equipped to apply their knowledge and skills," she said.

Another winner of a PMPA award is Jenny Willie-Stephens, a dentist from Vanuatu, who is doing her Masters in Dental Public and Primary Health.

"The administration and management of oral healthcare services in my country is poor and thus affects the delivery of services to the rural and remote areas," she said. "It is for this reason that I decided to apply for a scholarship to study the public health aspect."

Sponsored by AusAID, she is studying dental public health administration and management, organisation and financing of dental care programs and development of resources, supervised by Winthrop Professor Marc Tennant, Director of the Centre for Remote and Rural Oral Health, and Dr Estie Kruger.

After finishing her course work, Ms Stephens' project has been based on the GIS mapping of private and public dental practices in NSW, to help the State Government plan and develop policies for its dental program.

She hopes to work with an NGO or government department in Australia, under the PMPA scheme, before returning to Port Vila where she has a position waiting as Principal Dental Officer for the Vanuatu Government.

"I have loved it here, so has my 12-year-old son. But I must go back and do what I can for my country. There is a lot of political instability there which, of course, affects public health."

The Prime Minister's Pacific-Australia Awards are part of the Australia Awards, an Australian Government initiative designed to promote knowledge, education links and enduring ties between Australia, our neighbours and the global community.

The PMPA Awards are fully funded by AusAID (Australian Agency for International Development)). For further information on the PMPA Awards, please visit pmpa.austraining.com.au

Published in UWA News , 17 October 2011