19/06/2026
The National Cultural Commission through the Institute of Papua New Guinea Studies (IPNGS) will be hosting an annual series of lectures at the IPNGS in Boroko, the nation’s capital.
The Jacob L. Simet Memorial Lecture Series honours and celebrates the legacy and the leadership of the late Jacob Simet and the incredibly reputable work of the Institute of PNG Studies over the last 50 years.
Dr. Simet himself was once an officer of the Institute of PNG Studies (IPNGS), the National Research Institute (NRI) and then he helped created and established the National Cultural Commission (NCC) in 1994.
Dr. Simet was a student of Professor Ulli Beier and Andrew Strathern at the University of PNG in the early 1970s. He began working with the IPNGS in 1975. In 1977, he started his graduate studies at the Australian National University but was recalled in 1986 to become Director of the IPNGS. The following year, IPNGS was amalgamated with the Institute of Applied Social and Economic Research and the Education Research Unit of UPNG which then became the current National Research Institute.
Dr. Simet was the head of the Cultural Studies Division at NRI. He was awarded his doctorate in anthropology from the Australian National University in 1991. Two years later, in 1993, he took up a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Hawaii. At that time, however, he was recalled from that academic engagement by the then Prime Minister, Paias Wingti, to help craft and develop the establishment of the NCC with the passing of the National Cultural Commission Act in 1994. Dr. Simet was appointed as the founding Executive Director of the NCC, and he served vigorously in that capacity until his retirement in 2016. He passed away last year in 2025.
After Dr. Simet attained his doctorate in 1991, the IPNGS also the successful arrival of two of its other officers, Dr. Don Niles and Dr. Naomi Faik-Simet who attained their doctorates in 2012 and 2022, respectively. Since the mid1970s, the IPNGS has been well known for its research and publications on the historical, social and cultural knowledge of PNG.
However, over time, its rich work on cultural knowledge and publications receded somewhat and the physical establishment of the IPNGS deteriorated. Then comes in Mr. Steven Enomb Kilanda, who became the Executive Director of the National Cultural Commission in 2019. Through his vision and leadership, and with the enabling support of the departments of the National Planning and Monitoring, Finance and Treasury, the IPNGS has been refurbished, and it is being reinvigorated with a new life.
The Executive Director of the NCC, Mr Steven Enomb Kilanda, “wants to thank” the Prime Minister, Hon. James Marape, and the
Minister for Tourism, Arts, and Culture, Hon. Belden Norman Namah, for their ongoing support to honour, protect and promote the cultural heritage of Papua New Guinea. And, we are extremely grateful for the Department of National Planning and Monitoring, the Department of Treasury, and the Department of Finance, for the enabling support that has seen the renovations and resurgence of the Institute of PNG Studies.”
A new conference facility has also been built at IPNGS which honours the memory and administrative legacy of Jacob L. Simet, after whom it is named.
Mr. Kilanda observed that: “To return and revive the work on Papua New Guinean cultural heritage and traditional knowledge, the IPNGS and the National Cultural Commission have planned and are hosting an annual series of lecture that are name after the late Dr. Simet. The lecture series is called the Jacob L. Simet Memorial Lecture Series.
“Within a year or two these lectures shall be edited and transformed as manuscripts into substantive materials of books and papers that will be published through the Institute of PNG Studies.”
“We look forward to the launching of this initiative and the inaugural lecture series that will begin on the 24th of June and continue in the coming months. We trust that such public engagements in the form of the lecture series will inspire and reinvigorate the interest to document and articulate Papua New Guinean ways”, says Mr. Steven Kilanda.
The inaugural lecture shall be given by Dr. Andrew Moutu, a senior Papua New Guinean anthropologist, and it will be hosted at the IPNGS on the 24th of June 2026 from 10 am to 12 pm.
Those who wish to attend this lecture, please liaise with Mr. Christopher Puio, the Acting Director of IPNGS on email: [email protected] to arrange your attendance of the lecture.
