Yali

Who is Yali?

Yali was an Papua New Guinean coastwatcher, local government councillor, police officer, political activist, prisoner and soldier. Yali was born in Sor village near Madang in then-German New Guinea and died in Sor, Madang District, Papua New Guinea.

After 1945, the Australian Administration of Papua New Guinea realised that it had to combat the antagonism of the native people towards the colonial power and Europeans in general. To this end, it promoted native leaders who would explain to their people the advantages of working with the Administration. The most prominent of these became Yali, of the Rai Coast, “born in the Ngaing bush area of Sor, a member of the Walaliang patriclan and the Tabinung matriclan, about 1912”.