Koriam Michael Urekit (c. 1916 – 3 December 1978) was a

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...

n cargo cult leader and politician. He served as a member of the House of Assembly and

National Parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

from 1964 until his death.

Biography

Urekit was born in Ablingi village in

New Britain New Britain () is the largest island in the Bismarck Archipelago, part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea. It is separated from New Guinea by a northwest corner of the Solomon Sea (or with an island hop of Umboi Island, Umboi the Dampie ...

. A subsistence farmer, he helped establish and improve educational facilities in the Kandrian area. He married and had five children.''Members of the Third House of Assembly'', p29 He was involved in a local cargo cult, and was jailed for his activities. In 1962 Urekit was elected to New Britain District Advisory Council, also becoming an observer at the

Legislative Council A legislative council is the legislature, or one of the legislative chambers, of a nation, colony, or subnational division such as a province or state. It was commonly used to label unicameral or upper house legislative bodies in the Brit ...

.David G. Bettison, Colin A. Hughes & Paul W. van der Veur (1965
The Papua-New Guinea Elections 1964
In the first elections to the new House of Assembly in 1964, he was elected from the East New Britain Open constituency. After his election he established

Pomio Kivung The Pomio Kivung movement ("Meeting") is a millenarian movement sometimes called a cargo cult practiced among the villagers in the Baining and Pomio areas in East New Britain, Papua New Guinea. History The movement merged two millenarian influe ...

, another cargo cult. He was re-elected from the new Kandrian-Pomio Open constituency in

1968 Events January–February * January 1968, January – The I'm Backing Britain, I'm Backing Britain campaign starts spontaneously. * January 5 – Prague Spring: Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Cze ...

and from the Pomio Open constituency in

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, ...

and

1977 Events January * January 8 – 1977 Moscow bombings, Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group. * January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (no ...

. When Papua New Guinea became independent in 1975, the House of Assembly was renamed the National Parliament. During his time in parliament he continued to push for the establishment of new educational facilities, with former MP Harry Humphreys claiming he once saw Urekit try to give K20,000 to the government to set up a primary school. Urekit collapsed while at Port Moresby Hospital on 2 December 1978 and died the following day.MPs pay tribute to Urekit
''Papua New Guinea Post-Courier'', 7 December 1978Long-time Pomio MP dies
''Papua New Guinea Post-Courier'', 4 December 1978

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Urekit, Koriam Papua New Guinean farmers Members of the House of Assembly of Papua and New Guinea Members of the National Parliament of Papua New Guinea 1978 deaths Cargo cults

Biography

See also

References