{"id":76018,"date":"2021-03-12T21:00:36","date_gmt":"2021-03-12T21:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=173374"},"modified":"2021-03-12T21:00:36","modified_gmt":"2021-03-12T21:00:36","slug":"bittersweet-day-for-my-family-says-dulciana-at-somare-funeral-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/03\/12\/bittersweet-day-for-my-family-says-dulciana-at-somare-funeral-2\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Bittersweet day for my family\u2019, says Dulciana at Somare funeral"},"content":{"rendered":"
By Gorethy Kenneth in Port Moresby<\/em><\/p>\n The youngest daughter of the Somare family Dulciana Somare-Brash told mourners the state funeral for Papua New Guinea\u2019s Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare was a bittersweet occasion for her family.<\/p>\n \u201cToday is a bittersweet day for my family, we come here to farewell our patriarch, our protector, and our human shield in a place where he stood to raise our flag [for independence] all those years ago for our new nation,\u201d she said at Friday\u2019s state funeral.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was here that he made his mark on this land, a land with plenty, beaming with resources that require our care now.<\/p>\n \u201cLate yesterday [Thursday] afternoon I watched my father the great Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare leave Parliament for the last time.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom 1982 when the Australian gifted that House, he would proudly walk proudly through its doors.<\/p>\n \u201cYesterday he was carried into the chamber and as he lay in state I fought back tears, that he had dreamt, then felt, then he had left for us to complete.<\/p>\n Sir Michael Somare \u2026 he became Papua New Guinea\u2019s founding prime minister in 1975. Image: RNZ<\/p>\n \u201cI wept bittersweet tears for all that he had left behind and all that he had abruptly left for us to do. Yesterday was a hard day sitting in Parliament, a building so familiar to me and my mother and my siblings.<\/p>\n \u2018Wonderful tributes\u2019<\/strong> \u201cPrime Minister James Marape referred to my father as a bulldozer yesterday which makes perfect sense actually as we\u2019ve always joked that our mother [Lady Veronica] was the handbrake without ever referring to our father as a bulldozer.\u201d<\/p>\n The state funeral was held at the Sir Hubert Murray stadium in Port Moresby yesterday.<\/p>\n Today, the body of the Grand Chief will be flown to East Sepik ahead of his burial at his property in Wewak.<\/p>\n Thousands of people have converged on both Port Moresby and Wewak for the respective services to pay respects to Sir Michael, reports RNZ Pacific<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/a>A screenshot from yesterday\u2019s EMTV News live streaming<\/a> on social media. Most news media carried live feeds of the four-hour funeral.<\/p>\n Gorethy Kenneth is a senior PNG Post-Courier reporter.<\/em><\/p>\n
\u201cI heard wonderful tributes from my father\u2019s peers, papa [Sir Julius] Chan spoke of a lifelong friendship, and papa [Paias] Wingti lamented over a mentor and friend he treasured.<\/p>\n