Jean Lucilla Kekedo

Dame Jean Lucilla Kekedo is a Papua New Guinean activist who has held senior roles in the country's public service, including that of Ombudsman and High commissioner to the United Kingdom.

Early life After World War II, Jean Lucilla Kekedo's parents moved from Central Province to Kokoda in what is now Oro Province, with her father, Walter, being given the responsibility to prepare Kokoda for the arrival of Australian officers. Her mother, Mary Kekedo, established a school there, which had 200 children. Kekedo attended this school and later went to school in the provincial capital of Popondetta, where the students had to grow much of their own food. Like her two elder sisters, she won a scholarship to study in Australia, but turned this down in order to go to Rabaul High School in East New Britain. On leaving high school she was offered a scholarship to attend the University of Papua New Guinea but declined as she wanted to be a patrol officer or work in agriculture, both of which were barred to women.

In 1965, she was posted to Milne Bay Province as a welfare officer. There she worked with Alice Wedega (later Dame Alice Wedega), the first Papua New Guinean woman to sit in the Legislative Council of Papua and New Guinea. In 1968, Jean Kekedo was transferred back to Popondetta, where she was finally persuaded to go to university. Starting out her undergraduate studies at the University of Papua New Guinea in Port Moresby, she completed her degree at the South Australian Institute of Technology, now the University of South Australia.

Since returning from London, Kekedo has held a variety of positions, both official and charitable. She was a member of the Council of the Papua New Guinea University of Technology from 2013 and appointed chancellor of that university in 2017. In 2021, she was made chair of the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary police promotion and selection board, the first woman to hold this position. She is also chair of St. John Ambulance, a statutory charity.

Awards and honours Kekedo was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2020 Birthday Honours. She became the third member of her family to be honoured in this way, after her mother, Dame Mary Kekedo, and her elder sister, Dame Rosalina Kekedo. In March 2026, it was announced that she had also been made a Dame Commander of the Order of St John (DStJ).