John Kasaipwalova

John Kasaipwalova (born 1949, died 2 May 2023) was an author, poet, playwright and revolutionary of Papua New Guinea.

Biography He was born in Okaikoda Village on Kiriwina Island of the Trobriand Islands, Milne Bay Province of Papua New Guinea, to indigenous parents. His mother, Rosemary, belonged to the clan aristocracy, and his father, Andrew, was the first Catholic catechist on the island. He was originally destined to be a tribal chief, but his father insisted on a formal education. A colonial court ruled in the father's favor, and Kasaipwalova was sent to Catholic school, eventually earning a scholarship to attend the University of Queensland, where he studied veterinary medicine.

While in Australia, he became deeply involved in radical Catholicism and leftist student movements, protesting the Vietnam War and engaging in anti-imperialist activism. He began his literary work during this period. As a member of the Socialist Revolutionary Students’ Alliance, he lost his scholarship and visa and was forced to return home. Though he never formally completed his degree, his influence on Papua New Guinea’s literature and political thought was significant.

In 1972, at the age of 23, he founded the Kabisawali movement upon returning to Kiriwina. The movement, inspired by indigenous systems of reciprocity such as the Kula exchange and Sagali festivals, sought to liberate the island from colonial structures and build an autonomous, cooperative economy.

Published works Hanuabada (a compilation of poetry) (1972) Reluctant Flame (a compilation of poetry) (1972) Yaulabuta, Kolupa, deli lekolekwa (pilatolu kilivila wosimwaya) (1978) Yaulabuta, the passion of Chief Kailaga: an historical poem from the Trobriand Islands (translated into English with Ulli Beier) (1978) Kanaka's Dream (satirical play) The Rooster in the Confessional (satirical play) The Naked Jazz (satirical play) My Brother (satirical play) My Enemy (satirical play) Sail the Midnight Sun (co-author with Greg Murphy) (folk opera) (1980) Betel Nut is Bad Magic for Airplanes (short story)

Other work Kasaipwalova also developed a grassroots co-operative and cultural movement in the Trobriand Islands. His political and cultural vision culminated in the Kabisawali movement, which sought to transform traditional communal systems into a model of autonomous modernity.