I’m Hannah Mel Tabara, 24 from a mix parentage of Oro province and Solomon Islands. I grew up in Western Highlands province. My middle name was taken after my godmother in Hagen from Nebliyer district as I was born in her village.
This year I am doing my double major in Anthropology and Sociology. Last year I completed my Arts and design program.
Both my parents are missionaries in CRC Pentecostal church in Hagen where I grew up. I am the youngest of three siblings. Raised in the church, I took part in the work of my parents. They got us involved in various church ministries. We would go around the compounds of Western Highlands doing mercy ministries, giving clothes and food to the needy. My parents would throw mission’s concert and we would display different cultures of each of the country and how gospel first reach their provinces.
From a Christian background, I wanted to contest the UPNG pageant because it was all about prompting authenticity, intelligence as well as advocating for social issues to make a change. Many students in here would have the misconception that it’s just a normal beauty pageant runway. It’s actually a platform to advocate on social issues, and in order to enter the pageant one must have something to advocate for.
When I was being screened on my application to contest the pageant, I advocated about the preservation of PNG’s history, culture and traditional knowledge, because growing up in another province, I learnt that it doesn’t matter where you come from, as long as you contribute positively to the community you live in.
In the School of Humanities & Social Sciences (SHSS) we have 13 different stands. The language and linguistic departments are teaching Japanese, French and Bahasa. I would like if they integrate some Papua New Guinean languages into the university’s curriculum.
If I am crowned Miss UPNG, I will collaborate with the linguistic department and ask them to integrate the PNG languages into the curriculum, and ensure that PNG’s history is a compulsory course for first year students in SHSS. We need to first understand who we are.