I was lucky to make a couple of reporting trips back to PNG in 2022. One visit coincided with the 2022 election & produced a couple of pieces for The Guardian about women candidates and the push for women’s representation. I came back with lots of thoughts swirling on a decade of conversations on women & power in PNG, and on the limits of outsider journalism in telling their stories. This essay for Meanjin is an attempt to think through some of those issues out loud. It’s a long & rambling read, sorry! and behind a paywall, albeit a modest one. But if you are in PNG with an interest in this, contact me and I can try to share. Big thanks for their generous time & thoughts recently and in the past to Orovu Sepoe Carol Kidu Kessy Sawang Rufina Peter Dulciana SB Tania Bale Matilda Koma Lesley Clark Dorothy Tekwie and the late Nahau Rooney via Michelle Nayahamui Su-Powes & so many more . AND of course this reporting would not have happened without the Walkley Foundation/ Sean Dorney Grant for Pacific Journalism.