Nancy Wii went to school with girls wearing grass skirts. Now she works among men wearing cargo pants.
At 21, she became Papua New Guinea's first female commercial pilot, rising through the ranks before she was promoted and became the first female commanding officer in the country's defence force.
"They didn't give it to me because I'm a female," Lieutenant-Colonel Wii said.
"They gave it to me because I earned it."
At a time when geopolitics has lasered international attention on PNG's military and security, the woman leading its air unit comes with an extraordinary personal story.
Her rise is reflective of the unit itself, which is getting back into the skies after years of being unable to fly.
Shattering the aviation glass ceiling
Nancy Wii grew up in a village as the eldest of 11 children, and says it was her father who encouraged her to seek a non-traditional career in aviation.
He was PNG's minister for civil aviation at the time and told her that in other countries there were female pilots and he thought she should learn to fly.
Her parents took out a loan so she could go to New Zealand, stay with a local family, and study.
"It was hard. I was dreading how I would sit at the table and eat with all these white people," she says while laughing.
But at 19 years old, she got her pilot's licence in just three months.
Her family took out another loan and sought help from the New Zealand government to send her back to earn her commercial licence.
"[It] was very motivating — the fact they believed in me, that they trusted me. So, I could not let them down," she said.
Ten months after returning to New Zealand, she was qualified and returned to her home as the country's first female commercial pilot, shattering PNG's aviation glass ceiling.
The stigma around women on planes
Despite the historic achievement, Lieutenant-Colonel Wii faced a new set of problems once she was in the role.
"[Some] passengers, when they saw me on the right-hand seat, they refused to fly because they didn't want the flight attendant in the front seat," she said, explaining they assumed she was a flight attendant because she was a woman.
"So in the remote areas everyone wanted to argue. It wasn't easy. It was really tough."
But she soon began to win people over, particularly after taking on a regular route out of Daru, the capital of PNG's Western Province.
"I think I earned my respect there," she said.
Little by little, she witnessed changes in people's attitudes, until eventually she felt she "had the support of the population".
"Everywhere they saw me they just rushed to me, shook hands with me, they couldn't believe it — everyone was proud of me," she said.
She said people would say things like, "This is the first female pilot," and wanted their daughters to follow the same career path.
In 2005, when the then-prime minister Sir Michael Somare put the call out for civilian pilots to join the Papua New Guinea Defence Force, Nancy Wii was one of two women who joined up.
But the PNGDF's Air Transport Wing was plagued by problems. And issues around funding, maintenance, and staffing, among others, saw the unit regularly grounded.
With no ability to fly, Lieutenant-Colonel Wii left, only to later be lured back to work as a squadron leader responsible for the trainees.
The issues with actually getting airborne remained, and morale was low.
Even now, the hanger the unit operates out of is littered with aircraft that clearly cannot fly.
But things are improving for PNG's defence aviation industry, particularly as Australia and other nations ramp up their involvement.
Getting PNG's planes back in the sky
Concern in Canberra about China's more assertive position in the Pacific, and its potential as an alternate partner for security projects, has led to an increase in defence cooperation in PNG in recent years.
In 2020, Australia came on board to help the unit get back into the skies, providing essential training, maintenance, and logistical support to PNG's defence aviation industry.
As the new joint program took off, Lieutenant-Colonel Wii acted in the unit's leadership role before being formally promoted in 2022 to lieutenant-colonel and commanding officer of the Air Transport Wing.
She said her unit learned a lot by working closely with members of a RAAF squadron that came to provide logistical support during PNG's election last year.
The historical relationship between Australia's air force and its PNG counterpart has at times been turbulent and inconsistent, and Lieutenant-Colonel Wii said there had been a need to "rebuild trust".
While that took some time, she said now the two teams were "good friends" and having the support of the RAAF had been "really, really good".
"Compared to past years, [my personnel] are seeing hope at the end of the tunnel, they're seeing light coming," she said.
Other Western allies are also offering to assist PNG's Air Transport Wing as part of a greater focus on Pacific security, but the unit knows it needs to ensure investments are sustainable.
Lieutenant-Colonel Wii says her focus is just getting into the air.
"All these things may come later, but for now we have to establish our foundation first, and to be able to help ourselves before we can help others. So that is where we stand," she said.
Last year, two PNG pilots flew together as a crew for the first time in five years.
Lieutenant-Colonel Wii described it as "the happiest moment for the unit", saying they gathered to clap as the aircraft went past.
"I had tears rolling and I had to hide my tears," she said.
"After five years of being grounded, it was a very good feeling and I would like it to stay that way."
She has also seen an increase in female officers, and concedes she has been a pioneer, saying "someone has to lead the way".
"I didn't take it seriously [initially]. I was like, 'Anyone can do it,' but when one does it, it opens doors for the rest to rise up," she said.
"I'm here now and I'm hoping all these other female officers and soldiers under me will be given the opportunity to rise and to lead as well."
Despite her success, she still feels the pressure to "prove to others that females can do it".
"I must lead and I must do well for women after me because if I don't they will say, 'See, we told you women couldn't lead.'
"It's a tough one."
While she says you "have to be strong" to "stand in front of men and command them", she says the men in her unit have been supportive.
Her focus is not just on the female personnel, but on the whole unit and the work still to be done.
"My hope for the Air Transport Wing is that one day we will be on our own, like an air force on our own," she said.
"I'd like to see more aircraft flying, all these young men and women getting to hold the spanner – fixing the aircraft, flying, coming to work on time – getting the unit to be alive again, like it used to be."
