Ekonia Tekoro was born in the Duke of York Islands, New Britain, in 1916 or 1917. He was serving as a Methodist pastor on Bougainville when the Japanese invaded the island. Not being a native Bougainvillean, he was a marked man. However, he eventually linked up with the Coastwatchers and reached the safety of the beachhead at Torokina.

The autobiography comprises 29 handwritten pages and covers the period 1916 to 1979.