Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Colonial Sainthood in Australasia

2005; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 7; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/14608940500334457

1469-9907

Katie Pickles,

Canadian Identity and History

Abstract Concerned with the formation of national identities in postcolonial Australasia, this article compares and contrasts representations of religious women Mary MacKillop (1842–1909) and Suzanne Aubert (1835–1926). MacKillop, constructed as a contemporary popular ‘Australian legend’ is set to become Australasia's first saint, while in April 2004 investigation began into the beatification of New Zealand nun Aubert. Combining religious and secular explanations, despite the two women's lives and work displaying many similar characteristics, the article offers an explanation as to why it is that MacKillop, and not Aubert, will be Australasia's first saint. The article argues that representations of the two women are embedded in the construction of national identities in Australia and New Zealand that draw upon gendered ‘white settler society’ mythologies. Keywords: SaintsWomenReligionSettler SocietiesNunsNew ZealandAustralia Notes 1. See the back cover of Modystack (Citation1982). The major published works on MacKillop are: Gardiner (Citation1994); O'Brien (Citation1994); Foale (Citation1989); Thorpe (Citation1957). The major published works on Suzanne Aubert are: Munro (Citation1996); Rafter (Citation1972). 2. That is placed in the canon of saints celebrated in the official ceremonies of the Catholic Church throughout the world. The first Saint of Oceania was Peter Chanel, a Marist missionary beaten to death with a club and then hacked to pieces with hatchets on 28 April 1841 on Fortuna Island in the New Hebrides. Suffering a similarly untimely death to that of Captain James Cook, Saint Peter Chanel was a Christian coloniser. He was canonised by Pope Pius XII in 1954 as a Christian martyr. 3. On Canada's first woman saint, see Shoemaker (Citation2002); Greer (Citation2004). 4. For how the first academic women's lives in Anglo-Canada, New Zealand and Australia were shaped by their colonial settings, see Pickles (Citation2001a). 5. For Mary MacKillop in New Zealand, see McGowan and Wallace (Citation1994); Ward and Wallace (Citation1994); Stevenson and Wallace (Citation1994). For Aubert outside of New Zealand, see Rafter (Citation1972). When Aubert died in 1926, the congregation had three houses in New Zealand. In 1970, there were twelve foundations in New Zealand, Australia and Fiji (Rafter, Citation1972, p. 19). 6. For MacKillop as a ‘cultural icon’ in Australia, see McCreanor (Citation2001). 7. Munro (Citation1996, p. 173) suggests that Aubert might become a Saint; likewise, see King (Citation1997, pp. 118, 195). 8. The focus on gender identity rather than gender relations runs this risk. Subsequent attempts in New Zealand gender history have likewise attempted to dislodge archetypes (see Daley & Montgomerie, Citation1999). 9. This has subsequently become a pre-occupation (see Paisley, Citation2000). 10. MacKillop is not indexed in Ward (Citation1992) or Macintyre (Citation1999). Aubert is not indexed in Belich (Citation1996) or Belich (Citation2001). 11. See Davidson (Citation1989, pp. 76, 82) for Aubert; and Breward (Citation2001, pp. 131–133, 163–164) for MacKillop and Aubert, respectively. There is brief mention of MacKillop in O'Farrell (Citation1985), and there is some mention of Aubert in King (Citation1997) and Simmons (Citation1978). 12. Aubert has an entry in Macdonald et al. (Citation1991, pp. 29–32); entries in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography (Tennant, Citation2005) and Coney (Citation1993, pp. 76, 95). There is also an entry on MacKillop in the Dictionary of Australian Biography (Thorpe, Citation1964). 13. See Australian Feminist Studies, 13(28) (October 1998), Theme One: ‘Women, Religion and Citizenship: Intersections’. 14. See Pickles (Citation2002). For Canada, see Coates and Morgan (Citation2002). 15. See O'Brien (Citation1994, p. 160) and Fraser (Citation1989). According to Woodward (Citation1990, p. 117), happily married women ‘are undoubtedly the rarest breed of saints’. 16. See Thorpe (Citation1957, p. 239). MacKillop was buried on Grove Hill and then was moved five years later to the memorial chapel on Mount Street, North Sydney. 17. For Canada, see Danylewycz (Citation1987). 18. See Tennant (Citation1998, Citation1999, Citation2001). For an example of the identities of Canadian women in the mission field, see Rutherdale (Citation2002). 19. Compulsory free secular education was introduced in Victoria in 1872, Queensland and South Australia in 1875, New South Wales in 1880, Tasmania in 1885 and Western Australia in 1895. It was introduced in New Zealand in 1877. 20. See Munro (Citation1990, p. 207). Munro (Citation1990, p. 51) notes that Aubert ‘was known as a good bone-setter, a useful attribute in accident-rife pioneer New Zealand’. 21. As O'Brien (Citation1994, p. 47) points out, the Sisters of the Good Samaritan were the first congregation in 1857. 22. See Munro (Citation1996, p. 338). Bishop Redwood refused the sisters permission to train in nurses’ uniform. 23. See Woodward (Citation1990, p. 320). In another settler society (the United States), in 1987, Katharine Drexel, heiress and member of one of Philadelphia's most distinguished families was beatified. Drexel founded the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament for Indians and Colored People and numerous missions and schools. 24. O'Brien (Citation1994, p. 268) suggests that Cardinal Moran had ‘ordered his report to be hidden away as he believed its findings would reflect badly on Bishop Reynolds’. 25. McCreanor (Citation2001, p. 41) suggests that themes in representations of MacKillop during the 1990s were the Aussie battler, attitudes to authority, exceptional courage and commitment, strong women, mateship and egalitarianism. 26. Munro (Citation1996, p. 34). At the time, she was not allowed to take examinations to become a doctor because she was a woman. 27. See Belich (Citation2001) and Pickles (Citation2002) on the British influence. Arguably, New Zealand has a more uniformly British colonial past than the other former ‘white dominions’, and a unique history of immigration and race relations has meant that thus far, all kiwi icons are Pakeha or Maori. 28. For an account of the French in Akaroa, see Tremewan (Citation1990). 29. Pickles (Citation2001b, pp. 14–15). Combined with the importance of lineage, such an argument offers an explanation for the concentration of the first women world leaders in South Asia: Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.