Missionary Women, Leprosy and Indigenous Australians, 1936–1986

This book focuses on twentieth-century Australian leprosaria to explore the lives of indigenous patients and the Catholic women missionaries who nursed them. Distinguished from previous historical studies of leprosy, the book examines the care and management of the incarcerated, enabling a broader understanding of their experience, beyond a singular trope of banishment, oppression and death. From the 1930s until the 1980s, respective governments appointed the trained sisters to four leprosaria across remote northern Australia, where almost two thousand people had been removed from their homes and detained under law for years - sometimes decades. The book traces the sisters' holistic nursing from early efforts of amelioration and palliation to their part in the successful treatment of leprosy after World War II. It reveals the ways the sisters stepped out of their assigned roles and attempted to shape the institutions as places of health and hygiene, of European culture and education, and of Christianity. Making use of accounts from patients, doctors; bureaucrats; missionary men; and Indigenous families and communities, the book offers fresh perspectives on two important strands of history. First, its attention to the day-to-day work of the Australian sisters helps to demystify leprosy healthcare by female missionaries, generally. Secondly, with the sisters specifically caring for Indigenous people, this book exposes the institutional practices and goals specific to race relations of both the Australian government and Catholic missionaries. An important and timely read for anyone interested in Indigenous history, medical history and the connections between race, religion and healthcare, this book contextualizes the twentieth-century leprosy epidemic within Australia's broader colonial history. [Editeur] Acknowledgements Contents List of Figures 1 Introduction Scope Methodology Context Chapters Notes 2 Foundations Christian Caregiving of Leprosy-Affected People in History Christian Missions in Australia The Emergence of Catholic Mission Sisters in Australia Leprosy in Australia 1850s to 1920s Notes 3 The Making of Interwar Leprosy Policy for Indigenous Australians Tropical Medicine and Commonwealth Control The Segregation Controversy Humanitarians and Missionaries Indigenous Ideas About Leprosy The Leprosaria for Indigenous People Channel Island Leprosarium Derby Leprosarium Fantome Island Leprosarium Notes 4 The Church, the State, and Missionary Women The Australian Catholic Missionary Imperative of the Interwar Period The Sisters of St John of God, the Kimberley, Western Australia The Sisters of St John of God and the Leprosy Apostolate The Our Lady Help of Christians and Fantome Island The Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart and the Channel Island Leprosarium Individual Vocations Notes 5 The Leprosaria and Nursing Practice 1937–c.1950 The Leprosaria and the Patients Nursing and Medical Care Notes 6 Social, Cultural and Spiritual Life in the Leprosarium The Work Ethic School Music, Art, and Dance Christianity Notes 7 Births, Betrothals, and ‘Bad’ Behaviour Sexuality and Family Discipline Patient Protest Notes 8 Missionary Men and the Indigenous Leprosaria 1940–c.1955 The Catholic Male Missionary Impulse Martyrdom and Missionary Men Notes 9 Leprosy Therapy and Patient Welfare in the Assimilation Era Social, Medical, and Religious Changes in the Post-War Era Changes in Nursing and Medical Care Rehabilitation Financial Remuneration of the Sisters New Controls Under the Guise of Assimilation Notes 10 Confinement and Control in the Middle to Late Twentieth Century A Bifurcated Leprosy Policy Agitation for Patients’ Rights at East Arm Agitation at Derby and Fantome Island Notes 11 Recollections, Connections and Conclusions Recollections and Connections Conclusions Notes Terminology Leprosy Leprosarium Lazaret Indigenous Mixed Descent/Mixed Race White/European Aboriginal/Aborigine Abbreviations Name Index Subject Index