A Bridge Between
Spanish Benedictine Missionary Women in Australia
Authored by: Katharine Massam
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Description
This sensitive account of Spanish Benedictine women at an Aboriginal mission in Western Australia is poignant and disturbing. Notable for its ecumenical spirit, depth of research and deep engagement with the subject, A Bridge Between is a model of how religious history, in its broader bearings, can be written.
— Graeme Davison, Monash University
With great insight and care, A Bridge Between presents a sympathetic but not uncritical history of the lives of individuals who have often been invisible. The story of the nuns at New Norcia is a timely contribution to Australia’s religious history. Given the findings of the Royal Commission, it will be widely read both within and beyond the academy. History is, here, a spiritual discipline, and an exercise in hope and reconciliation.
— Laura Rademaker, The Australian National University
A Bridge Between is the first account of the Benedictine women who worked at New Norcia and the first book-length exploration of twentieth-century life in the Western Australian mission town. From the founding of a grand school intended for ‘nativas’, through links to Mexico and Paraguay then Ireland, India and Belgium, as well as to their house in the Kimberley, and a network of villages near Burgos in the north of Spain, this is a complex international history. A Bridge Between gathers a powerful, fragmented story from the margins of the archive, recalling the Aboriginal women who joined the community in the 1950s and the compelling reunion of missionaries and former students in 2001. By tracing the all-but-forgotten story of the community of Benedictine women who were central to the experience of the mission for many Aboriginal families in the twentieth century, this book lays a foundation for further work.
Details
- ISBN (print):
- 9781760463519
- ISBN (online):
- 9781760463526
- Publication date:
- Oct 2020
- Imprint:
- ANU Press
- DOI:
- http://doi.org/10.22459/BB.2020
- Series:
- Biography Series
- Disciplines:
- Arts & Humanities: History, Philosophy & Religion
- Countries:
- Australia
PDF Chapters
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- Preliminary Pages (PDF, 0.3MB)
- Foreword (PDF, 0.1MB) – Sr Veronica Therese Willaway OSB
- Acknowledgements (PDF, 0.1MB)
- Illustrations (PDF, 0.1MB)
- Map of Australia, showing locations in the text (PDF, 0.2MB)
- To Name and to Remember: The Reunion of 2001 (PDF, 2.2MB) doi
- The Company of St Teresa of Jesus at New Norcia, 1904–10 (PDF, 2.4MB) doi
- Benedictine Oblates: Outsiders in Community (PDF, 1.7MB) doi
- St Joseph’s Native School and Orphanage: Workers at the Edge of the Town (PDF, 0.9MB) doi
- Agencia Benedictina: Burgos, Belgium and the Kimberley (PDF, 3.2MB) doi
- Monastic and Missionary Sisters: ‘Their Currency and Savings Were the Work’ (PDF, 2.1MB) doi
- Gathering New Energy: Abbot Catalan Recruiting in Spain, 1947–48 (PDF, 0.7MB) doi
- Triggering the ‘Second Part’: Old School Patterns, a New Bindoon Community and Visiting the Villages Again (PDF, 0.8MB) doi
- Winding Together: ‘The Grace of God Is Not Tied to Any Colour, Race or Nationality’ (PDF, 1.4MB) doi
- Spinning Apart (PDF, 2.9MB) doi
Reviews
‘This book is not a dispassionate analysis of the lives and work of the Benedictine missionaries at New Norcia in Western Australia, but a deeply felt, sympathetic investigation of the lives of women who lived and worked at New Norcia and associated institutions at Kalumburu, Bindoon, and Girrawheen. Katharine Massam researched this book over more than twenty years building up an extensive archive of interviews and documentary evidence … Massam has gone to great lengths to accumulate firsthand accounts from surviving Sisters, travelling to Spain and other parts of the world to undertake interviews and scouring the records to find scant archival material such as letters, both private and institutional as well as reports, and any other written and photographic records she can unearth.’
— Peggy Brock, Journal of Religious History, October 2021
‘What kinds of stories are possible now about a mission community at the height of the assimilation era? How might scholars narrate the lives of religious women who ran an institution for Indigenous children? … Telling the story of the missionary women is not a matter of weighing ... experiences against each other. Massam sees her task in terms of paying attention, especially to the relationships forged at St Joseph’s and that somehow endure beyond it. These relationships do not erase conflict or resolve all the pain and ambiguity. But in their commitment and their complexity, they provide a context for deep - even holy - listening.’
— Meredith Lake, Australian Book Review, April 2021
‘Catholic missionaries have received less attention than Protestant missionaries in Australian historiography, with the history of Catholic nuns, as female mission workers, often overlooked …The books complex interwoven narrative provides an insightful and empathetic reading of these Spanish nuns. Yet, at the same time, Massam critiques some of their actions and thereby asks broader questions about the intersection of religion, gender, class and race within a Spanish Catholic mission settlement in country Western Australia.’
— Felicity Jenz, History Australia, August 2021
‘The style, scholarship and substance of A Bridge Between show it is time for historians to look anew at the world of religious orders, in the light of the social upheavals in the world going on around them, and their own charisms borne out of time and experience … Hers is a new kind of exploratory writing about the orders but also about Christianity in general in Australia.’
— Philip Harvey, The Melbourne Anglican, 2021
A Bridge Between was shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s Australian History Award, 2021
The judges citation reads:
‘A Bridge Between is an emotionally complex, caring and yet critical history of the Benedictine Missionary Sisters of New Norcia and their work alongside the Aboriginal peoples of Western Australia. With a foreword by Sister Veronica Therese Willaway of the Yued and Whadjuk peoples of the Nyoongar Nation, this book offers an intimate retelling of the lives of the Spanish Sisters – their immigration to Australia, religious motivations and missionary work between 1904 and 1974.
Drawing on interviews with surviving Sisters and Aboriginal peoples and illustrated with candid photos of their daily lives, A Bridge Between is more than a religious history. It speaks to broader social issues of Australian history, and offers important context on which to build nuanced accounts of Aboriginal children’s separation and institutionalisation. Massam’s compelling book is the result of decades of deep and respectful listening, combined with meticulous archival research in Spanish and English.’
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