women-academics-from-new-zealand

"...The political head of this colony says women do not want the removal of their disabilities. I can believe that a few women, through sheer ignorance, say they do not want it. I can believe that some dare not admit they want it. But that the majority do not want it is, I believe, simply untrue. We women of the National Council do not pay annual visits to the towns of the colony for our own amusement. There is no royal road to the capacity for real service, as there is no royal road to any supreme attainment, and we who have taken up the white woman's burden of responsibility in this corner of our great Empire are bound to do what we can to put an end to this hell born conspiracy of silence which is eating into the very vitals of our humanity. We crave for education and free and unhampered life-a life of wholesome economic independence. It is perhaps too much to expect those who have grown up in indifference or ignorance to adjust themselves to the new conditions which a century of scientific discovery has rendered inevitable, but surely our younger brothers who have grown up side by side with our girls in the happy comradeship of mixed schools and colleges will range themselves, as I believe they are already doing, on the side of justice and right."

"We want to grow as flowers of the field are permitted to grow, whether they be of male or female form. We want to develop as do the mothers of the animal world where infanticide or female subjections are alike unheard of and undesired. Let woman but have free course and she will glorify not only herself, but the whole race; and in order to her having free course our request for woman is only this, that she may have a fair field and no favour, freedom to give expression to her own powers. Our New Zealand University has been thrown open to women on the same terms as men, and nothing but good has eventuated. Our professions have been thrown open to women, and neither have the skies fallen nor wedding bells ceased to peal.Our polling booths have been thrown open to women, and drunkenness and rowdyism, bribery and corrupt practices have in great measure given place to decency, good order and kindly camaraderie. Let the Civil Service, and other posts, appointments and positions in the colony-or beyond it for that matter-be thrown open to women. In a word, let disability of sex be withdrawn, as have those other disabilities of colour, race, caste and class, and only good will result..."

"...I would rather have this new woman - even in her occasional perversity, exaggeration, and revolt - than the female oyster who discovers no interest in life outside the limits of her own shell."

"The New Woman is she who had discovered herself, not relatively as mother, wife, sister, but absolutely...she recognises her restrictions, and she further recognises that these restrictions must be struggled against, not in the direction of denying her nature, but rather of shaking off every artificial restraint and repression which will in any way hinder her own full and free development..."

"The question is often asked, "What do women want?" We want men "to stand out of our sunshine"; that is all."

"Running in all weathers. Running to the place of work. Running to despair. Running through the bottom door of the old building directly to the bathroom to be sick. Every day the same, and no way to control it. Every day my body saying, 'I can't stomach this anymore.'"

"And I start to dream - about the activities of women for temperance and the suffrage in this country, and about the activism of women for peace and disarmament; and I wonder if our great-grandmothers would have believed suffrage would be almost universal, and if we dare to dream of a world without nuclear weapons, without weapons, with peace."

"The problems do not lie with female sport and leisure, but with the ways in which the male world and male sport creates and defines the ideological and material conditions that prescribe the female world. As in so much of life, it is time to stand back and object to incremental integration into the male world. Sport, recreation and leisure have a different meaning for women; we should act on the basis of our interpretation."

"I don't believe we shall ever be finished."

"If you got this far, I want you to go on. Kia kaha tuahine - sister, be strong."

"I made a submission opposing the Civil Union legislation. Marriage is a civil and political right, and civil and political rights are not negotiable. You can't have half a right."

"It can also be rich and fulfilling."

"Those who can move from understanding the concerns of lower-paid urban omen workers in desperate need of child care to understanding isolated rural women at the end of metal roads who want extensions to bus routes; from noticing the absence of Maori explorers and pioneers from our history syllabus to observing that the same history is a record of only 49 per cent of the New Zealand population - these people are exceptional humans and rare souls in politics. Wherever they are found, they are more likely to be women."

"Women instinctively have the potential for a broader consciousness of politics than men. Our lives are more varied and less circumscribed. We do more things at any one time, in spite of the common myths, and generally have more responsibility."

"I want women to be politically aware all the time, in every conscious moment, in everything they do; and at the same time I know how exhausting it is to be so aware. I know how frustrating it is to feel so powerless. I know how it is to feel defeated before you start. But I want women to progress to a point where they recognise all the politics in their lives, to a point where the awareness is instinctive and need not be excessive, and to a point where they learn to choose political priorities, and to know that often there is not enough energy left for more than a patient observing."

"I am still afraid of getting too tired, of giving up. I am still afraid of staying in the job, and afraid of leaving it."

"In 2005 I accepted the invitation to be the writer of our revised modern Constitution Volume 11 for the Loreto sisters worldwide. With such a ministry, there was not much time for music, but I found composing poetic prose a music of its own kind. The style of the document was challenging in that it was to be of spiritual inspiration as well as legally accurate. There is an important line in that document: ‘Mission is at the heart of who we are, and love is the driving force that urges us on.’ So, to answer your question, I think it’s love. The love of education, of seeing people—young and old—grow. My life has been not one of being tucked away in a convent, but very much associated with people beyond. And what brings it together is my faith, and my music."

"I come from a Celtic background—Irish, English and Welsh—so I was surely bound to be a music lover! I was influenced by my father, a well-educated pianist and singer as well as a writer and lover of poetry. He’d come home in the evening and play the piano and sing, and from the time I was very small, he would read poetry to me in the evenings as well as sing me lullabies. That was a beautiful thing for my ear. My mother died just prior to my eighth birthday, so that affected my life. I attended Loreto Normanhurst in Sydney from Grade 6 to Form 5, which was a formative period of my life, especially when it comes to music, education and my call to religious life."

"My faith was nurtured by the nuns’ witness to Jesus and their authenticity. Boarding school life was, besides being a lot of fun, an oblique way of observing the religious life of a nun. Each morning we attended 7am Mass with the sisters, and shared evening prayer, which always included a hearty singing of a hymn with them in the chapel. I don’t know how many hundreds of hymns I would’ve sung at school! I came in time to think about the words of these hymns, particularly where children and young people are concerned. This set me up to be a careful composer of words as well as melodies for hymns. I remember, too, the spiritual formation we received through processions. One such was the feast of Corpus Christi where the local parishes joined us annually in the grounds of Loreto Normanhurst to process in honour of the Blessed Sacrament. It was a ritual that informed my interest in liturgical ceremony."

"My violin and piano teacher, Mother Lua Byrne ibvm, was a great influence. She was a very fresh-faced, smiling woman, intelligent and kind, and drew the best out of her students. She always had that sense of loving what she was doing, and she loved us. So it made a big difference to a small child to have such a beautiful woman as my music teacher.She brought my gifts out of me in a great way so that by the time I finished school, I was leading the school orchestra, I was music captain, and I was carrying the two instruments of piano and violin at the top levels. She’d prepared me well for performance studies at Sydney Conservatorium in 1953. It looked as if that would set me out on a career in music and I was happy for that. She introduced me to ethnomusicology in Form 5, and it became a life-long interest for me, with implications for pursuing the connections between music, spirituality, liturgy and culture."

"I had a friend called Joan MacKerras, the sister of the famous international musician and conductor Sir Charles MacKerras (deceased). Even though she didn’t attend the school, Joan received lessons from this ‘famous’ Mother Lua. So one of my favourite pieces, even to this day, is the Bach Double Violin Concerto in D minor, which the two of us would play. The way Bach’s written it, particularly the second movement, is like a conversation between two violins. I love that piece, and I saw it later as God and the soul and this reciprocal relationship going on between the two of us. What’s God saying to me? What am I saying to God? I often return to it in retreat periods. It speaks profoundly to me of the God who is Love calling me to respond in love."

"Despite the fascination of a life in music, particularly as an orchestral player, I felt a deeper call to religious life. During my boarding school years, as mystifying as the sisters’ vocation seemed to me as a child, it presented as a very worthwhile way to live a fulfilled and spiritual life. Prayers that I had come to pray regularly, which were significant in my decision, included the ‘Peace Prayer of St Francis’ and the ‘Prayer of St Ignatius for Generosity’. I chose to follow Jesus in loving service along the path of Mary Ward’s Loreto sisters—to take up the opportunity to be with people who have shared the same faith, who cared and wanted to give their life for others. It seemed a generous thing to do. And in that generous movement, you felt there was love born in you at that time for what you were going to do, following the steps of Jesus, and believing strongly in the value of this way of life."

"I wasn’t quite 18 years old when I joined the Novitiate in Ballarat. In 1957, my first mission was teaching in a kindergarten in Brisbane. I taught nearly everything through the piano, including numbers and religion—the children loved it! After eight years in the Order teaching primary and lower secondary students in a range of subjects, I entered the Bachelor of Music course at the University of Melbourne, transferring from performance to a specialisation in music education, including a year of a Diploma of Education. My time in Melbourne was extremely rich and formative. The illustrious priest musician Dr Percy Jones was one of my lecturers, a highly prominent international figure in church music. He invited me later to turn my hand to writing music in a folk style, and that’s how some of my music came to be published. My time at the Melbourne Conservatorium prepared me well for a return to Loreto Normanhurst Sydney in 1964 to become Director of Music, which lasted 10 years."

"By 1974, I was missioned to Loreto College, Brisbane, in leadership and administration. During this time, I learnt and experienced the richness of parish community and liturgical prayer. I travelled to London to take up postgraduate studies in music at the Institute of Education London University, which opened me to a wider experience in both the academic and performance fields. I specialised in choral and orchestral conducting in summer programs, attended festivals, and set up field trips to places of excellence in liturgy and music in England, France, Italy and Spain—all to widen my knowledge and cultural experience. In 1983–84, I undertook a Masters in Liturgical Studies in Washington DC with a special interest in music. This program set me up to find how ritual and music can complement one another in a profound way, as well as giving me the history and foundations of liturgical and sacramental theology. It was truly enriching."

"On my return to Australia in 1985, a 12-year period of teaching in two institutions commenced—Mercy Teachers’ College (later Australian Catholic University) and Yarra Theological Union. In both, I wrote my own courses ranging across philosophy of music, 20th-century history, liturgy and music, with a particular interest in Australian music, spirituality and culture. I was particularly fortunate to work alongside the founder of the only Bachelor of Church Music course available in Australia at the time, the internationally acclaimed Melbourne musician Roger Heagney."

"A key formative period in my musical life in the Church of Melbourne came in 1988 with the invitation to join the Office for Worship team. This place was truly a centre of vitality, learning, collaboration and pastoral leadership, headed at the time by this incredibly erudite liturgist, professor, spiritual director and pastoral human being, Fr Frank O’Loughlin. He provided leadership through first-class theological input into parishes and assisting with resources to meet their pastoral needs. Margaret Smith SGS, liturgist extraordinaire, partnered me in visiting local parishes, providing workshops on the revised rites of the church and the liturgical seasons."

"It’s very simple. It speaks to people, because it’s about God’s love for each of us—I have loved you with an everlasting love, I will never forsake you, there is no need to fear. It comes directly out of my going to confession to a priest, and he said, ‘I don’t think God is worrying about half of that. Come as you are.’ People use the song everywhere, including in prisons. It’s extraordinary the amount of correspondence I’ve received over the years. People don’t think I’ve done anything else!"

"You are known for having written and composed the song ‘Come as you are’. What is the back story to this song?"

"As the years advance and my energies fade, I still love to be involved in whatever way I can in supporting and encouraging younger people to follow through their dreams. I have eclectic tastes, a deep love of words and music, and love of my way of life—a vocation of loving service in companionship and faith. It’s not so much what I do now; it’s what kind of a person am I in the doing. I wrote a line in the Loreto Modern Spiritual document that says, ‘When energy fails, the ministry of being is as authentic as the ministry of doing.’"

"It’s a time for gathering in and sorting what may be useful to others from my store of life experience—the failures and uncertainties, the lost opportunities, and the glorious moments. I’m happy that I am still able to do something, and that something is to share my love of music and my love of my way of life and faith. Mary Ward was an extraordinary person, and some of her quotes were so impressive, but one of them is ‘Women in time to come will do much.’ And we live with that responsibility to use our gifts to the full in whatever way we can."

"Storytelling is an art deep within human nature. Good narratives not only tell us about ourselves; they tell us about the beliefs of others. Stories are the essential way by which we expand our empathy and our imaginations; stories are the means by which we communicate across time and across cultures."

"The historians’ craft is to tease out the larger narratives from … competing versions, missing parts, and conflicting ‘truths’."

"Oral history is transmitted by narrative, by song, by proverb and by genealogy. We who write down our histories in books transmit our chosen perceptions to readers rather than to listeners, but both forms are structured,interpretative and combative."

"Biographies are essentially personal histories… [yet] they may tell us more than the story of one life: they may reveal the struggle for the survival of an entire community."

"Digital devices have the potential to enhance learning, but there are few situations where this happens currently and many in which learning may be hindered."

"Banning technology from schools can be legitimate if technology integration does not improve learning or if it worsens student wellbeing … [and mitigating risk] may require something more than banning."

"Beyond the learning impact, the second issue most often cited for banning cellphones in the classroom is the negative impacts of mobile use on wellbeing. The access to and reach of harmful contexts (such as porn) and acts (like bullying) is certainly a serious and significant issue. The pervasiveness of cellphones heightens the risks. Banning cellphones does not solve this issue and rather just enables schools (and the government) to absolve themselves from dealing with the problem, pushing these complex issues into the hands of parents and whānau to deal with."

"The boundaries between recreation, communication and learning are becoming less distinct. Screen time that may seem on the surface to be purely recreational can in reality be important for learning, supporting mental health and driving awareness of important issues."

"For example, rather than students simply watching a YouTube clip to learn about the solar system, they might create their own augmented reality simulation, requiring them to apply their knowledge to correctly place, size and animate digital objects. Rebalancing screen time in this way will help avoid the more negative consequences of these ubiquitous devices and highlight some of their unique advantages."

"We need to focus on integrating technology that makes a difference and enhances learning. Students learn best when they are actively engaged and create and drive their own learning."

"The pandemic has fundamentally altered every part of our lives, not least the time we spend on digital devices. For young people in particular, the blurred line between recreational and educational screen time presents new challenges we are only beginning to appreciate."

"With lockdowns and social restrictions now a new normal, it is increasingly difficult to disengage from screens. Children are growing up in a digital society, surrounded by a multitude of devices used for everything from social connection to learning and entertainment."

"There is clearly a need for a protocol for managing change in the public sector particularly when getting it wrong can have serious consequences for the health and wellbeing of the public."

"Young people need to know that there is a difference between being anxious and having an anxiety condition."

"When I was a kid, when I was reading a book, my parents might ask me what I was reading."

"Teens and young adults typically spend their days learning or working on screens, while their phones have become so multifunctional that they use them to socialise and to connect, to find information and to be entertained"

"The most important thing now is to ensure that those seeking ACC’s sensitive claims assistance get the help they need as soon as possible."

"I would like us to find ways to talk about mental health with young people where it didn’t have to take on this illness identity to get help"

"The University of Texas in Dallas has kept me at the nearest possible level to nothing."

"Pure math is rather a farce … physics is really super."