Anecdotes from the archives

PRESENTATION SISTERS – WOMEN WITH VISION

If you are reading the Alma Mater, and if you are reading this article, it is highly likely that, like me, you have a great affection for our Presentation Sisters, both those who are still with us, and those who have gone to their reward. People of my vintage – and earlier, will remember St Mary’s College as a place of learning where the Sisters were in the majority as our teachers, as well as filling the roles of bursar and principal. Probably well before the first wave of feminism we saw daily that women could run the show, achieve higher education and work full time. Of course, we could never know at the time the sheer exhaustion of those Sisters who rose at 5.30am for Mass, worked full days in the classroom, supervised boarders after school and, in the evenings, marked their students’ work and prepared their lessons for the following full day. We had no idea of their strength or their privations, we just saw them in action.

I’ve been feeling nostalgic about the Sisters lately because they have been receiving publicity about their stunning act of generosity in gifting their very valuable land at Blackmans Bay for use as affordable housing, in partnership with CatholicCare.

Congregational Leader, Sister Gabrielle Morgan, when at the stage of leading the Sisters in the repurposing of Maryknoll, was concerned at the struggle in Tasmania of people seeking affordable housing. From that concern, a vision for the future of Maryknoll easily emerged. Of particular interest to the Sisters was the situation of many women over 55 years of age, in terms of affordable housing. This concern resonated with one of the main thrusts of the work of Nano Nagle in Cork in the 1700s, for gentlewomen who were turned into the streets after a lifetime of domestic work. Her aim, to give them a roof over their heads and dignity. Nearly three centuries later, our own Sisters have been able to meet this same need, one so dear to Nano’s heart.

There is a photo from 1950 in which all the Tasmanian Presentation Sisters are in a group, row upon row of them, and growing in numbers. Sadly now, those numbers have dwindled and the Sisters are an ageing demographic. We should not, however, lose sight of the amazing impact and influence they have had in so many Tasmanian towns, big and small. Hundreds of thousands of Tasmanian women and men have been educated by the Sisters and have been visited and cared for by Presentation Sister pastoral workers and parish sisters. Only recently the Presentation Sisters of Tasmania were admitted to the Tasmanian Honour Roll of Women, an achievement which speaks for itself. And all this has emanated and sprung from the arrival, in 1866 in Hobart – from the other side of the world, of a small band of nine Presentation women. In their simplicity they would never have dreamed that their organisation would one day gift homeless Tasmanian people with millions of dollars of real estate to provide them with shelter and dignity. What an amazing and profound story!

Margaret Rootes Heritage Officer and Alumni Association President