White Mother of A Brown

Sisterhood

THESE photographs, which were taken in Kubuna, Papua, last November have been loaned to us by the Rev.

Fr. A. Dupeyrat. They are of Mother Genevieve, the French girl who has now become head of a Papuan Order, the Handmaids of Our Lord, Almost all of the members of the Order are Papuans, but two are from the Torres Islands.

Readers of Sydney daily papers were startled last November to read that a 26-year old French girl, Mademoiselle de Massignac, had arrived from Prance on her way to the Roman Catholic mission headquarters at Yule Island, where she would take charge of a native Order. At that time she had not completed her vows, and did not wear a habit, or dress, commonly associated with Sisters of the Roman Catholic church. It was, there fore, incomprehensible to Sydney-siders that anyone, young and vivacious like Mademoiselle de Massignac, should vol untarily forsake the gayness of Paris for the primitive conditions of Papua.

It was even more incomprehensible after the Sydney dailies had embroidered the story, and depicted gloomily the kind of future the young woman would likely have, in the “frightful Papuan jungle.’’

It was likely, they said, that Mademoiselle would die in the jungle, without ever again seeing a white person!

Without detracting one particle from the courage of Mother Genevieve in com ing so far from her native land, it seems likely that her action was motivated by a desire for service, rather than a feeling of self-sacrifice, and that she very likely will derive a much greater and richer satisfaction from life than the gaping

Sydney-siders who do not know how it is done.

At all events, Mother Genevieve has now taken her vows, donned the grey habit of the Order and assumed control of her little flock. This has been a great

joy to the aged Archbishop of the Mission who founded the Order, and directed Genevieve’s predecessors, Mothers Marie Therese Noblet and Solange, who now lie buried near the little bush convent at Kubuna.

Roman Catholic missionaries first be gan their work near Yule Island in Papua 62 years ago. There is now, besides the European priests nuns and missionaries, one Papuan priest, many Papuan lay brothers and the Papuan nuns whose duties include care of the sick and the unwanted babies, school teaching, cook ing, sewing and helping in the varied ac tivities of the 12 main mission stations.

Mother Genevieve took her vows during the annual retreat of the Order, and when the ceremonies were concluded she gave her instructions for the work of the com ing year.

Members of the Order then dispersed some to stations in Papua’s high moun tains, some to stations down the coast.

Others remained in the convent at Ku buna with Mother Genevieve, others be gan work in the creche which cares for a dozen or more sick or neglected babies. riIHE photograph at the top of the page A shows Mother Genevieve with two of the Papuan nuns and several of the brown babies who live in the creche at Kubuna and are the special care of the sisterhood.

The photograph at the foot of the page shows Mother Genevieve shortly after she had assumed control of the order, with several of her Sisters. All wear the grey habit of the order.

Captain W. Halford Thompson sailed for England in February, having retired from the Papua-New Guinea Public Ser vice, after 25 years there. Captain Thomp son, an Englishman, joined the Papua Service in 1912; went to World War 1, in 1914, became a regular officer of the Gloucester Regiment, with which he re mained until 1922; and then returned to the Papua Service under Sir Hubert Murray, whom he served with loyalty and devotion. He was for 19 years District Officer at Kairuku (Yule sland). During World War II he served as a Major in ANGAU, mostly in the Lakekumu and Kerema districts.