Obituary
- Kate Dewes
PATRICIA MORRISON
Patricia Morrison was a CAFCA member for the
last seven years of her very long and extraordinarily productive
life. We were one of the myriad of social justice and peace groups
that she wanted to support and we are grateful that she did. She
regularly included a donation with her annual sub. Long before she
joined she always attended anything that we organised. She was someone
who was at every public meeting, lecture, course and seminar that
was going, more often than not travelling by taxi to and from her
inner city Council flat (tragically, she was never able to go back
to it after the February 22nd earthquake). She kept up this punishing
schedule despite old age and deteriorating health (she had the rather
alarming habit of fainting during meetings and slumping to the floor
because of a medical condition. The only time I ever visited her
flat was when Becky and I took her home a few years ago after one
such episode at a nearby book launch). She was an absolute stalwart
of the Christchurch progressive movement for decades and one who
always sought me out for a chat whenever we were at something together
(I last saw her at a 2010 Christmas party). More than that, she
was a donor for years to the CAFCA/ABC Organiser Account which provides
my income. She truly lived the life well spent and I feel privileged
to have known her. Murray Horton
Early in 2011 our Women’s International League
for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) group met together to catch up and
plan the upcoming annual Hiroshima and Nagasaki lantern ceremony.
The smiling faces that day masked the depths of devastation we have
all experienced since the earthquakes started in September 2010.
Some, including Patricia, lost their homes and we all knew people
who had died. Dear Patricia, despite the trauma and the shift into
a rest home, did not dwell on it. However this must have been an
extremely tough and lonely final phase of her life as she struggled
to adjust - especially finding it difficult to attend the myriad
of meetings to which she often walked in her beloved inner city
community. She died in Princess Margaret Hospital a few months before
her 90th birthday.
WILPF was one of Patricia’s favourite groups
in her later years, where she gained strength from other women on
issues of peace, justice and human rights which were dear to her
heart. In 2010 she was made a life member. Although I have known
Pat for many years, I had no idea of the depth and breadth of her
work until I read an interview she had done with Ruth Greenaway
in January 2001. She was a diminutive, self-effacing, humble woman
who achieved amazing things as a leader promoting issues for women
and families all over the world.
Lifelong Peace Activist
She was a financial supporter of our Disarmament
and Security Centre, the Peace Foundation, CAFCA and the Anti Bases
Campaign (ABC) to name a few of the over 70 groups she supported.
In 2002 when Christchurch celebrated the 20th anniversary as the
first Nuclear Weapons-Free City and became the first Peace City,
Patricia was one of the inaugural recipients of the Mayor’s
Peace Awards. The citation recognised her leading role in the United
Nations Association organising Model UN Assemblies for schools in
Canterbury, the annual Lincoln Efford Memorial and John Grocott
Peace Lectures. She was also awarded the Queen’s Service Medal
for her work.
Patricia was the eldest child of six children. Her
father was a lawyer in Dunedin and then Christchurch. She told Ruth
that her passion for history, international peace and human rights
began with the Principal of Somerfield Primary who taught her history
from the age of six. They became good friends and he suggested competitions
and essay topics for her to pursue. My garage peace archives contained
the following inscription from one of the books given to the peace
collection years ago. “New Zealand No More War Movement First
Prize Senior Division Awarded to Patricia Morrison for the Ensom
Peace Essay Competition”. It was signed by Norman Bell who
was the Chair of the NMWM in 1933. Patricia was only 11 years old!
This Prize is still being run annually at Canterbury University.
“The subject of the essay is set in order to enable candidates
to advocate a constructive policy for the promotion and preservation
of international peace and goodwill”.
While studying History at Canterbury during World
War Two, she became involved in international issues through the
Student Christian Movement (SCM) where the students and lecturers
discussed pacifism and war. She was the Women’s Vice President
and corresponded regularly with the SCM overseas and the World movement
in Geneva. She then became a member of the Students’ Association
Executive working closely with students. Secretly she always wanted
to do international work, admitting in later life that “I’ve
gone from one thing to another and the opportunities have kept opening
up”.
She became the secretary to the Committee of the
International Students Service involved in bringing Jewish students
who had fled to NZ from Germany or Austria to the University and
helped integrate them into it. She became active in the Oxford University
branch in Britain when she was studying history there on a three
year scholarship in 1946. From this base she attended their international
conferences and was elected to their international committee. In
1948 she went to work in their international office in Geneva responsible
for nine field workers helping to find work for people displaced
during the war. Her secondary school French was sufficient for her
to carry out a very responsible and demanding job in Geneva. Based
here for two years, she attended conferences in Burma, France, Indonesia,
Denmark and Sweden.
A True Internationalist
When she returned to New Zealand while working as
the NZ SCM School Secretary she became very involved with the different
churches which were members of the National Council of Churches,
where she was frequently asked to speak to women’s and youth
groups. Later, when she was working with the World Young Women’s
Christian Association (YWCA) in Geneva, she had many amazing experiences
in countries all over the world. She told Ruth about how she helped
support refugee families from the Tokelau Islands and other countries
to settle in New Zealand; and her work with the Women’s International
Ecumenical Liaison Group which included Orthodox Catholic and Protestant
women.
She travelled alone to dangerous countries to meet
with fledging YWCA groups including 12 in Africa: Liberia, Nigeria,
Tanzania, Madagascar, Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo),
Ethiopia, Uganda, Sierra Leone, Kenya, and others. She hoped her
father didn’t know what she was doing or she might have been
told to give it up and come home. Our intrepid Pat went to Russia,
the Pacific Islands, all of the Caribbean States, most of Europe,
Canada and the States, and “spent a great deal of time always
in going to India and Pakistan, Hong Kong and Thailand”. She
developed close working relationships with Muslim and Hindu women
in Africa and Asia. She always made a point of listening to the
needs of the local women and enabling them to meet the needs of
their communities.
She told Ruth: “In Tanzania, women were taught
the tie dye process... they made clothing and... ended up having
quite a big shop in which they sold garments. I got some beautiful
dresses there and their person who was in charge - who designed
and cut etc - became the head of a fashion firm in another country,
through her experience in the YWCA. In Ghana one of the people helped
set up a bakery and then she herself branched out into a big firm
of her own. In Uganda the YWCA established the only training centre
for kindergartens in the country. The YWCA also helped the villagers
- they dug fish ponds and provided the fish and the stock so that
people could make money from what they grew and they also had pigs
and goats”. This would have been at the forefront of sustainable
economic aid for women all over the world.
She was involved with a leading women’s organisation
which was pushing the boundaries everywhere on a wide range of issues.
One example was when the US branch of the YWCA 30 years ago protested
against the possession of guns. Their vociferous opposition resulted
in them losing their funding, and male colleagues resigning from
their advisory boards. But they stuck to their principles, which
she admired. She admitted that she would often “take the flak”
when she supported the younger women in YWCA who were trying to
do things differently - like training social workers from all different
ethnicities and faiths.
She was an active member of the Workers’ Education
Association (WEA) in Christchurch during the 1940s when she was
at university. Daniela Bagozzi told the following anecdote at her
funeral in September 2011. “In those days Karl Popper, the
famous philosopher was lecturing at Canterbury. Because of timetable
clashes, Pat couldn’t attend and when she heard that Popper
was giving lectures at the WEA she went along, with a school friend
(and they were two of only three women in a crowd of about 40 men).
Dr Popper gave them a ride home each week and Patricia always remembered
how once in the car he would ask them ‘and what did you think
of the lecture?’ which meant they had to pay special attention
and be ready to discuss”.
A Very Active “Retirement”
In 1987 she joined a group called “Friday
Foraging” which ran weekly coach trips into the country and
all over Canterbury and it wasn’t long before Patricia was
busy organising courses and finding speakers on all kinds of topics.
She served as WEA’s President from 1992 to late 1996, and
on various committees including the History and Programme Committees
where she advocated for the more “thinking” courses
- especially peace and international affairs. Daniela recalls that
“even as increasing age and deafness made it harder for her
to follow discussions she still made a contribution, she still knew
what the important topics were and would make sure her views were
heard. She was a good reminder to all of us that retirement doesn’t
mean becoming bored or inactive, that superannuation is also for
supporting good. She was never too old or frail not to go to a protest
or a meeting, never too old of frail to cease being interested in
all topics”.
In his Press obituary (“Lifelong
work in pursuit of peace and justice”, 24/9/11), Mike Crean
cited a letter to the Editor in May 2011 which reminded the rebuilders
of Christchurch to consult “Evolution of a City” by
JP Morrison which explains the problems Christchurch faces with
a web of underground streams. This was Patricia’s MA thesis,
published in 1948, and it was the first true history of Christchurch
up to 1903 (the J stood for Jean. Patricia preferred to use
her middle name. Ed.). I’m sure if Patricia had been
able to master the computer and email in her later years, she would
have been flooded with emails and hundreds of friends on Facebook.
These would have been from people all over the world with whom she
had lost touch over the years, but who loved her and valued her
friendship. They would have included leaders from key organisations
in the UN based in Geneva and New York, the World Council of Churches
etc and former students, women and ordinary families she helped
support in resettlement in safer homes here, or nurtured into new
careers in their home countries.
October 29 1921
– August 30 2011
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