Anecdotes from the Archives

Missionary Presentation Sisters: Flinders Island 

While Nano Nagle established the Presentation Sisters as a teaching Order, she herself was also heavily involved in social work, including caring for the oppressed and the ill.

It should be no surprise, then, that after the changes of Vatican II, the Presentation Sisters in Tasmania turned their attention to matters beyond teaching in schools. Some became Parish Sisters, while others became missionaries. This meant that some Sisters left the close communities in which they had always lived and took up a more solitary and very different life. They left a regimented existence to embrace one of autonomy and responsibility. In retrospect, all reported the delight they took in the adventures they experienced and the people they met when they each took this fork in the road.

By the early 1970s, Archbishop Guilford Young had become deeply concerned about the pastoral needs of Aboriginal people on Flinders and King Islands, with past and present injustices to these communities weighing heavily on him. After much discussion, the Presentation Sisters of Tasmania and the Sisters of Mercy each sent a Sister to minister to the people of Flinders Island and Cape Barren Island. They took up residence at Whitemark, where St Paul’s Catholic Church had been built in 1927. The first Presentation missionary was Sister de Sales McGregor, who set a fine example of compassionate service for the Sisters who followed in her footsteps.

A succession of Sisters were to serve the Islands, including two of our elderly and much‑loved Sisters, one of whom now resides at Maryknoll and the other in nursing care: Sister Norah Donnelly and Sister Marie Connolly. They continued the work of their predecessors, visiting farms, scattered villages and islands, befriending the people, and teaching them when requested.

Sister Norah Donnelly, according to Sr Noela Fox in An Acorn Grows Among the Gums (2006), because of her

…effervescent and outgoing personality changed attitudes to the Church throughout the Island. Her involvement in every aspect of Island life left a permanent mark there. (p. 144)

Sister Norah was later to receive much acclaim for the way she served the people of the Tasman Peninsula during their dark days after the Port Arthur Massacre.

Sister Marie Connolly replaced Sister Norah in 1987 and, in her own way, competently carried out the ministries of the Sisters before her. Ever practical, she showed great compassion for the sick and elderly; she was instrumental in establishing Meals on Wheels and a Multi‑Purpose Centre on Flinders Island. She loved providing religious instruction to the Islanders and their children.

When Sister Marie returned to Launceston in 2003, her place was taken by Sister Julianne Tapping. Again, according to Sister Noela:

Sister Julianne, with her background in teaching, theology and spirituality, was well equipped to minister to the people of the Island. At a time when there were no resident clergy, her liturgies and personal gifts brought spiritual solace to these isolated people. (p. 145)

It is worth noting that both Sister Norah and Sister Julianne were educated at St Mary’s College.