A new beginning in Vanuatu

‘I attended Brisbane Girls Grammar School from 1957 to 1960. My mother, Margaret Craig, had attended BGGS in the 1930s. She was a good student but was very disappointed to have to leave after Form 4 as her parents wanted to send her younger brother to BGS and could not afford to support two children. She was determined to send her own girls to BGGS, and so after nine years at Sandgate State School, I was enrolled at Girls Grammar. Later my sister, Shirley, also attended.  

 ‘I had an excellent education at BGGS for which I have been grateful ever since. I was in the Science stream, and won a couple of prizes for Mathematics, and the Munro Cup for the student who has proven herself best in work, sport, and public spirit.  We had excellent teachers and in our final year, BGGS students won seven of the 20 Open scholarships to university given by the Queensland Government annually. 

 ‘I was the first person in my family to attend university. At the end of Form 6, I had applied to go to the Teachers’ Training College in Brisbane. I wanted to be a teacher. But when I won an Open Scholarship, many people persuaded me that I should go to University instead. So, I started an Arts degree at The University of Queensland (UQ) in 1960, intending to major in English literature and Maths. However, in my second year there, UQ introduced Anthropology and Sociology as a subject and it became my second major. In my final year, I was asked to become a student tutor for Anthropology and was employed part-time to catalogue and organise the first museum of Indigenous Australian artefacts, housed in a classroom at the University.  

 ‘In 1961, I began a post-graduate degree in Divinity at Ormond College at the University of Melbourne, as in those days, women were not allowed to study at the Theological Colleges within the University of Queensland. I graduated with a BD (Hons) at the end of 1963. As a woman, I could not become a Minister in the church, so I returned to Queensland and taught for one year at Fairholme College in Toowoomba. I taught English, Maths and Religious Education.  

‘I applied for a position at a Mission school and, while they told me I was over-qualified, they asked if, instead, I would consider going to a place called New Hebrides (now Vanuatu), where they needed a teacher at the theological college. Although I didn’t know anything about New Hebrides, I agreed to go. It was a great experience. I taught there for two years on a small island called Tangoa in Santo. I was able to continue my interest in Anthropology and learned that New Hebrides was colonised by two European nations, United Kingdom and France, and that there was a strong desire among the people for independence. I became very interested and supportive of this movement. 

 ‘After I had been there for two years, the College closed, and the remaining students were sent to Papua New Guinea for training. I married one of the former students of the College, and we moved to Fiji to the Pacific Theological College, so he could undertake further training there. While there, I worked part-time for the Pacific Islands Christian Education Curriculum, preparing Christian Education resources for the Pacific Islands. We returned to Vanuatu where my husband worked as Education Secretary for the Presbyterian Church and also joined the struggle for independence. It was a difficult time, and many nights we had to pack up our children in our car and leave our house to seek safety in a neighbouring village. I was very privileged to be part of that struggle and to witness its achievement on 30 July 1980. My husband was elected as an MP in the first Parliament and in subsequent parliaments and was a government minister in various ministries for 16 years.  

 ‘I started teaching at the main English-speaking government secondary school Malapoa College in the capital, Vila, in 1978, and I taught there for 20 years. In addition, I joined with other women to set up the National Council of Women in 1980 and was its first Treasurer. I have also been working on increasing the number of women pastors in the church. The first female pastor was ordained in 1996 and was one of my students at MaIapoa. I was ordained in 1999. Since then, there have been quite a few more in several church denominations.  

 ‘After I retired from teaching and from being a full-time church pastor, I did some part-time tutoring at the University of the South Pacific (USP) in Vila that has given many Ni Vanuatu students the skills and confidence they need to become lawyers, accountants, public servants, engineers, and doctors to replace expatriate workers and make Vanuatu truly independent.  

 ‘Last year, I was in Australia and my nephew arranged for my sister and me to go on a guided tour of BGGS. It brought back so many memories and reminded me of my extreme gratitude to the School for the excellent teaching I received there, which enabled me to contribute to the building of a new nation, Vanuatu.’  

Dorothy has written an autobiography 'Called to Teach- The Story of My Life', to be published in Vanuatu.