Difference between revisions of "Current events"

Revision as of 16:25, 25 July 2009

More translations from Fr Brian Quin

Translations which Brian made in 2008 have been made available on CD by Marist Archives Wellington so far I have formatted and uploaded:

• 0137, 07 May 1842 - Fr Jean Pézant to Fr Girard, Tauranga
• 0138, 07 May 1842 - Fr Jean Pézant to Fr Victor Poupinel, Tauranga
• 0156, 15 May 1842 - Fr Michel Borjon to Fr Jean Claude Colin, Maketu

Darn, I was caught out by the fact that Brian was using an earlier Girard numbering. What was doc 137 is now Doc 146. What was 138 is 147 and what was 156 is correct! (I am confused)

Letters of Jean-Simon Bernard

June 2009 Amelia has provided some very high quality translations of letters of Fr Bernard. He gives an unvarnished account of the New Zealand mision. Girard0242, Girard0272 and Girard0330b. Amelia also provides a note about issues involved with the transcription and the translation Talk:Girard0242

The Book Launch

The New Zealand Launch of the Lettres reçues d’Océanie 1836-1854. was on Thursday 16 April 2009 at the National Archives, Wellington, at 5.30pm - 7pm. On Friday, 17 April, at Rutherford House, VUW, from 9am - 4pm there was a symposium with international and national speakers, to welcome and discuss the present use of this tremendous resource.

Conference at Good Shepherd College

Saturday 25 April 2009 there were papers presented on The Letters of the Early Missionaries and a book launch of the talks from the 2007 Auckland and Suva symposia 'Catholic Beginnings in Oceania'. Fr Charles Girard SM, editor of the 10 volume collection of the letters, came from America, and Fr Alois Greiler SM came from the Marist Archives in Rome.

Publication of the Colloquia of Suva and Auckland

On 18 December 2008 the final contract was signed with the Australasian Theological Forum (ATF), Australia for the publishing of the talks given at the Auckland and Suva symposia 2007 on ‘Catholic Beginnings in Oceania’. The book will be launched at the general house, 21 May 2009. Other book launches are planned at other venues.

Newly Discovered Primary Material

A trove of letters of Br Joseph-Xavier Luzy, who was in the first party of Catholic Missionaries to set sail for Western Oceania (with Bishop Pomapallier and Fr Pierre Chanel SM), has been discovered in France. I heard about it from Sr Teri SM of the Marist Sisters historical centre in Belley.

Colin Sup

I have received a pdf copy of Volume 1 of Colin Sup: Documents for the study of the generalate of Jean-Claude Colin (1836-1854), which are the other end of the conversation we are researching in Girard's Lettres reçues d’Océanie. Many of the documents are letters written to Oceania. This compilation, the work of Fr Gaston Lessard SM, is in the original language, French. However Gaston has also made available to us the work of himself and Fr Anthony Ward SM, a 1985 English translation of some of those letters: Draft edition of the letters by Jean-Claude Colin under his generalship (1836-1854) The (minor) obstacle here is that the files concerned are formatted for an old word-processing program called XYWrite. As I reformat the letters, I am uploading them and they will be listed on ColinSup Contents. The originals were only draft translations (albeit the work of experts), and I may have introduced mistakes in my re-formatting so there is room for improvement. Comments and corrections are welcomed. - Merv

New Caledonia's Flora and Fauna

Brenda has uploaded part of her translation of Fr Xavier Montrouzier's 1846 account of the abundance of unusual animals, plants and molluscs in New Caledonia. This document was rife with technical terms and possible neo-logisms. Language experts may care to check the translation and make suggestions on the talk page (click on the discussion tab at the top of Girard0450). It is also a terrific read - an intelligent priest trying to describe in words what a tropical pacific island is like.

University of Waikato PhD Students

At work on translating some of the Lettres reçues d’Océanie are two PhD students from the French Section of the Humanities Department at the University of Waikato. They are Sandy and Ronja both working on documents by Petit-Jean as part of their doctoral studies. The fruits of Ronja's work can be seen in documents Girard0053 and Girard0087.

Anglican Historical Sources

Project Canterbury is a free online archive of out-of-print Anglican texts and related modern documents. Their latest newsletter includes these remarks:

We have finally completed the full digitization of the Occasional Papers of the Melanesian Mission, 1892-97. These can be found in the Oceania directory, then scrolling down to Melanesia and 1892. These are of considerable historical, anthropological and linguistic interest. Among other things, Melanesian Mission work among indentured labourers in Northern Queensland is documented. While the MM was never keen on pidjin, there is included the text of the Ten Commandments in Queensland pidgin.

We have added a Pitcairn Island subdirectory It includes all the articles in the Colonial Church Chronicle on Pitcairn from 1850-55. These articles portray the reformed Bounty mutineers as a kind of perfect utopian community. There is also a bit of documentation of pre-Bounty Polynesian artefacts found on the island, including Easter Island-like statues.

A Handbook of the Melanesian Mission (Auckland c. 1924) is quite rare. Among other things, it includes a chapter of recipes suitable for missionaries to use.

at Sketches from Life in Melanesia by Ellen Wilson (1927) documents her work among Melanesian women and often is a reflection on suffering and early death.

There is a Maori translation (1882) of one of Bishop Samuel Wilberforce's children's stories, Agathos There is also an account of the launch of the Maori translation of the Bible in 1858

I have been collaborating with Fr. Michael Blain in Wellington on a "Historical Note on the Diocese of Melanesia and the Mandated Territory of New Guinea (1885-1949)" Michael is updating both his online Blain Biographical Directories of NZ (including Polynesia and Melanesia) Anglican clergy ordained before 1930, and (pre-Annexation) Diocese of Honolulu Anglican clergy. These updated directories should appear soon on Project Canterbury to replace the existing directories.

These are the highlights of recent additions. We always welcome new material for the site. Warm wishes, Terry (Bishop Terry Brown, Auki, Malaita Province, Solomon Islands)