Bridget Moran fonds [Accession # 2008.3] Boxes #1-#17 Fonds Description and File Level Inventory FONDS DESCRIPTION AND FILE LEVEL INVENTORY CONTENTS Title Page No. Fonds Level Description… ..................................................... 2 Series Level Descriptions ........................................................ 9 File Level Inventory……………………………………. 11 List of Appendices……………………………………... 117 Title Page Credit: Statue of Bridget Moran created by artist Nathan Scott and commissioned by the City of Prince George, B.C. (1994) Photo taken by E. Hernández (2008) Page 1 of 289 Bridget Moran fonds [Accession # 2008.3] Boxes #1-#17 Fonds Description and File Level Inventory FONDS LEVEL DESCRIPTION Bridget Moran fonds. 1935-1999, predominant 1954-1996 3.96 m of textual records and other material 1 CD-R 1- 3.50” computer disk 46 – 5.25” computer disks 80 Audio recordings 1 DVD 23 Video recordings 327 Photographs Biographical Sketch: Bridget Moran (née Drugan) (September 1, 1923-August 21, 1999) was a prominent social activist, social worker, writer and mentor who spent most of her adult life in British Columbia. She was born in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, and shortly after her birth the Drugan family emigrated to Success, Saskatchewan, where Bridget spent her formative years. When her father died in a sanatorium due to tuberculosis, Bridget’s mother and the five children were forced to survive on welfare; an experience Bridget later noted has having deeply shaped her views on poverty and the working poor. She attended Normal School in Saskatchewan and taught school in rural Saskatchewan, and in 1944 enlisted in the Women's Royal Canadian Service. After her discharge from the Navy in 1946, Bridget entered academic studies at the University of Toronto, where she received an Honours B.A. in Philosophy and English and was the recipient of a gold medal upon graduation. She began work on a Master's Degree in History in 1950, however she soon realized it would be impossible to continue as the federal Department of Veterans' Affairs refused to provide her with financial support on the grounds that they found no women teaching in history departments in Canada. Moran decided to immigrate to British Columbia and there in 1951 she began a career as a social worker; first in welfare offices in Haney, Salmon Arm and Vernon, and then to Prince George where in 1954 she took a position as District Supervisor of Welfare Services for a large section of the Central Interior of BC. For the following ten years Moran worked as a social worker based out of Prince George attending to welfare service needs of BC’s Central Interior population. However, Moran’s career with the public service came to a very public end when she was suspended from her position in 1964 after she wrote an open letter in a Vancouver newspaper criticizing Premier W.A.C. Bennett’s Social Credit government for what she saw as gross neglect in addressing the needs of child welfare in the province. Although Moran eventually won reinstatement after a two year battle, she was told there would be no work available for her in the BC Ministry of Social Services. She continued her career in social work; first, for the Prince George Regional Hospital, and later with the University of Victoria Social Work Department as a practicum instructor for social work students in Prince George. In 1977 she practiced social work with the Prince George School District, where she remained for twelve years before retiring in 1989. Bridget Moran was a tireless community activist for many social and political issues, and as well a strong supporter and member of the New Democratic Party. In 1971 she was appointed by the BC Association of Social Workers to work with low-income groups in Vancouver and helped form an anti-poverty group called People On Welfare (POW!). It was in this capacity that, in 1972, Moran was thrown out of the BC Provincial Legislature for criticizing the Social Credit government’s Provincial Minister of Welfare, Phil Gaglardi, for proposed changes to the Social Assistance Act; changes proposed would see the right of appeal removed from the Act for welfare recipients whose applications were reduced or refused. (Though changes to the Act were passed by the Social Credit government, those changes were later rescinded by the NDP; had gone on to form the BC provincial government in late 1972). Page 2 of 289 Bridget Moran fonds [Accession # 2008.3] Boxes #1-#17 Fonds Description and File Level Inventory Throughout her life Moran was a strong advocate for social and political causes, speaking out publicly where she saw a need to point out negligence, particularly neglect that she confronted through her work as a social worker. She brought forth issues of concern to the public, through the media and her writings, and to the political arena, where she spoke out on many issues that impacted the social welfare system. She provided critical commentary on proposed legislation and bureaucratic policies that impacted people’s lives as members of the working classes, single mothers, children, prisoners, and the underprivileged. She was also a tireless and strong advocate for First Nations communities. Moran’s activism led also to her appointment and involvement on various BC provincial boards. She was appointed twice by Premier Mike Harcourt to the Legal Services Society of BC as a director (1995-97; 1997-99); she was appointed to the Board of Governors of the College of New Caledonia in 1994, and served as the College’s representative for the Yinka Dene Language Institute [c.1993-c.1998]. She served also as a member of the Task Force on Access to Contraception and Abortion Services created by the BC Provincial Ministry of Health in 1993. She was also a strong advocate against the Kemano Completion Project, Alcan’s second hydro-electric project which in 1988 proposed utilization of 88% of the Nechako River’s energy. Bridget Moran interest in journalism began as a teenager and continued throughout her life. Her writing focused primarily on social welfare causes, the abuse and negligence she saw as a social worker, and her call to community activism. Moran’s writings were featured in many BC newspapers and magazines, including the Prince George Citizen, Vancouver Sun, and the Star Weekly. She provided regular commentary on many BC radio shows from the late 1960s to1990s, including CBC Radio in Vancouver and its affiliate in Prince George, as well as on other BC radio programming shows, often voicing critical commentary on political, social and economic issues that affected British Columbia, and often had national implications as well. Moran’s interest in creative writing also developed as a teenager, and later in life, it won her the first prize in the adult category of a writing contest on The Plot Thickens, a CBC Radio programme from 1987, when she submitted a story entitled “The Case of the Box of Matches.” After Moran’s retirement from the Prince George School District, she pursued her ‘second career’ as a writer in earnest. She had penned an account of the 1977 coroner’s inquest into the death of a young Carrier woman from Stoney Creek, Coreen Thomas, who was 9 months pregnant when killed by a car driven by a white man while she was walking alongside the road. At the inquest Moran met Sai’k’uz Elder Mary John and in 1988 John’s daughter Helen Jones requested that Moran write her mother’s biography. The resultant book Sai’k’uz Ts’eke: Stoney Creek Woman: The Story of Mary John [1988] is based on extensive oral histories that Moran conducted with Mary John about life on the Stoney Creek reserve. The award-winning book has been utilized as a curriculum text in high schools, colleges and universities throughout Canada, including BC, the Yukon and Nova Scotia. Moran’s book Judgment at Stoney Creek: Sai’k’uz Ne ba na huz’ya, [1990] is based on her account of the inquest into the death of Coreen Thomas and provides an in-depth analysis of tenuous white-native relations in rural BC in the 1970s. Moran’s next book, A Little Rebellion [1992] provides an auto- biographical account of her public dispute with the Bennett government. The book Justa: A First Nations Leader, Dakelhne Butsowhudilhzulh’un [1994] is based on extensive oral interviews Moran conducted with Tl’azt’en Nation member, Justa Monk, who transformed his life and was elected Tribal Chief of the Carrier Sekani Tribal Council. Moran was commissioned by the Elizabeth Fry Society to write the case history of “Theresa” a battered woman, for the book Don’t Bring Me Flowers [1992]. Her last book Prince George Remembered from Bridget Moran [1996] provides a series of excerpts of oral history interviews that Moran conducted in the late 1950s with white settlers providing memories of their arrival in Prince George c.1911-c.1920. Moran was also a teacher and mentor for many aspiring writers and taught many writing workshops, including workshops sponsored by the Island Mountain Arts Summer School in Wells, BC, a small community near Barkerville, BC and workshops for the Writers Group in the Prison Education Section, Women’s Correctional Centre, in Burnaby, BC. Bridget Moran was also an active supporter of the literary arts; she was a member of the Writers Union of Canada and spoke frequently at regional writers clubs throughout BC. She participated in nationally Page 3 of 289 Bridget Moran fonds [Accession # 2008.3] Boxes #1-#17 Fonds Description and File Level Inventory sponsored writing and book festivals, and conducted promotional tours of her books throughout BC and other parts of Canada, including Toronto and Ottawa.