Archives of Memory and Memories of Archive: CMS Women's Letters and Diaries 1823-1835 Tanya Fitzgerald School of Education Unitec New Zealand Private Bag 92025 Auckland, NZ Ph + 64 9 815 4321 ext 8776 Fax: + 64 9 815 4310 Email:
[email protected] - 0 - Archives of Memory and Memories of Archive: CMS Women's Letters and Diaries 1823-1823 Introduction During the past decade I have spent considerable time in museums and libraries1 in New Zealand, Australia and England2 locating and reading material written by a group of Church Missionary Society (CMS) women teachers who worked in the Bay of Islands area in northern New Zealand.3 My specific focus has been the letters and diaries penned by Marianne Coldham Williams (1793-1879)4 and Jane Nelson Williams (1801-1896) who were resident at the Paihia mission station in the 1823-1835 period.5 Initially appointed to ‘improve the condition of women in New Zealand’6 whose situation was described as ‘far more degraded than that of males’,7 the CMS recognised that the labour of women was essential to the success of the mission.8 This work and its location, was specifically defined: No mission is rightly worked until the equal evangelisation of the sexes is possible. Religion has its stronghold in the home where women hold sway, and unless they are reached efficiently the men will be hindered in the profession of Christ, and the children will be easily steeped in bigotry and superstition. To do this work a large number of foreign women missionaries and native women helpers are required to carry on evangelistic, educational and medical work among women.