Missionary Women, Leprosy and Indigenous Australians 1936-1986 by Charmaine Robson

Book Description

Secondhand. Fine condition.

This book focuses on twentieth-century Australian leprosaria to explore the lives of Indigenous patients and the Catholic women missionaries who nursed them. Distinguished from previous historical studies of leprosy, the book examines the care and management of the incarcerated, enabling a broader understanding of their experience.

From the 1930s until the 1980s, respective governments appointed the trained sisters to four leprosaria across remote northern Australia, where almost two thousand people had been removed from their homes and detained under law for years - sometimes decades.

The book traces the sisters' holistic nursing from early efforts of amelioration and palliation to their part in the successful treatment of leprosy after World War II. It reveals how the sisters stepped out of their assigned roles and tried to shape the institutions as places of health and hygiene, European culture and education, and Christianity.

Drawing on accounts from patients, doctors, bureaucrats, missionary men, and Indigenous families and communities, the book offers fresh perspectives on two important strands of history. First, its attention to the day-to-day work of the Australian sisters helps demystify leprosy healthcare by female missionaries more generally. Secondly, with the sisters specifically caring for Indigenous people, this book exposes the institutional practices and goals specific to race relations of both the Australian government and Catholic missionaries.

An important and timely read for anyone interested in Indigenous history, medical history and the connections between race, religion and healthcare, this book contextualises the twentieth-century leprosy epidemic within Australia's broader colonial history. Charmaine Robson lectures in history at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, and previously worked as a pharmacist. She has been an Executive member and Councillor of the Australian and New Zealand Society of the History of Medicine (ANZSHM) since 2015, and President of the New South Wales Branch since 2020. (back cover)

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers, please note that this book may contain descriptions and/or images of people who have passed away.