Suzanne Aubert, later known as Mother Mary Joseph Aubert, was a nun, nurse, herbalist, teacher and social worker, who founded the first new Catholic order in Aotearoa, New Zealand, the Sisters of Compassion. She undertook much of her work among tangata whenua in Auckland and the Hawke’s Bay, before pioneering missionary work at Hiruhārama on the Whangnui River among Ngāti Hau. In the course of this work, she wrote and published a Māori-language prayer book and catechism, followed by a highly influential manual of Māori conversation. While she later moved to Wellington, she remained in regular contact with her brothers and sisters in Christ at Rānana and Hiruhārama.
A tremendously energetic and determined woman, Aubert was an active correspondent, writing and receiving letters in Māori as well as English (by birth, she was French). The letters were published in 2010 as Letters on the Go, Jessie Munro, ed., (Bridget Williams Books). Included in that correspondence is a letter of friendship from Neri Metera and Raihania Takapa, kaumatua and katekita (catechists) at Rānana, which Aubert received in June 1925, around the time she turned 90. Though it is brief, their letter conveys a depth of friendship reaching across years of life alongside one another—one of the many acts of Christian friendship these motu have seen—Ed.
Ki to matou whaea aroha, kia Meri Hohepa,
E mihi atu tenei na matou na nga morehu oranga ake kia koe. Tena koe me o hoa none te noho maina i kona. Tenei to reta mihi mai kua tae mae kia matou. He nui to matou tangi me to matou aroha kia koe.
Ina te take i arohatia ai i tangihia ai koe mo to reta mihi mai. Ko koe na ana i noho a Hiruharama, a Ranana i te wa e ora ana nga kaumatua taane me nga kaumatua wahine. Kua mate mate katoa ratou nga pahake e mohio ana koe ora ake nei. Ko matou, e tamariki ana ano i aua ra a kua kaumatua nei i enei ra. Ko koe ano tena ka tae ki ou tau ki te 90 na runga na te manaaki ote Kaihanga kia koe.
Kia nui nga ora kia koe me ou hoa none. E aroha hoki matou kia Huriano kua wehe atu nei ia ki tona iwi. Tenei matou nga kaumatua kei te hapai tonu te whakapono me te ako ano inga tamariki kia mau kit e whakapono hei whakaora i te tinana tae noa ki te wairua.
Heoi ano, Neri Metera, Raihania Takapa me te Iwi nui tonu.
To our much-loved mother, Mary Joseph,
Greetings from us who still live here to you and your sisters living away down there. Your letter containing your greetings has arrived and we have shed tears over it and felt such great love for you.
The reason we wept and felt for you was because you lived at Jerusalem and Ranana in the time when our elders were still alive, both men and women. All those elders you knew are dead although you are still alive and we, who were children in those days, have now ourselves grown old. But you have reached your ninetieth year with the help of the Lord.
May blessings continue to come down on you and your friends, your sisters. We also miss Huriano who has returned to his own people. We are the elders who still uphold the faith and teach our children to be loyal to the faith, to bring health to both body and soul. May all go well with you and your dear sisters.
That is all for now. Neri Metera, Raihania Takapa and everyone here.
Excerpted with permission from: Letters on the Go: The Correspondence of Suzanne Aubert, edited by Jessie Munro (Wellington: Bridget Williams Books, 2010), pp. 560-561.
