Memories for Chevalier Family who worked In the Tiwi Islands, NAIDOC Week
Our Lady of Peace and St. Therese - Wurrumiyanga, Tiwi Islands: 113th Anniversary of the First Mass Celebrated by Bishop Francis Gsell in Tiwi Islands. (Story and photos from the parish Facebook page.)
Today we celebrated the 113th anniversary of the first Mass celebrated by Bishop Francis Gsell on Bathurst Island. Fr. Gsell moved to the island in 1911 to establish a mission among the Tiwi people. On 8th June 1911 he celebrated first Holy Mass at Tiwi islands. The OLSH Sisters arrived in 1914 to open a school, and soon, the children agreed to be baptized, forming the core of the Christian community. Fr. Gsell dedicated 27 years of his life to the mission on Bathurst Island (Nguiu).
As an apostolic administrator, Fr. Gsell extended the Catholic presence to Alice Springs in 1929, Tennant Creek (Santa Teresa Mission and Charles Creek) in 1936, Port Keats (Wadeye) in 1935, and Arltunga in 1943. At age 66, Fr. Gsell became the Bishop of Darwin (1938-1948), overseeing a vicariate that stretched as far as Torres Strait. He ran the diocese from Alice Springs.
Upon his retirement in 1949, he moved to the MSC monastery in Kensington, Sydney, where he prepared his memoirs, published in 1956 under the title "The Bishop with One Hundred and Fifty Wives" (Angus and Robertson, London).
Bishop Gsell died on 12 July 1960. He was initially buried at St. Mary’s Towers in Douglas Park, but in 1982, his remains were transferred to the crypt of St. Mary’s Cathedral in Darwin. An Aboriginal hostel in Nightcliff (Darwin) is named after him, and in August 2006, a lavish commemoration of Gsell’s arrival in Darwin took place, featuring a centenary Mass and a reception at Parliament House.
Bishop Gsell is rightly called “The Apostle of the Tiwi.” He received the Tiwi name 'Patakijiyali'. Today, we are grateful to remember him on the 113th anniversary of his first Mass on the Tiwi Islands on June 8, 1911. We celebrated a Holy Mass in his memory, experiencing the joy of that first Mass. Our Tiwi people even sang a song dedicated to Fr. Gsell:
“Ngini yipirranyuwinayi ngawa amini Patakijiyali
Yinimarruwariyi pupuni ngirramini ngini ngarra Ngawa-rringani
Nginja nguwuri, aya Amini
Ngajingawula ngumpungunyukuruwarni
Pili nginja warntirana, nginja mijuwalini”
During the Holy Mass, we offered our prayers for Fr. Gsell and all the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart (MSC), the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart (OLSH), and for all missionaries and lay missionaries.
