Two Significant NT Women, RIP, Imelda Palmer and Doris Ford
Malcolm Fyfe MSC, Vicar General, Darwin, has sent this news and photos of the two women.
IMELDA PALMER RIP
A very significant Arrernte personality has passed from this world to the next. Imelda Palmer died on Monday evening, June 1st.
Imelda had been suffering from ill health since 2015.
I imagine that everyone who has even a minimal knowledge of the Santa Teresa Mission has heard her name.
Imelda Palmer commenced working at Ltyentye Apurte Catholic School at Santa Teresa as a young Assistant Teacher in 1974. When the Marist Brothers arrived in 1978, she was soon identified by the new Principal, Brother Cletus, as someone with great potential. Imelda undertook studies in Teacher Education from 1991 - 1993. As both an Assistant Teacher and as a Teacher in the school, Imelda worked closely with the Brothers and was appointed Deputy Principal in 2001. Imelda was happy to work with the children, educating them in the faith and providing them with a sound foundation for future success in life. Imelda was a woman of integrity, devoted to her faith, a fine role model for her community, a strong and proud Arrernte woman.
She was well respected by the other members of the Community for her passionate appreciation for the Arrernte language and culture. She was always an active member of the parish – a strong leader not only in the school but in the parish community as well. She had a deep devotion to Mary.
After retiring in February 2016 due to ongoing health issues, she continued to focus on culture, language and supporting Religious Education. Even in retirement she was a wonderful gift to the school and to the Arrernte community.
The Diocese of Darwin is conscious of the sense of loss that the Community must experience at this time and extends condolences to members of Imelda’s family, especially her daughter Taylor-Rose. With Imelda’s passing, the Santa Teresa Community has lost a true elder and a fine educator.
May she rest in peace.
(With thanks to Brother Daniel Hollamby FMS for providing much of the background.)
And for those interested in a little history:
“The Santa Teresa Mission, begun in 1953, can in fact trace its roots back to the earliest days of the Church in Alice Springs.
Father Paddy Maloney msc had set up the first Mission to the Aborigines in 1936 at Charles Creek, a mile or so from Alice Springs.
Six years later, with the aim of moving the Aborigines further out, Arltunga Mission, some eighty miles from Alice Springs, was established in 1942. The Arltunga Mission had always suffered from a water shortage, but the thought of a third start for the Mission to the East Aranda tribe was not something to be undertaken lightly. However, in 1953 a reluctant decision was made.
Fifty-six miles to the south east of Alice Springs, the NT Administrator leased to Bishop O’Loughlin a four hundred and eighty square mile block of land suitable for cattle grazing on the Phillipson River – normally only a dry creek bed. In the dry season it was a great red dust expanse broken only by spinifex, wattles and desert oaks. Given a couple of days of rain, it was a blaze of colour. And, more to the point, it had a plentiful underground water supply with a government bore already sunk and the possibility of sinking others.
The new mission was to be known as Santa Teresa.”
From “ NT Dreaming” by Sister Ann Thompson 1988 Page 56.
(The School at Santa Teresa was initially administered by the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart and later by the Marist Brothers who, in 1979, established a Religious Community at Santa Teresa. MPF)
DORIS FORD RIP
Doris Marjorie Ford OAM passed away peacefully of Saturday, May 30th, aged 99. Doris was the wife of Martin dec. (of whom more below), mother of Jim and Lynne, grandmother to eight, great-grandmother to sixteen, with one great-great-grandchild.
The following information is available from “Territory Stories”:
Born in Townsville March 19,1921, Doris arrived in Darwin April 1946 to join her husband Harold Martin Ford - we knew him as Martin (MPF) - who held a position with the Department of Northern Territory Administration. Doris was a member of St Mary's School Mothers' Club holding positions of Treasurer and Secretary. Doris was a founding member of the Catholic Women's League and President from 1965-1967. She was appointed first President of the Diocesan Council of Catholic Women's League of the Northern Territory in 1974 until 1977. Doris chaired the first two Diocesan conferences held in Darwin in 1976 and 1977 and attended three National biennial conferences of the Catholic Women's League as an official delegate and later executive member as treasurer and was elected president in 1977. She was elected to the Board of the YWCA in July 1974 and was an executive member since 1976. Doris was assistant general secretary and acting general secretary of the Australian Red Cross Society 1965-1970. Doris was a hard-working voluntary background campaigner for social causes for many years for community- minded organisations.
Doris’s husband Martin was, for quite some time, Director of the Department of Aboriginal Affairs. Like Doris he was a very committed Catholic. He was the “go to” person whenever Church personnel (myself included, from ’78 to ’83) had some need of assistance from the NT Government.
Doris Ford’s Honours and Awards:
Red Cross Service 1968
Life Membership to the Catholic Women’s League 1983.
YWCA Long Service Award to Darwin 1987.
Order of Australia Medal Community Service 1979
We can be sure that Doris Marjorie Ford, after her lifetime of service to the Catholic Church and to the wider community in the Top End, is now enjoying an eternal reward in the company of her equally iconic husband Martin.
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