A REPORT

ON

THE RESEARCH POTENTIAL

OF

THE ARCHIVES OF NEW NORCIA ABBEY

FOR

THE ARCHIVES, RESEARCH AND PUBLICATIONS COMMITTEE

OF NEW NORCIA ABBEY

BY

ROWAN STRONG

MARCH 1995

INTRODUCTION

This report was compiled at the request of Dom Placid Spearritt, prior of New Norcia Abbey, to be submitted to the Archives, Publications and Research Committee [ARPC] of the abbey. The brief was to assess the archives for their potential for researchers, primarily those in academic work but also with some attention to those from non-academic backgrounds or interests. It was made possible because of the on-going cataloguing and conservation of the Abbey's archives, presently undertaken by Wendy Pierce, the archivist. Ms Pierce provided invaluable assistance in accessing the archives for this report.

The abbey has already well-established contacts with potential researchers from academic and non-academic backgrounds through the inauguration of the annual New Norcia Studies Day and its journal New Norcia Studies. This report is written to facilitate research projects which may feed into those initiatives. One important question for the ARPC to consider is the direction they would wish the journal to take in the future. One possible path is to become more academic, with articles of new research which may have a more limited audience. Another direction would to choose to become a more general popular production. In considering these possibilities an important factor for academic involvement may be that with government and university pressure to measure usefulness in terms of production (that is, published research) and the tying of funding to publication busy academics may choose to present work to refereed journals rather than to New Norcia Studies. The two paths may possibly be mutually exclusive. However, a third possibility may be for New Norcia Studies to act as a forum for academics presenting already researched work to a more popular audience, as well as a forum for opinion and research into the archives of a non-academic nature. In this way New Norcia Studies would provide a West Australian niche something like that served on the international scale by History Today.

METHODOLOGY

The author of this report spent a weekend at the abbey accessing the catalogue listing presently entered into the computer database of the archives, and assessing the holdings still to be catalogued. The majority of the archival material has now been entered into a computerised catalogue database and is accessed by a keyword command, known as the KWOC system. However, there is still a large amount of material still to be so recorded (unKWOCed) and awaiting more detailed description. This cataloguing is proceeding and should be complete in the not too distant future. There is also a significant amount of material transferred to microfilm, and this includes most of the material from the early years of the abbey and its attendant missions. Printed lists of this microfilmed material were available, and a copy of this was taken for further analysis. A general list of unKWOCed material was also available and a similar copy was also taken. Most of the research time at the archives was spent on accessing lists of KWOCed material, concentrating on keywords that offered maximum indication of important primary material - 'diary', 'correspondence', ,report', 'aboriginal', and various important ecclesiastical themes such as 'Benedictine', 'college', and the names of significant community members.

In addition to the KWOCed and unKWOCed database and the microfilmed material attention was also paid to other available lists. These included the Photograph Index, Collection of Maps lent for [microfilm] copying, Architectural Plans, and the Archivist's reports to the ARPC which provided indications of interest in the archives indicated by various groups and individuals in the past years.

This report then has been compiled from various lists already extant, or compiled specifically by the report's author from the KWOC database, and from notes taken at the time. It is not exhaustive as the limited time available did not permit extensive examination of the unKWOCed material, but the general descriptive list of this material that is available appeared to be sufficient for the task of outlining research strengths of the archive collection.

THE LANGUAGE DIFFICULTY OF ACCESSING THE NEW NORCIA ARCHIVES

This is an archive whose material is in a number of - Spanish (Catalan), French, English, some Italian and Latin in connection with official correspondence from Rome, and the lexicographical work of some New Norcia monks in the various Aboriginal languages of the surrounding areas to the New Norcia missions. Therefore the possible need in any research to work in one or more languages will most fundamentally determine the ability of various researchers to access and use the resources of the archives. This is most important with regard to the nineteenth-century years of the abbey and to its various Aboriginal missions. As this early material is probably the most important historically in terms of widest social significance, a multi-lingual ability or resources will be fundamental to research work.

Recommendation One
The archival catalogue include in the entry for all material the language the item is written in. This has been done for some entries, particularly the some of the diary entries, but these are a minority. Present entries leave potential researchers having to making a guess from the authors' names or destinations of the material as to the language required to read the material. A language entry would facilitate researchers' decisions as to what archives they were personally able to read and what language resources they would need for any particular project.

Recommendation Two
As multi-lingual access is so fundamental in determining use of the early New Norcia material, an application should be made to the Australian Research Council in combination with one or more of the history and/or modern language departments of West Australian universities for funding for translation work and scholarly editions of mission diaries and correspondence of figures such as Abbots Torres and Catalan, Fr Altimira and Abbot Catalan and the Drysdale River Mission, Fr Felix Ayguabella at Wyening, Torres's explorations into north-west Australia, Fr Theodore Hernandez and the Kalumburu mission.

I believe a good case can be made for research funding from either the Australian Research Council or, indirectly, through proposing translation and editing projects to Australian universities. The relevant material is evidently of state and national significance with regard to early colonial history, Aboriginal history, and the history of multi-cultural contact between Europeans and Aborigines. The production of important scholarly editions is also a valuable research project for either PhD students or academic staff and could be presented to relevant academic departments as research likely to attract research funding, which would make it more attractive to universities with capable staff or research students. The production of such editions would then make the New Norcia material more widely available to relevant researchers without the necessary language skills or resources to access directly the early colonial archives of the abbey.

Recommendation Three
The catalogue of the archives including language entires, be printed and sold to libraries in Australia and overseas which would have a potential interest in Australian colonial history, Spanish colonial history, Catholic history, ecclesiastical history. Notification of the catalogue's availability should be sent to universities with departments in these fields, and particularly to departments of modern language and universities in Spain and Spanish-speaking countries in an endeavour to attract researchers from there to use the archive.

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RESEARCH THEMES

What follows is an outline of major themes, topics, or areas of research which the author of this report believes the archives would support as the major resource, in comparison to merely offering supporting material to research whose major input would derive from other collections. In other words, the following list are suggestions for research which could be undertaken and completed using the New Norcia archives as the single major primary source component which could be complemented by the state and other West Australian archives held at the Battye Library in Perth. This is important in attracting researchers from beyond West Australia or the immediate locality of New Norcia and Perth as it would limit the travel involved for such research projects and therefore costs of research.

1. The Maps
Maps and diagrams exist from a period stretching back as far as 1723 (an Admiralty chart of the Houtman rocks and adjacent coast - No: 007744). The collection includes published material such as admiralty charts and productions of the Survey Office, Perth; manuscript maps of the local area and New Norcia mission areas; and architectural drawings and plans of the abbey and various buildings around New Norcia

Recommendation Four
The attention of university departments of geography, cartography, architecture, surveying and town planning, maritime history be drawn to this resource for the attention of prospective researchers. This could be done by publishing and selling the map and architectural plans as separate catalogues and selling them to relevant libraries and institutions. A preferable course would be for these lists to remain within the catalogue of the whole archives as potential researchers in these areas may wish to access wider archival material.

2. A history of the New Norcia farm
A theme which would focus on the adaptation of European farming practices to the Australian landscape and climate, for which the Spanish origin and Benedictine community of the New Norcia abbey farm would offer a unique

dimension in Australian agricultural history. Among the archives which would

support such a project are:

3. The Drysdale River Mission 1908-37
The original mission established on the north west coast of Australia under Abbot Torres. Later moved to Kalumburu. As with all the missions directed by the New Norcia community this is a project that would include themes of Roman Catholicism/Christianity in Australia and in Western Australia; European and Aboriginal contact; religious life; Benedictines in Australia; missions from the unique perspective of engagement by a Spanish Benedictine monastic community ; enculturation of the gospel. Extensive material on these two missions in the KWOCed material exists including Correspondence Drysdale River Mission (01059ff), Drysdale River Mission Diary (00948ff)

4. Kalumburu Mission 1937-
The successor to the Drysdale River Mission. Some of the KWOCed material can be accessed under Correspondence - Kalumburu Mission, and Kalumburu Diary.

5. Daly River Mission (Northern Territory) 1881-86
KWOCed material under microfilm box 27 & 28 (1883) correspondence.

6. Beagle Bay Mission 1910-56
This was run by the German Fallotine Fathers, but correspondence is extant in the archives between the Pallotines and the abbey (01715). Fr Nicholas Emo would be the subject for further significant biographical study for his diary exists in the archives and in microfilm (2953A/21-22, 00959).

7. The history of New Norcia Township
What began as an Aboriginal mission became a European rural town servicing the surrounding rural industry. As well as this transition the unique history of a settlement focused on a monastery could be explored, and also the European settlement of the Victoria Plains area, as well as the institutions of white settlement such as police, ambulance, trading and commerce. Archival material is multifarious and includes that relating to various facilities such as the flour mill, the service station, general store-hotel, police station. Also relevant material exists to research the impact of World War and other events of local, state, and national significance.

8. The New Norcia monastery 1846-
This is not just a piece of ecclesiastical history but, because of the community's involvement in missions, the early European settlement of Perth and northern Western Australia, and the development of Roman Catholicism in Western Australia it is a history with fundamental significance for the social and political history of Western Australia.

9. Australian-Spanish history
The Spanish monks maintained a connection with their homeland through letters home, relations with Spanish religious and civil authorities, and correspondence with Spanish consuls at Perth. Archival material also exists in this area on the influence in New Norcia of the Spanish civil war of the 1930s. Therefore there are resources for a history of an important ethnic group in Western Australia for which material exists throughout the life of the monastic community stretching back to the early years of European colonisation of the state. The Spanish background of the founding monks and a number of their successors also had an impact on an important variety of social and religious aspects of Australian life in Western Australia. These include farming, diet, architecture, Catholic devotional life, art, and politics. Such a study could still use oral history as an invaluable resource while some of the elderly Spanish monks are still alive and able to talk about their experiences and attitudes.

10. The history of Catholic liturgy in Western Australia.
Benedictine monasticism has always had a focus in its community life on the opus dei the 'work of God' or the liturgical worship of the monastery. This has often placed Benedictine monasteries at the forefront of liturgical practice and developments in Christian history. The resourcing of its liturgy in the past by the New Norcia community has included a liturgical musician (Fr Moreno), and artist, as well as the various liturgical productions necessary to the liturgy since the abbey's inception such as missals, graduals, antiphoners and so on. The abbey has been an identifiable and continuous liturgical community experiencing the impact of liturgical change since the 1840s and therefore exposed to the changes in practice and theology originating with the Liturgical Movement since the nineteenth century. New Norcia liturgy has also had an influence on the wider Roman Catholic community in Western Australia through the exposure of that wider community to the abbey's life through retreats, pilgrimages, and other days or events which brought Catholic West Australians to the abbey. Therefore the continuity of practice and accompanying historic change of the liturgy of New Norcia abbey (including daily offices and not just mass) is an important focus for investigating liturgical history and development in Australia. Sub-themes of this could include liturgical music, liturgical art, Catholic devotional practice, the differences and connections between parish and monastic liturgy, and the intended building of a cathedral at New Norcia.

11. New Norcia Abbey-Nullius
This area of research would focus on the extensive material in the archives for the various rural parishes coming within the authority of New Norcia including Wyalkatchem, Trayning, Calingiri, Wongan Hills, Dalwallinu, Miling, New Norcia, Goomalling, Moora, Southern Cross, .

12. Catholic Dioceses and New Norcia
Correspondence with various Catholic dioceses exists in the KWoced material including Adelaide 1898-1950 (00785-6); Broome 1918-46 (00800); Geraldton 190171 (00798-9, 00801); Melbourne 1903-46 (00789, 00791); Perth (00770) as well as a number of reports and other material from this diocese; Sydney 1885-70 (00788, 00792-4).

13. Lay Catholic life and Spirituality in Western Australia.
Relevant areas under this research theme include the Oblates of St Benedict, religious instruction and practice in the New Norcia schools, parishes staffed by New Norcia monks or under their direction as part of the Diocese of , sermons, devotional days and practices run by the abbey for laity such as pilgrimages and retreats, various published resources such as prayer cards and newsletters.

14. The history of theology in New Norcia and in associated parishes.
The resource for research in this area would be the many manuscript sermons still retained in the archives. These are for two main categories of Catholic audience through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries - the monks in the community and sermons given by the monks in various parishes in which they either served as parish priests or visited for longer or shorter periods. This resource would provide an invaluable insight into the theology presented through these two centuries for two contrasting groups of Catholics who might be crudely classed as 'professional' and' amateur' Christians in the sense that the latter lived lives that were not solely preoccupied with religion.

15. Catholic and monastic historiography
A number of the earlier monks were historians who wrote extensively about the history of their community and its significant members. These include Frs Perez, (1910-1990), William Gimenez (1890-76), Theodore Hernandez (1905-76). Research could examine their theological and historical presuppositions over a period from the nineteenth to twentieth centuries as an indicator of the historiographical priorities during that period and how they reflected the historical situation and self-understanding of New Norcia, and West Australian or Australian Catholicism.

16. Catholic schooling and education in Western Australia
There were both boys and girls schools at New Norcia, as well as Aboriginal education. These were run by the New Norcia monks and by a number of other religious communities including the Marist Brothers and Benedictine Sisters. There were also other religious orders with whom the abbey was connected in regard to parochial and other schools. There is potential for research in this area which would include the New Norcia dimension to the life of the various orders involved, the separate schools at New Norcia, educational change in philosophy and practice throughout the history of the schools, and Aboriginal education and social change.

17. New Norcia and Australian Catholic intellectual life.
The Benedictine emphasis on study in its way of life was actively sponsored by a number of the abbots. Involvement in post-secondary intellectual life in the history of the community includes the development of the library and the resourcing of particular monks, the New Norcia Catholic College, involvement or interest in Murdoch and Notre Dame Universities, the print works, the museum, the Melbourne Eucharistic Congress, the Catholic Social Studies Movement of the 1930s and 1940s, and the Second Australasian Catholic Congress 1904.

18. Technological expansion in rural Western Australia
New Norcia was involved in negotiations over the territorial expansion of new technologies into the Victoria Plains area. These included the Midlands Railway Company, telegraph, and postal services. Archival material into the use of New Norcia land could provide insight into the reception and impact of these services on life in rural Australia.

19. Aboriginal history in Western Australia
With the pioneering by New Norcia of important Aboriginal missions in a number of areas in Western Australia, including the original foundational purpose of New Norcia itself, the interest of a number of early monks in Aboriginal life and language, the establishment of an Aboriginal orphanage in New Norcia there are crucial resources for a number of research themes in Aboriginal history which could be primarily resourced from the New Norcia archives. Material exists not just on the missions, but on Aboriginal languages, customs, the impact of white settlement and religion on tribes surrounding the abbey and its missions, Catholic involvement in Aboriginal welfare, land, religious education, and correspondence with the Aborigines Protection Board and Chief Protector of Aborigines.

20. The New Norcia connection with significant Australian Catholic leaders
Correspondence with leaders such as Cardinals Moran (01407), Archbishop Prendiville (01847), Archbishop Mannix (01855), Bishop Gibney (in unKWoced material for 1903)and especially Cardinal James Knox who was an old boy of St Ildephonsus College (00396), exists in the archives.

21. Biographies of significant New Norcia monks
These are primarily the early abbots who, from the abbey's involvement with European settlement in Western Australia and Aboriginal contacts and missions, exploration of the northern part of the state, and leadership in the Western Australian Catholic community had an historic role beyond that of the abbey and its community, especially Salvado, Torres and Catalan. Salvado has obviously been the most researched subject to date. But his involvement in early colonial religious and state history as abbot, bishop, missionary, explorer, is so extensive that further studies should be undertaken. There is also material on monks and others who were missionaries in the New Norcia missions that could provide important biographical studies.

22. Australian Catholic relations with Rome
With the continuous history of the New Norcia community, and the important leadership of the abbey and its abbots for the wider Catholic community in Western Australia, this research has the potential to discover implications beyond that of the relations of a single monastery with central authority. Considerable material exists in the archives for a study to be made of this during the duration of the New Norcia community. These include reports of ad limina visits, reports to Sacred Congregation of Propaganda Fide, canonical visitation, and visits of the Apostolic Delegation.

23. Catholic relations with the Colonial Government.
Archival material includes, correspondence with the Colonial Secretary regarding mission stations (1350), and various government departments over such issues as police, land, farming, health, aborigines (eg. 01178, 01660, 001138).

Dr Rowan Strong
Associate Lecturer in Church History
Theology Programme
Murdoch University
March 1995