SKETCH OF GEORGE TOWN BAHA’I HISTORY: 1921-2021

Preamble

I am posting the following statement to provide a perspective on Baha'i history in George Town Tasmania for any interested person in Tasmania, Australia and in the wide, wide world. This Baha'i Group has sent written, oral and anecdotal reports to the Regional Teaching Committee of the Baha’is of Tasmania since the early 1990s and in the first Five Year Plan(2001-2006) and the current Plan(2006-2011) to the newly formed Regional Baha’i Council for Tasmania. Our most recent report will serve here on the Blog Site as a brief history for interested readers.

During the 17 year period 1990 to 2007 most of this Baha'i Group’s reporting has been, as I say, informal and concerned with specific plans and activities as they arose. This brief history and report will also serve as an update of the earlier histories and reports sent to the Baha'i Council for Tasmania in 2005-6. Our Group has made a number of alterations to the earlier statements and they are included here. This communication requires no action on the part of any Baha'i institution and is sent essentially to provide information for interested Baha'is and others now and in the years ahead as the Baha'i Faith has come to enjoy a more prominent place in the world in recent decades.

All being well, we will forward further updates on our history(and place some of them on the internet, perhaps) when appropriate at relevant times in the fourth phase of our history just on the horizon. This report is used for several purposes in communicating and summarizing activities of the George Town Bahá’í Group to interested publics. I have posted what was originally a report to the Baha'i Council for Tasmania on the WWW since I felt it provided to many who might be interested a view from the inside, so to speak, of a small Baha'i Group. There are 1000s of such groups around the world in a global Baha'i population of about six million.

A. HISTORY:
A.1 General Outline:

George Town’s Baha’i history could be divided into four parts: 1921-1990; 1991-1999, 1999-2007 and a fourth part beginning with the opening of the new Baha’i Centre for Tasmania in Hobart. This centre will be completed for occupancy in late 2007. This fourth part of the Baha'i history of George Town will conclude in 2021 with the opening of the second century of the Baha'i Faith's Formative Age. This fourth part will have three stages or phases each coinciding with the three five year plans on the horizon: 2006-2011, 2011-2016 and 2016-2021.

The first part of this history, then, is a sixty-nine year period in two phases: 1921 to 1973 and 1974 to 1990. The first phase, one of just over fifty years, was characterized by the occasional formal travel teaching trip to George Town, the occasional informal visit or holiday to the town by Baha’is and the visit of Baha’is to their personal friends. Any documentation of these events will require further study of minutes and correspondence in Baha'i communities where there are elected bodies, secretaries, minutes and the normal procedures associated with organized and formal groups all over the world. Baha’i Groups in Tasmania and archival notes as well as anecdotal material obtained from conversations with members of the community, Baha’is and non-Baha’is, who lived in Tasmania and elsewhere during this half century, 1924-1974, are also important sources of information on Baha'i history in George Town.

The second phase of this first sixty-five year period is a sixteen year sequence from 1974 to 1990. This phase was a much more active one because the Launceston community had George Town as a goal area from time to time. Launceston also became an LSA, a local spiritual assembly, in this period and was one of the most successful communities in Australia on the teaching front. Baha'is take a serious interest in expansion of their numbers, although they do not take part in any aggressive proselytism through which many religious messages have been widely promulgated in recent and not-so-recent history.

The second part of George Town’s Baha’i history was a ten year period from 1990 to 1999. During this period Simon and Narda van der Molen, a Dutch couple who came out from Holland nearly fifty years ago, moved to George Town on Simon's retirement from the teaching profession. In 1990, after being a goal of the Launceston Baha’i community off-and-on for some 40 years, George Town—the oldest town in Australia—finally had resident Baha’is. This move enabled the van der Molens to be near their family of five sons and a daughter and to open up this town at the mouth of the Tamar River to Baha'i community activities. By the time they moved to George Town as pioneers they had themselves been associated with this Faith for a decade.

Narda kept a full record of the major and minor teaching initiatives in the 1990s. That record is in her home and represents the first historical document in the present archive for the Baha’i community of George Town. It is a well-organized outline of activities with newspaper advertising, Baha'i quotations and other clippings to provide the kind of detail that will be useful to future historians of the Faith. Simon and Narda put advertisements in a regional paper and an insert in the Examiner; they also built a rose-garden at the Senior Citizens building on Sorell Street with a brass-plaque embossed with a Baha’i quotation and were formally recognized for this work by the George Town Council in February of 2006.

Many visitors, travel-teachers and guests came through George Town in that fin de siecle period when the Arc at the Baha'i world centre was being build and embellished. Simon and Narda joined many groups in those years in an effort to get to know people and spread the teachings in this town with a history of over 200 years. The 5000 people in 1990 grew to over 7000(ca) by 2006. Anyone interested in the details of the life and history of George Town can easily read them on the internet and it is not my intention to go into them here.

In late 1999 Ron and Chris Price moved from Western Australia also to be near Chris’ family and for Ron to take an early retirement also from the teaching profession. They joined the van der Molens in September 1999 and together these four Baha’is had a busy eight years: September 1999 to September 2007 in what we have called here the 3rd part of Baha’i history in George Town. The record of activities in this period is kept in several files in Ron’s study. It is not our purpose here to outline in any detail either Simon and Narda’s or Ron and Chris’ files. We leave that for future scholars of the Cause and future postings on the internet by myself and others. But there is a core of printed matter available in the homes of the van der Molens and Prices which will become, in time, a detailed George Town Baha’i archive. Anyone wanting to get a picture of the activities of this Baha’i Group in the years 1990 to 2007 has only to refer to these files or contact the author of this statement.

"Archives offer our knowledge an extra bonus”, says Arlette Farge in her book Fragile Lives(1). They are not so much the truth as the beginnings of the truth and, she goes on, they are “an eruption of meanings with the greatest possible number of connections with reality.” That's a pretty lofty view of archives, all the old files kept in a back room somewhere or, in the case of George Town, in a more protected and organized form on shelves in the studies of two of the members. For most Baha'is, most people, the real 'connections-with-reality' are found in their day-to-day experience much more than on bits of paper in archives. That is understandable.
For now, though, I have exhausted the number of connections I want to make on paper between our archives and the day-to-day experience of Baha'is in George Town from 1990 to 2007. "The eruption of meanings" that Farge refers to has yet to be enjoyed or appreciated by historians of this Faith drawing on archives. These archives have, though, helped produced this brief history, however incomplete and lacking in fine detail it may be.

I will say one things about the Baha'i history in George Town in this 17 year period. Like Simon and Narda, Ron and Chris joined many groups. The groups that, in various combinations, the four of them were active members of at different times in the years 1990 to 2007 included: the Tasmanian Information Centre, the Senior Citizens Group, the George Town School for Seniors, a George Town Gardening Group, Neighbourhood Watch, The Friends of Pipe Clay Bay, two singing groups and an entertainment group, among others. Many seeds were planted in these years. This group participation had two phases: (a) the van der Molen phase and (b) the Price and van der Molen phase. Each group involvement had its own story, too extensive and beyond the inclination of any of the Baha’i participants to write an account of here. No new Baha’is were added to the Baha’i Group of George Town in these years, although much seed-planting was done.

The Baha'i teaching process is a quiet, gentle one, one might say idiosyncratic, with none of that aggressive proselytism I mentioned above. The Movement has grown slowly in Tasmania to a number between 225 and 250 after 86 years. For various periods of time other members of each of these two Baha’i families joined this foursome: Daniel Price(2001-2005) and Meindert van der Molen(1990-2006) in varying degrees of participation in the years concerned. There were, too, many Baha'i visitors during this period. Too many to include here in a list with comments.

A.2 Some Particular Activities:

During the years 1990 to 2007 the George Town Baha’i Group:

(a) put the Tasmanian baha'i newsletter, the Beacon, together(2003-2005); (b) held a Devotional Meeting(2003-2007) in the CWA Room once a month with extensive advertising; (c) organized a Unit Convention(BE160); (d) took part in the George Town on Show with a Baha’i display(2004); (e) assisted the Launceston Baha’i community with several of its activities: Harmony Day, the City Park Radio program, three travel-teacher programs, inter alia(2000-2007); (f) joined the West Tamar Baha’i Group in several of its activities(2005-2007);(g) had several of its members involved in special Baha’i activities and roles: (i)Narda served as: (a) an Assistant to the Auxiliary Board(2000-2004) and (b) delegate to the National Convention once(BE158); (ii) Ron served:(a)on two committees of the Baha’i Council(2002-2004) and (b) as delegate to the National Convention once(BE160);(h) participated in ‘Tutor/Facilitator Training Instititutes.” Ron and Chris in 1999-2000(Westbury) and Narda in 2000(Yerrinbool). Ron & Chris completed Book 1 of the Ruhi materials; Narda acted as a facilitator with Ruhi materials in 2001-3; (i) had some of its members displaying their artistic work: Ron displayed his poetry(2004) on one occasion at an arts exhibit; Narda had her craft work in several displays over the years. Narda also has her embroidery for sale in a local craft shop; and (j) organized many other activities, normal parts of Baha’i community life, in the years 1990 to 2007.

A.3 Other Aspects of George Town Baha’i History:

From time to time some or all of the members travelled to: Hobart and Baha’i communities in the Hobart area, Launceston, Westbury, West Tamar, Scottsdale, Campbelltown,Sheffield and Devonport for one of the many types of Baha’i functions organized in the Tasmanian Baha’i community organized by Baha’is in: locality goals, Groups and LSA areas. Inevitably over these 17 years Baha’is from George Town visited localities where no Baha’is resided and became involved in formal and mostly informed teaching activities. No detailed record was kept of these visits and trips which included towns down the west and east coasts of Tasmania.

The four Baha’is in George Town had become members of this Faith at different times over four epochs of the Formative Age: Narda and Simon in the early 1980s, the third epoch, Chris in the 1970s in that same epoch and Ron in the 1950s in the 2nd epoch. Together, they laid a foundation for the Baha’i Faith in George Town in these 17 years. The work was often not inspiring, but required dedication, persistence and a willingness to keep planting seeds when there was no evidence of growth in terms of numbers.

The following item of advertising conveys something of the external image of the Baha’i Group here in George Town. It conveys, too, something of its history in a more general sense. This advertising item is suggestive of some of the George Town Baha’i Group’s recent experiences, at least since 2003.

BAHA’I REFLECTIONS

Come and join the Baha’is of George Town to reflect on the writings of the newest world religion on the theme:

“ HE HAS COME ! ”

Thursday 16 June and each third Thursday of the month (differing themes)CWA Room, 6 Sorell Street, 10:30am. Phone Ron or Christine for inquiries 6382 4790 or Narda and Simon on 6382 3142

ALL WELCOME
_____________________________________________________________________________________
B. REPORT:

And so as the last year of the third phase of our history comes to an end in the next several months and the first year of the fourth phase of the history of the Baha’i community of George Town opens by the end of 2007, the following items/events/activities stand out as major features of the Baha'i Group of George Town's life. As Ayyam-i-Ha, Naw-Ruz and Ridvan are about to take place in the weeks and months ahead in 2007, we end this brief history/report with the following highlights in our formal and informal calendar of events in the years 1999 to 2007:

(I) social interaction between: (a) the two Baha’i homes at a minimum of twice a Baha’i month, (b) the 9 children(all adults now) of the two Baha’i families(++12 grand-children, 3 great-grand-children) at a rate of four visits on average per Baha’i month and many phone calls;(c) groups/individual Baha’is outside George Town and (d) non-Baha’i friends outside organized and formal groups at a minimum of twice a Baha’i month and usually more times.

(II) Devotional Meetings soon to conclude the 4th year with: (a) ads on four radio stations, two TV stations and one newspaper; (b) 30 posters/month(total now at 1000-1500 circa) and 100 fliers/month(total now at 4600 circa). Attendance: (i) local Baha’is: (av.3/month), (ii) Baha’is from Launceston(2 on 1 occasion) or West Tamar(3 on 2 occasions) and (iii) 3 non-Baha’is on 1 occasion(May 19th 2005-first ones). Average no of discussions about the Faith each month when putting up posters:two.

(III) The Beacon: two years of work on the Beacon: writing, editing, and/or distribution(April 2003-May 2005): concluded 13/5/05.

(IV) Non-Baha’i groups and activities with participation by local Baha’is at the start of the 1st year of this fourth phase of George Town Baha’i history: (a) a singing group of 3-7 participants: Simon plays the piano, (b) internet sites: Ron posts Baha’i material at many sites and will have a new personal site soon to open in 2007/8, all being well, thanks to the support of the Tasmanian Baha’i Council and Morfik XS and; (c) The Friends of Pipe Clay Bay: Chris is the secretary.

(V) Attendance at Cluster Meetings: 16 meetings(ca) in the Five Year Plan(2001-2006); average attendance: 2 local members/meeting. Next one in April 2007. Participation in several ways: note taking, taking part in children’s activities, chairing and organizing the meetings.

(VI) Participation in activities organized by the Launceston LSA, Groups and individuals within the Cluster; for example, (a) Holy Days, (b) other.

Concluding Comment

We trust that the above is useful to you in putting both our history and our current activities in perspective. This report/history outline will give you the kind of details that present a picture of a local Baha'i Group in Tasmania. This report also updates the original report we sent in April of 2005 to the Baha'i Council of Tasmania. In closing we look forward to any questions and comments that arise out of this statement. We appreciate all the work done by the Baha'i Council and we trust that this year of the opening of our new Baha’i Centre in Hobart will be a historic year to remember.

Ron Price Publicity Officer
George Town Baha’i Group
February 2007