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THELMA PERKS
1901#1988
With the passing of Miss Thelma Perks on 21 May 1988, the Australian Bahá’í community lost one of its remaining links to the first pioneers to this vast continent, Clara and Hyde Dunn.
Thelma was born on 21 July 1901. Her affluent background allowed her to travel extensively in Europe and North America as a young woman, just as it later enabled her to devote all her time and energy to the propagation and administration of the Bahá’í Faith throughout the Australasian region.
She was on a ship sailing from Southharnpton to New York when she saw a photo of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in a friend’s cabin and remarked, “That’s an interesting face!”
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The boat was about to cross the Atlantic, and her friend, who said she would tell Thelma about Bahá’í when they arrived in New York, took her to Visit the Kinneys at their home on Riverside Drive. This notable Bahá’í couple loaned Thelma their copy of The Dawn-Breakers, Which she read in the early hours of each morning after returning from various New York night clubs. On one occasion tears streamed down her face as she realised the truth of the Faith.
While in America, Thelma met May Maxwell and Sylvia Matheson, as well as many other Bahá’ís, to whom she promised that she would Visit Clara and Hyde Dunn when she returned to Sydney. The Dunns, Who had brought the Bahá’í teachings to Australia in 1920, were then living in Randwick. They later moved to Kiribilli on the north side of the harbour, close to Thelma’s residence in Mosman. Thelma thought them such wonderful people, she happily became Clara Dunn’s driver and helped the Dunns in whatever way she could, but it was not until early 1947 that she declared herself a Bahá’í.
Between 1947 and 1953, the Australian Bahá’ís pursued a six year teaching plan in which Thelma’s support for Clara Dunn, and companionship with her during innumerable teaching trips, was invaluable. Together they Visited Bahá’í communities in such far-flung places as Wollongong, Adelaide and Brisbane.
At Riḍván 1948 they flew, together with Mariette Bolton, to participate in the formation of the Woodville Local Spiritual Assembly in the suburbs of Adelaide, South Australia. At this time Thelma served on the Library Committee of the National Spiritual Assembly, on the Regional Teaching Committee for New South Wales, and on the Local Spiritual Assembly of Sydney. She helped organise National Conventions at the Ḥaẓíratu’l-Quds at 2 Lang Road, Paddington, and participated in summer and Winter schools at the Yerrinbool Bahá’í School. Meetings were conducted at “Bidura”, Thelma’s residence at Bowral close to the
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Yerrinbool School, and at her home in Mosman. In 1950, she donated several acres of land to the Yeirinbool School on the condition that the fact not be publicized and that the land not be named after her.
Great efforts were being made at this time to establish Bahá’í communities in the larger country towns, away from the big city centres where large communities already existed. Thus, in January 1952 Thelma was in Ballarat for World Religion Day, and in March she and Dulcie Dive Visited Wollongong and secured the Miners’ Hall for that community’s holding of Feasts and special anniversaries for the remainder of the year. In 1953, at the close of Australia’s Six Year Plan, Thelma moved temporarily to Grafton in northern New South Wales, to fulfil her commitment to establishing a locality there.
During the World Crusade, Thelma served simultaneously on the National Spiritual Assembly of Australia and New Zealand, and as an Auxiliary Board member to the Hand of the Cause of God Clara Dunn. She was first elected to the National Assembly in January 1954, When a by—election was held to replace five members who had chosen to pioneer in the Pacific. At this time the relationship between the two arms of the Administrative Order was evolving, and Clara Dunn announced the appointment of Thelma Perks and Collis Featherstone as her Auxiliary Board members during National Convention in 1954. After explaining to the assembled delegates and observers that the Guardian wished her to appoint two assistants, she placed her hand on the shoulder of Collis Featherstone who was sitting beside her as chairman, and said, “I appoint Collis, and Thelma Perks, standing at the back of the room!”
From that time forward, Thelma travelled constantly both in Australia and around the Pacific, Visiting Bahá’í communities to encourage them in their work. In 1954, she accompanied Clara Dunn in Visiting Bahá’í communities in Queensland, Victoria, South Australia, and Tasmania; the following year,
THE BAHA’t WORLD
the two revisited Victoria and Queensland. In 1955, Thelma visited New Zealand, and late in 1956 she made her first Visits to Noumea, New Caledonia; Port Vila, New Hebrides; Papeete, Tahiti; Apia, Western Samoa; and Suva, Fiji, before returning to Sydney Via Auckland.
No one was more capable of raising the spirits of the isolated pioneers, of cheering their hearts, and comforting them in the midst of their physical hardships and deprivation. And yet, no more incongruous scene can be imagined than this woman, regal in appearance, gracious in manner, and elegant under all conditions, travelling and living in circumstances of extreme discomfort and improvisation. No one enjoyed this paradox more than Thelma herself.
She later recalled her first Visit to Knight of Baha’u’llah Bertha Dobbins who had settled in Port Vila in the New Hebrides (later known as Vanuatu). For ten days in 1956 she slept on three boxes in a spider and cockroach infested room beneath swarming mosquitoes, in a mosquito net full of holes. “Once I got into that bed”, she recalled, “I . just lay still. I wouldn’t stick my big toe out for anything...because the rats were mighty things. Bertha had slung a wire across the room with a bit of a curtain and the rats used to walk up and down that wire while you were just sitting there”. Such situations were encountered in many other locations during the next two decades.
In 1957, Thelma attended the first New Zealand National Convention before moving on to Fiji, Samoa, the Cook Islands and Tahiti. While in Fiji Visiting Irene Williams and the Fijian Bahá’ís, she stayed overnight in a traditional Village. In the evening she joined in traditional dancing and singing until midnight. She regarded the landscape of Papeete as the most glorious of any natural settings she ever experienced.
It was in 1957 also that Thelma first Visited Alvin and Gertmde Blum in the Solomon Islands, and Violet Hoehnke and Rodney Hancock in Papua New Guinea. A
IN MEMORIAM
trip organised by Rodney Hancock to take Thelma to meet the Bahá’ís on New Ireland provided yet another tale which she later enjoyed retelling. In order to make the trip down New Ireland’s only and remote road, Rodney hired a utility on Which Thelma rode in comfort seated on a lounge chair placed on the back. When a jeep appeared travelling in the other direction and the two vehicles had to slow to pass each other on the single track, an Australian man observed Thelma with her white raincoat, red umbrella, all dressed up for any type of weather, and called out, “What are you doing here?”, to which Thelma replied, “Well, I’m staying with friends of mine”. He said his wife was up ahead and that she was welcome to stay with them, or call on them if she needed help, to which she replied that she was with her Bahá’í friends and that they were all brothers and sisters. Many such tales did Thelma have for the telling.
In 1957, at the instruction of the Guardian, the Auxiliary Board was expanded. Collis F eatherstone was appointed a Hand of the Cause, and the two Hands in Australia, Clara Dunn and Collis Featherstone, appointed Thelma an Auxiliary Board member for Propagation. Thus while still a member of the National Assembly of Australia, Thelma was occupied throughout Asia and the Pacific as deputy for two Hands of the Cause. In September 1958, she represented the Auxiliary Board members in Australia at the Intercontinental Conference in Singapore.
Within Australia, Thelma continued to travel to various states explaining the plans of the National Spiritual Assembly. During 1959—60, she Visited more than 20 Bahá’í communities in cities and towns in Western Australia, South Australia, Queensland,‘New South Wales, Victoria, and the Australian Capital Territory. In 1961, she Visited the Northern Territory, South Australia, Tasmania, and Victoria. While in New Zealand with Nell McMiles in 1962, Thelma Visited nearly all of the Bahá’í communities in that
country.
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For many years during the 1950s and 1960s, she continued to share responsibility for the National Teaching Committee, the National Reference Library, the National Ḥaẓíratu’l-Quds, and the care of Clara Dunn. She also shared responsibility for the events related to the opening of the Bahá’í House of Worship in Sydney in September 1961.
It was in 1961 that Thelma first visited Haifa. Clara Dunn had often asked when she was planning to go, and when Thelma learned that the Universal House of Justice was to be elected in 1963, she thought that she should go before then. She turned to Greta Lake during a National Assembly meeting and asked “How about going to Haifa?” to which Greta replied, “All right”. Thus Greta and Aub Lake went on pilgrimage with Thelma in April 1961.
When both women were once again elected to the National Assembly in 1962, Greta turned to Thelma and said, “We’ll be going to Haifa for the International Convention”. En route, Thelma Visited Vietnam, rode elephants in Cambodia, and cruised through Greece. In Haifa, she enjoyed sharing a room with Bahíyyih Ford from South Africa.
During the Nine Year Plan, Thelma continued to serve as an Auxiliary Board member. In 1964, she attended the establishment of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Southwest Pacific in Honiara, Solomon Islands, and Visited the Bahá’ís in the Papua New Guinea cities of Port Moresby, Lae, Madang, Manus, and Rabaul. She continued to travel within Australia, although in 1965 she resigned as chairman of the Temple Services Committee when the Universal House of Justice decided that Auxiliary Board members could no longer also be members of such committees.
In 1968, Thelma was appointed to the Continental Board of Counsellors for Australasia, together with Howard Harwood and Suhayl ‘Ala’i. The Australasian region included Australia and New Zealand, plus all islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans lying south of the equator and between
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T helma Perks
longitudes of 80 degrees east and 120 degrees west including Portuguese Timor and the Gilbert and Ellice Islands, but not including Indonesia. Thelma was designated Trustee of the Continental Fund.
When addressing Bahá’í gatherings, Thelma reminded the friends of the responsibilities and the devoted work of the Hand of the Cause of God in Australia, Collis Featherstone. She was able to draw the attention of the friends to their high calling, and enthuse them about the tasks at hand. The words with which she closed the Australian community’s National Convention in 1970 convey something of the uplifting effect she had on the community. She began by reminding her listeners that the Dunns were the “spiritual conquerors of a Continent” and that Shoghi Effendi had given nobody else this station. She went on to say:
The Guardian used to praise the Australian Bahá’ís—we must justify his faith and confidence in us... If we do not arise to serve, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá says we fall to the rear in the Army of Life—perhaps go out
THE Bahá’í WORLD
of the Faith... There are many Bahá’ís moving about, footloose and irresponsible. We must be disciplined people. How are we going to bring in the World Order of Baha’u’llah if the Bahá’í Faith comes last in our lives? Let us have more enthusiasm! We must draw upon each other. When we think each day of our bounties, it gives us new life. This Cause can renew every atom of the body... Call on us (the Counsellors) to he1p you to serve.
Thelma was loved and respected by the Australian Bahá’í community because she led by example. Although weighed heavily with responsibilities as Counsellor, Thelma continued to travel throughout Australia and the Pacific. In 1971, she was accompanied by Nell McMiles to the Oceanic Conference in Sapporo, Japan. Soon after their appointment, the Counsellors arranged in conjunction with the National Assembly a conference in Melbourne to mark the 150th anniversary of the Birth of the Báb. It was Thelma’s privilege to introduce to the conference the Hands of the Cause of God Abu’l—Qasim Faydi and Collis F eatherstone.
The Counsellors organised other major conferences, including one immediately following the annual convention in Melbourne in 1974 to mark the commencement of the Five Year Plan, attended by the Hand of the Cause of God Dr. Raḥmatu’lláh Muhájir and some 500 participants. In October 1974, the Counsellors organised a conference in Sydney to coincide with the 155th Anniversary of the Birth of the Báb, which was attended by 200 Bahá’ís. Thelma closed the conference by saying:
The Five Year Plan has something personal about it—it touches our hearts. Self—sacrifice is at the core of everything—sacrifice of our time, energy and resources. This is the challenge of each one of us. We have the inspiration of the pioneers that have gone out. Each one can do something, according to our capacity.
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IN MEMORIAM
Early in 1974, the Counsellors met in Noumea, then Visited the New Hebrides. Thelma and Vi Hoehnke went on to Visit the Solomons, where about 60 islanders became Bahá’ís during a conference. The two women then moved on to Papua New Guinea.
In January 1977, all the Counsellors Of the Australasian Board attended the Sixth International Teaching Conference, held in Auckland, New Zealand.
Thelma’s retirement from the Continental Board of Counsellors was announced by the House of Justice in a letter dated 3 November 1980. Thelma spent her years of retirement in her Mosman home, and continued to Visit the House of Worship and participate in Bahá’í activities in the Sydney area.
Thelma retained her dignified bearing and cheerful nature in her final years, though hampered in her movements and activities by a paralysing stroke. She will be remembered as a pure soul and a gracious lady. F ollowing her passing, the Universal House of Justice sent a message to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Australia on 25 May 1988 which read:
WE ARE DEEPLY GRIEVED TO LEARN OF
THE PASSING OF THELMA PERKS WHOSE OUT STANDING SERVICES FOR THE PROMOTION OF
THE FAITH 1N AUSTRALASIA WILL LONG BE
REMEMBERED. HER LOVING CARE OF HAND
OF THE CAUSE CLARA DUNN, HER DISTIN GUISHED WORK AS A MEMBER OF THE FIRST
CONTINGENT OF AUXILIARY BOARD MEMBERS
FOLLOWED LATER BY HER APPOINTMENT
AS A MEMBER OF THE FIRST BOARD OF COUN SELLORS IN AUSTRALASIA, TOGETHER WITH
HER MANY YEARS OF SERVICE AS A MEMBER
OF THE NATIONAL SPIRITUAL ASSEMBLY OF
AUSTRALIA, STAND AS SOME OF THE HIGH LIGHTS OF HER DEVOTED LABORS. PRAyERS
ARE BEING OFFERED IN THE HOLY SHRINES
FOR THE PROGRESS OF HER SOUL IN THE
ABHA KINGDOM. ADVISE HOLD A BEFITTING
MEMORIAL SERVICE IN HER HONOUR IN THE
MASHRIQU’L-ADHKAR, A SIMILAR SERVICE IS
BEING REQUESTED IN SAMOA
GRAHAM HASSALL
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