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IRENE JACKSON WILLIAMS
1920—1994
Aicotding to her husband, Victor, Irene ad expressed no interest in traveling before the Ten Year Crusade appeal of the Guardian. When Shoghi Effendi asked for pioneers for Australasia, Irene determined to arise and go, choosing Portuguese Timer. Because of political turmoil there at the time, she was advised not to go. Fiji was suggested to her instead, and so with Fiji as her destination she boarded 21 Tasman Airways Sunderland seaplane in
New Zealand.
I had no idea of the work expected of me, or how long I had to stay, what the situation was like in Fiji, and whether
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162 THE BAHA’I’ WORLD
Irmaflzc/cwn William:
I would be able to cope, or would I be like the other white people working there and consider myself superior and keep aloof. I had the ideals, but what about the practice of them in my own life? These were my fears and thoughts as I flew overnight by flying boat via Noumea and then on to Laucala Bay, Suva. The Guardian had written that he wanted the pioneers to be at their posts by zlst March, 1954. I arrived at
4 PM on that very day.100
Irene took up residence in a boarding house for expatriates 0n Desveaux Street. She soon found employment in accounting for the Department of Public Works and then with the Fiji Broadcasting Corporation, a job she kept for twenty—two years. She was warned against “mixing with the locals,” and her movement was somewhat restricted. It was said that she
‘00 Irene Williams quoted in Graham Hassal’s, “The Bahá’í Faith in the Pacific," January 2000.
had to ask her bosses for permission to go to other towns and villages. “Why would she want to go?” they wondered.
When Austin Bowden—Kerby visited her in 1975 and later in 1978, it was a different story. Austin recalls:
Irene kept me moving. When I was leaving, she told me that I was the only travel teacher who had ever come and gone all over Fiji. I was surprised. I thought everybody did it—I was only following her example. She trained me how to be a travel teacher.
Irene spent all the time she could visiting villages. She would go everywhere. She would never just sit around on the weekend—she would think where she could go. During all this time, she did not have a car. She did all this traveling by bus or on foot. She walked in the mud. Nothing stopped Irene. I have heard from others that even after her bus accident, she was still going out—with strict orders for everyone to keep hands off as she picked a trail.
She did not tell me what to do. She showed me what to do. She insisted that it should be Fijians who enrolled other Fijians. Enrolling was not the job of travel teachers or pioneers. 'Ihey should be stimulating the local believers.
Irene never let any materials go to waste. Pictures from an out—of—date calendar got pasted on a new sheet with a quotation and given as a gift to whatever family she visited.
According to her passport Irene Frances Jackson was born in Loxton, South Australia, on December 3, 1920. Her father was a sea captain from England, whom she described as being “hard and stem.” Her mother, on the other hand, was an Australian—a “very
gentle, very kind woman."
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IN MEMORIAM 1992—1997 163
Life was not easy for the jackson family. They lived on a fruit farm in Paracombe Hills in Adelaide, and her mother “went through hell” trying to raise their eight children on so little money. One year the children, trying to be helpful, picked the fruit, but it had not matured, and all of it had to be thrown out. The mother “cried buckets, but never said a thing about it.”
It was Irene’s fair—minded sense ofjustice and lack of prejudice that led her to the Faith. Irene’s family belonged to the Brethren Church. When she was in her early twenties, one of the ministers spoke disparagingly Of the Prophet Muhammad. Irene determined to discover the truth for herself and started reading all the books she could find. In the course of her research she came across the Bahá’í Faith. She declared in 1948, crediting Merle Heggie as being her spiritual mother.
Merle remembers:
Irene and I were aware of each other while students in 1940 at the Adelaide Teachers College, but being in difFetent years of study we never got to know each other at that time. In 1943 I had been posted to Kapunda High School and Irene was there also, as the Commerce teacher. We became close friends; she introduced me to many people and helped me to settle in this South Australian country town. As an isolated Bahá’í, I arranged two public meetings to which I sent, with Itene’s help, invitations to local professionals, businessmen and many others. After the meetings some of the teachers, and particularly the Principal, would bring up the subject of Bahá’í for discussion, but in retrospect, not Irene. However, our friendship grew and we had lots of fun together, laughing so much that we
both fell off her bicycle.
I do not recall Irene voicing any interest in the Faith—not to me. To my amazement, my Aunt Rose Hawthorne,101 Adelaide, directed me in no uncertain
a very early Bahá’í in
terms to hurry up and offer some literature to Irene, who had obviously expressed her interest to Rose sometime that year.
Irene lost no time in becoming an active Bahá’í, deepening, teaching and pioneering on the homeftont, as she did in Whyalla and Clare and then overseas to Fiji.
We both left Kapunda at the end of that year and I saw her occasionally. Rose became her teacher, supported and encouraged her.
Irene’s persistence and perseverance brought her to the Faith, and once she embraced it, she was persistent in serving it. Victor later recalled that she fought “tooth and nail” For a Bahá’í section in the Nasinu cemetery. When she finally met with the man who had the authority to grant the request, he asked, “How many Bahá’ís are there in Fiji?”
“Not more than two thousand,” she replied.
“That many?” he asked. Irene just nodded.
“Oh, all right,” he said and granted the section. When Victor was recalling this story, the section was nearly full.
Irene met Victor in 1962 when he was being taught the Faith. They married in 1965 and took up residence in the Bahá’í Centre on Pender Street in Suva. Later they moved to Nasinu.
While living in Suva, Irene was a member of the Local Spiritual Assembly and
'01 See uIn Memoriam,n 'Ilw [311/1117 W/orld, vol. XX, pp. 914—16.
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164 THE BAHA’I’ WORLD
served as its secretary for many years. She was elected to and served as secretary to the Regional Spiritual Assembly of the South Pacific, which was established in 1959. As a member of this institution she attended as a delegate the election of the first Universal House ofjustice in the Holy Land in 1963. The following year the jurisdiction of Regional Assembly was divided between the South West Pacific Ocean based in Honaira, Solomon Islands, and the South Pacific Ocean based in Suva, Fiji. Irene was elected to and served as secretary when Fiji formed its own National Spiritual Assembly in 1970. She was also an Auxiliary Board member for many years, retiring in the 19805.
After a night’s illness, on July 14, 1994, Irene passed to the Abhá Kingdom. Her funeral service was held at the Bahá’í National Cemetery, attended by a multitude ofbelievers and friends. On the same day, the Universal House OFJustice wrote to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the Fiji Islands:
We are deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Mrs. Irene Williams who served the Faith in the Fiji Islands for a period of four decades as a pioneer from Australia. Her distinguished contributions to the development of the Fijian Bahá’í community included service as a member of the National Spiritual Assembly and as its Secretary for many years, and later, as an Auxiliary Board member. She will long be remembered for her strenuous endeavours in the establishment and operation of the Fijian Bahá’í Publishing Trust, and for her total commitment to the promotion of the interests of the Faith. You are advised to hold memorial meetings
in her honour in Fiji. Kindly convey our condolences to her family and friends, together with our assurance of prayers at the Sacred Threshold for the progress of her luminous soul. Baxed on article: provided by Merle Heggie, Idrz's Hussein,
Austin Bowden—Kerby and Victor i/Vi/[izzmx
