Suzanne Aubert

Suzanne Aubert (19 June 1835 – 1 October 1926), better known to many by her name of Sister Mary Joseph or Mother Aubert, was a Catholic sister who started a home for orphans and the under-privileged in Jerusalem, New Zealand on the Whanganui River in 1885.^[1] She first came to New Zealand in 1860 and formed Congregation of the Holy Family to educate Maori children.^[2] She founded a religious order, the Daughters of Our Lady of Compassion in 1892. She later started two hospitals in Wellington; the first, St Joseph's Home for Incurables in 1900, and Our Lady's Home of Compassion in 1907.

She was the first person known to grow cannabis in New Zealand, she used the cannabis to ease the nun's menstrual pains and to help asthmatics and recovering alcoholics.^[3]

She was actively engaged with the local Māori population and spoke Māori well. She wrote a book New and complete manual of Maori conversation : containing phrases and dialogues on a variety of useful and interesting topics : together with a few general rules of grammar : and a comprehensive vocabulary which was published in Wellington by Lyon and Blair in 1885.^[4]

References

1. ^ Whanganui places. "River settlements". http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/whanganui-places/6. Retrieved 24 April 2011. 
2. ^ Monumental Stories. "Suzanne Aubert". http://www.monumentalstories.gen.nz/bio_28.html. Retrieved 24 April 2011. 
3. ^ "Mother Aubert New Zealand's PATRON SAINT OF POT". norml.org.nz. 2011 [last update]. http://www.norml.org.nz/article506.html. Retrieved 13 July 2011. "the first person known to cultivate cannabis in New Zealand for medicine" 
4. ^ "New and complete manual of Maori conversation". nlnzcat.natlib.govt.nz. 2011 [last update]. http://nlnzcat.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=294407. Retrieved 13 July 2011. 

• Jessie Munro, The Story of Suzanne Aubert, Auckland University Press, Auckland 1996.
• Jessie Munro (ed) (with the assistance of Sister Bernadette Wrack), Letters on the Go: The Correpondence of Suzanne Aubert, Bridget Williams Books, Wellington, 2009.

Documentary : "The Story of Suzanne Aubert" by Chantal Perrin with the contribution of Sr Bernadette Mary Wrack, Sr Josephine Gorman and Jessie Monroe. France 2/KTO/RFO 2006

External links

• Objects relating to Mother Aubert from the collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
• Mary Joseph Aubert biography from the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography

Persondata
Name	Aubert, Suzanne
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	19 June 1835
Place of birth
Date of death	1 October 1926
Place of death