Dear friends,
The following was received today. Margaret was always a supporter of APC
and an active worker for peace and justice throughout her life. A fine
person and a true friend, Margaret will be sorely missed by all who knew
her. Many of our members have her book, "Flight of an Eagle" - the story of
her friend and fellow activist Ruby Hammond.
We send our condolences to her family,
Irene Gale and Ron Gray, for APC.
---------------------------------------
Dear WILPFers, We have sad news in Australian WILPF.
One of our members, Margaret Forte, died yesterday. Margaret was a dedicated
member of WILPF for many decades holding various offices in the Australian
Section and the South Australian Branch. In 1981, Margaret also attended the
WILPF International Executive Committee meeting in Cartigny, Switzerland.
Margaret's funeral will be held on Friday 31st August at 11 am at Darroch
House, 6 Briar Road, Felixstow.
I'll append below the profile that appeared in the Australian Section
newsletter, "Peace and Freedom", April 1999. It was written by Margaret's
long-time friends, Cynthia James (South Australia) and Margaret Holmes (New
South Wales).
peace and love from Cathy
-----------------------
About Margaret Forte
Margaret Forte was born in England but spent most of her childhood in New
Zealand where she attended a Quaker school for 4 years. She remembers the
depression well, with its very high unemployment, its work camps for a
pitiful dole and its hunger marches. These early years made a profound
impression on her and were instrumental in forming her lifelong passion for
social justice and peace. She became a journalist and worked in Wellington,
Sydney, Vancouver and Adelaide for fifteen years.
In 1965 the South Australian branch of WILPF could not find office bearers
and decided to go into recess. But this was the year Australia became
involved in the Vietnam war and Edna Hutchesson persuaded Margaret to try to
revive the branch. Margaret, Maud McBriar and Jean Blackburn called a public
meeting and the branch was reformed with Doreen Rude as President, Jean
Blackburn as Treasurer and Margaret as Secretary. The branch was very active
focussing on anti-war protests, draft resisters, conscription, US bases and
uranium mining.
In 1969, when the SA branch agreed to provide a federal executive for the
Australian Section for the next 3 years, Margaret became the Section
Secretary, while continuing as Secretary of the SA branch. She at once
stressed the need for an office and for some paid work, even suggesting that
we should "think in terms of salaries which would enable women � to make a
real career of peace research and promotion". But lack of an office and
absence of salary have never deterred Margaret from devoting her life to the
cause of peace.
Later on, from 1980 to 1982, when it became impossible for any one branch to
take on Section responsibility, she again became Federal Secretary, first
with a President in N.S.W. (Erica Rathgeber) and then with one in Victoria
(Evelyn Rothfield). This, even in the days before modern communication
technology, worked reasonably well.
Margaret edited Peace and Freedom from 1972 until 1982. How fortunate WILPF
was to have an Australian Editor with her journalistic training and flair
together with her passion for all that WILPF stands for. Later she became
the Section archivist and continued this job until 1986.
>From the earliest days of her involvement with WILPF, Margaret felt that
WILPF should be active in issues such as Aboriginal reconciliation and
social harmony. She felt that she should be writing about this in a way that
both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal women could understand. At that time, she
was friendly with Ruby Hammond, one of South Australia's most active
Aboriginal women who was then Secretary of the Aboriginal Legal Rights
Movement. Margaret persuaded Ruby to let her use Ruby's life as a background
for the telling of the Aboriginal story. In 1978, Margaret and Ruby
collaborated on a book called "Brightening Landscape" which was never
published. Later they started work on Ruby's autobiography. When Ruby died
in 1993, Margaret was left to complete the work on her own; "Flight of an
Eagle: the Dreaming of Ruby Hammond" was published in 1995 and is now in its
second printing. In 1998 Margaret wrote "Native Title: a Background Paper"
which gave an account of the early history of the dispossession of the
Aborigines.
Both in the SA branch and in the Australian Section, Margaret Forte was an
inspiring leader and contributed many ideas for WILPF's work. She convened a
group which published "American [US] Bases in Australia" in 1972. In the
Year of the Child 1979, she coordinated a group which wrote a submission to
the Federal Government on the Health, Education and Housing of Aboriginal
Children. In the Year of Peace 1986, she initiated the WILPF Twin Cities
project which linked groups in Minsk (USSR), Adelaide (Australia) and St
Louis (USA). This culminated in 1987 with an exhibition in Old Parliament
House called "Peace is Possible". In the Year for Indigenous People 1993,
she was central in a WILPF group which produced a schools exhibition
entitled "Through Aboriginal Eyes". Besides all this, she has contributed
many letters, submissions and articles, always putting WILPF's views
cogently and persuasively and her written work was always backed by
meticulous research.
In 1986, she was awarded a medal in the Order of Australia for service to
the Community, to International Relations and Peace.
Margaret Holmes writes: "It makes me very happy to recall that, while on an
overseas holiday in 1981, Margaret [Forte] was able to attend a meeting of
the International Executive of WILPF in Cartigny, Switzerland. From this
meeting she wrote "it is exciting to discover the strength, the extent and
the quality of the sisterhood of which we are all a part.... After the first
day, I could have written of them with great admiration; after the last day,
with great affection."
This last sentence sums up what I, Margaret Holmes and so many other WILPF
members feel about Margaret Forte - great admiration and great affection.
By Cynthia James with assistance from Margaret Holmes
_____________________________________________
Australian Peace Committee (South Australian Branch) Inc.
11 South Terrace, Adelaide SA 5000, Australia
Ph:* (+61-8) or (08) 8332 3461 *new phone number
Fax: (+61-8) or (08) 8364 2291
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
or: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Web site: www.peacecourier.com
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