|
The Bah?'? Faith in Australia has a long history beginning with a mention by `Abdu'l-Bah?, the son of the founder of the religion, in 1916[1] following which United Kingdom/American emigrants John and Clara Dunn came to Australia in 1920.[2] They found people willing to convert to the Bah?'? Faith in several cities while further immigrant Bah?'?s also arrived.[3] The first Local Spiritual Assembly was elected in Melbourne[4] followed by the first election of the National Spiritual Assembly in 1934.[5] Iranian Bah?'?s had first tried to emigrate to Australia in 1948 but were rejected as "Asiatic" by Australia's White Australia policy.[6] Though the situation was eased in the 1960s and 70s, on the eve of Iranian revolution, in 1978, there were approximately 50-60 Persian Bah?'? families in Australia. Persians, including Bah?'?s, arrived in number following the revolution. See persecution of Bah?'?s in Iran. Since the 1980s the Bah?'?s of Australia have become involved and spoken out on a number of civic issues - from interfaith initiative such as Soul Food[7] to conferences on indigenous issues[8] and national policies of equal rights and pay for work.[9] The community was counted by census in 2001 to be about 11000 individuals[10] and includes some well known people (see below - National exposure.) The Association of Religion Data Archives (relying on World Christian Encyclopedia) estimated some 17,700 Bah?'?s in 2005.
In 1920 Englishman John Hyde Dunn, and his Irish wife, Clara, sailed to Australia[2] from the United states where they each had emigrated, converted to the religion, met and married.[14] They stopped briefly in Samoa along the way.[15] They were first Bah?'?s to set foot in Australia. In 1922 the first Australians joined the religion. They were Oswald Whitaker, a Sydney optometrist, and Effie Baker, a Melbourne photographer who were members of different metaphysical groups.[16] News of John Esslemont's 1915 declaration of faith, and his forthcoming book Bah?'u'll?h and the New Era, had also spread to some of his associates, William and Annie Miller in Australia who then became Bah?'?s in the 1920s.[3] Melbourne Bah?'?s elected their first Local Spiritual Assembly, the first one of all Australia,[4] in 1923 mostly from single or widowed women.[16] The community struggled to maintain itself for a number of years.[4] The second assembly of Australia was elected in Perth in 1924.[17] World traveling Martha Root spoke at many public meetings on a visit to Melbourne in 1924[16] and again in 1939.[18] In 1925 Effie Baker left other Australian converts as well as a contingent from New Zealand for trip on pilgrimage where they stayed some 19 days and then visited with the community of the Bah?'? Faith in the United Kingdom. The news journal Herald of the South was begun publishing for New Zealand and Australia during their voyage[19] out of Auckland (transferred publishing to Adelaide Australia in 1931[20] and then carried on by the national assembly from about 1945.)[21] The Dunns and Martha Root also visited Hobart in Tasmania during which Gretta Lamprill converted and continued to sustain the religion on the island - eventually she was elected to the National Spiritual Assembly and later was named a Knight of Bah?'u'll?h together with Glad Parke, who travelled with her to the Society Islands (now French Polynesia) in the Eastern Pacific Ocean.[22] During Roots subsequent visits each time the Bah?'? community grew in Tasmania.
Following a temporary move of Margaret Dixson to Sydney from Melbourne who helped elect the first local spiritual assembly of Sydney in 1925 (eventually Margaret Dixson, an early Esperantist pioneered to Brisbane, and Adelaide.) While many of the early converts refused to stay Bah?'?s when pressed to leave their former associations many others did join the religion. By 1928 a list shows Australia with 6 local spiritual assemblies each with 9 members plus the general community.
Soon Bah?'? groups sprang up around the country. By 1934 there were enough Bah?'?s to elect a national governing body, the first National Spiritual Assembly of the Bah?'?s of Australia and New Zealand.
|
What is the history of the Baha'i faith in Australia and New Zealand?
