Uniting Church Archives - Synod of Victoria
Photograph, Katalini Dimula, 1952
... Katalini Dimula...katalini, dimula.... of Fiii. and diminutive Miss Katalini Dimula, of Papua, the first..."Katalini Dimula" "D. Schmidt".... of Fiii. and diminutive Miss Katalini Dimula, of Papua, the first ...
From the Adelaide Advertiser for 19 November 1952, p. 11: Two Happy Visitorsf rom the Pacific Adelaide is proving 'just like our real home'' to two charming and interesting visitors from Methodist missions in the Pacific. Miss Ravesi Mosi. of Fiii. and diminutive Miss Katalini Dimula, of Papua, the first native women missionaries to visit Australia From these islands. Ravesi and Katalini have enjoyed vastly the three months they have already spent in this country. Thev came here at the' invitation of the Methodist Women's Auxiliary for Oversea Missions in Victoria to take part in their diamond jubilee celebrations in Melbourne. They also spent some time in Sydney. But they are particularly happy to be in Adelaide because both of them have found old and good friends here. That is why it feels! like 'home'.
Katalini. whose home is on the Island of Misima, in the far south-west of Papua, is the guest of the Rev. H. K. Bartlett and Mrs Bartlett. who lived on Misima for several years and knew Katoitni as a young girl. They are the first people she has met in Australia who speak her language and know her background.
It was a personal interest to them to hear of her work as a missionary nurse, for which she did her training in Salamo Hospital on Ferguson Island, about 200 miles away from Misima, where she now helps to train the women of the island villages in the principles of health and hygiene and caring for their babies according to modern methods.Katalini is dressed in a grass skirt and a western top."Katalini Dimula" "D. Schmidt"katalini, dimula, methodist, papua