Massey historian pens 100-year Red Cross story
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Wed Oct 21 2015 13:00:00 GMT+1300 (New Zealand Daylight Time)
Massey historian pens 100-year Red Cross story
Wednesday, 21 October 2015, 12:07 pm
Press Release: Massey University
Massey historian pens 100-year Red Cross story
From knitting socks for WWI soldiers to saving lives in war-torn, natural disaster or Ebola-afflicted nations more recently, the history of the New Zealand Red Cross spans many generations, activities and places, says Massey historian Professor Margaret Tennant, who has penned its 100-year history.
Her superbly illustrated and rigorously researched social history, Across the Street, Across the World: A History of the Red Cross in New Zealand 1915-2015, was launched yesterday at Parliament Buildings, by the Prime Minister John Key.
Emeritus Professor Tennant, who wrote the book over three years as a Research Fellow at the School of Humanities’ W.H Oliver Humanities Research Academy, says the story will give readers a deeper appreciation of the versatility and multi-faceted nature of the Red Cross in wartime and peacetime.
While the organisation’s modern profile is linked in most people’s minds with its emergency role in the aftermath of the Canterbury earthquakes, its vast array of volunteer services has evolved as part of the nation’s history over the past one hundred years, the Palmerston North-based author says.
The delivery of Meals on Wheels, resettling refugees, running charity book sales and opportunity shops, international disaster emergency responses, and tracing and re-uniting families spilt by war and disaster are among the current activities Red Cross volunteers are involved with.
Professor Tennant, who trawled archives at the Red Cross and the Alexander Turnbull Library as well as conducting numerous interviews with current Red Cross volunteers and staff, says she was fascinated by the role of the Junior Red Cross in New Zealand in the 1930s and 40s, and the strength of youth voluntarism it fostered.
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Its efforts were focussed on primary schools, where children were encouraged to get involved in charity fundraising, sending books and toys to local hospitals and orphanages, cultivating a school garden, as well as knitting ‘peggy’ squares for blankets and donating clothes to refugees.
Health, hygiene and teaching First Aid were also part of the Junior Red Cross mandate, to foster a sense of citizenship based on service, community engagement and responsibility.
Humanitarian spirit kindled at war
Forged in the 1859 Battle of Solferino in Lombardy, northern Italy, it was the actions of young Swiss businessman Henri Dunant that led to the creation of the international Red Cross. Dunant came across the aftermath of the battle, in which some 20,000 were killed, and enlisted the help of civilians – mostly women – to help tend the wounded. His observations and written account describing the humanitarianism of volunteers in comforting the wounded and dying – the essence and inspiration of the Red Cross ‘brand’ – resulted in the first Geneva Convention in 1864. This set out the principle of neutrality among army medical personnel and volunteers aiding injured soldiers, which later evolved into the seven core principles of the International Red Cross – humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, unity and universality.
This legacy flourished during New Zealand’s wartime experiences. During WWI the Red Cross was characterised as “drawing the net of mercy through a sea of pain” through fundraising and domestic skills to the care of returned men, Professor Tennant writes. The uniformed branches of Red Cross nurses and VAs (Voluntary Aids) expanded during WWII, along with provision of food parcels sent to POWs. This involved intensive volunteer labour to fundraise, pack and send some 4700 cases of goods overseas weekly during WWII.
Napier quake a milestone for disaster response
The 1931 Napier earthquake prompted the development of a major disaster relief effort, which has since evolved to encompass highly sophisticated disaster preparedness, management, training and response teams that now extends to many neighbouring Pacific nations.
A section of the book is devoted to the colourful campaign posters of the many Red Cross relief projects, including a dramatic poster featuring spray can art, designed by Saatchi and Saatchi for the New Zealand Red Cross in 1995, with a missile and the words “Only one thing stops the Red Cross.”
Professor Tennant lectured in history at Massey’s School of Humanities for 30 years before the start of this project and has written books on the history of the non-profit sector, including The Fabric of Welfare: Voluntary Organisations, Government, and Welfare in New Zealand 1840-2005 (2007).
She says just about every New Zealander feels some affinity with the Red Cross, which has 97 million volunteers, staff and members worldwide. The New Zealand Red Cross is one of 188 national Red Cross and Red Crescent societies around the world. Professor Tennant aimed to write an accessible history complete with profiles of key personalities who helped shaped the organisation. She is passionate about the role of a historian in connecting stories and knowledge of the past to a wider audience.
“Each national Red Cross Society has its own history which involves an interplay between local conditions and membership of an international ‘Movement’ – an expression which implies that the Red Cross is not simply a charitable society, or an international non-governmental organisation, but something larger…and potentially transformative,” she says in the book.
The hardcover volume is published by the New Zealand Red Cross and can be ordered through its website.
ENDS
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