Party: Women's Clubs

Details

Women's Clubs and Home Schools became a regular feature of urban and village life in the 1960s.


The clubs were introduced by the South Pacific Commission to give advice on cooking, sewing by hand and with machines, and child welfare. They were enlivened by community singing. The first club began in Honiara on 15 May 1961, with clubrooms opened at Mataniko in November in the same year. Judy Godfrey from Volunteer Services Overseas (VSO) arrived to teach women sewing, cookery, child welfare and English. The South Pacific Commission conducted women's' leadership courses in Gizo and Honiara during June 1963. At Gizo, the Commission held leadership courses attended by women from the Methodist, Seventh-day Adventist and Catholic churches. (NS May 1961, June 1961, Nov. 1961, 31 May 1963; Afia-Maetala and Pollard 2010, 16)


In 1966, there were eighty Women's Clubs throughout the Protectorate and so many had been formed by 1968 that a system of club registration was established. While the Anglican Church concentrated on their Mothers' Union, most Catholic Mission stations throughout the islands had a Women's Club organization which focused its energies on the domestic skills of cooking, cleaning, washing, child care, family gardening and so forth. (AR 1966, 51; NS 31 Aug. 1968)

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Published resources

Book Sections

  • Afia-Maetala, Ruth B., and Polard, Alice A., 'Turning the Tide: Celebrating Women's History in the Solomon Islands, 1948-2009', in Alice A. Pollard;Marilyn J. Waring (ed.), Being the First: Storis Blong Oloketa Mere Lo Solomon Aelan, RAMSI and Institure of Public Policy and Pacific Media Centre, AUT University, Honiara and Auckland, 2009, pp. 9-33. Details

Journals

  • British Solomon Islands Protectorate (ed.), British Solomon Islands Protectorate News Sheet (NS), 1955-1975. Details

Reports

  • British Solomon Islands Protectorate, British Solomon Islands Protectorate Annual Reports (AR), 1896-1973. Details