Two drawings of Bunana Central Girls' Boarding School of the Sisters of the Cross, including explanatory notes and location map, 1936-1941

SV/233
SV/234

fonds

1936-1941

Graphic Materials, Textual Records, Watercolours

910926

2 drawings - pen and watercolour on paper - 34 x 51 cm
Textual material (1 plastic sleeve) - 7 pages, typed - 2 photocopies of maps ; 25 x 38 cm or smaller

Sister Gwen of the Missionary Sisters of the Society of Mary, was Headmistress of Bunana Central Girls' Boarding School and Nursery (1936-1941, 1947-1950) of the Anglican Melanesian Mission in the British Solomon Islands when the Japanese invaded during World War Two. Sisters Gwen, Veronica and Madeleine with indigenous sisters and nursery trainees, twenty young children and the entire girls' school were evacuated by three journeys of the Mission Schooner 'The Gwen' to Taroaniara.

Two original watercolour paintings by Veronica Wilson, former Sister of the Cross of the Melanesian Mission, given to Sister Gwen Shaw. The two paintings show attempts to expand the School to fulfill requirements imposed by the Bishop of introducing the English language and the general number of boarders the School could take.

Picture 1 - 'The School Village' (1939?)
The Bunana School Compound, known as the 'School Village', Bunana Girls; Central Boarding School, British Solomon Islands.
Painting depicts activities and locations of facilities within the School, including the store, hospital, Sister's dormitory, quiet room, dining room, play huts, big school, bread house, cook house, coconut-collecting, weaving and quilting.
Notes to publisher of Gwen Shaw's book 'Aloha Solomons' on verso.

Picture 2 - 'The Nursery Compound' (1939?)
The Nursery Compound painting depicts a guest house and pathways, trainee classroom and dormitory, wash house, and girls; sweeping with a coconut broom, carrying a basket of yams, carrying a bundle of firewood, pushing a wheelbarrow, watching a cook pot, putting clothes on line, nursing babies, feeding fowls and attending to the garden.
Notes on School staff and alternative titles on verso.

Explanatory notes of the two paintings and history of the School and site, with map of the British Solomon Islands area.
Notes and map are housed with SV/233 'The School Village'.

Pic.Acc. Upgrade Project - Information transferred from Pic.Acc.5601 as part of the eRecords Project 2012-13

Signed 'VS' in bottom left-hand corner of each painting.