Áine Hardiman, a Dominican missionary sister, who died in Capetown, South Africa, was a force for change, challenging racial segregation and the absence of human rights during her 60-year ministry there.
Arriving in Capetown in her mid-20s she rapidly identified the scandal of apartheid and fearlessly confronted it at the height of the Mandela protests in the 1980s. Even before that dramatic decade, however, she was addressing the injustices of a system that divided the country into the haves and have-nots. Her dream was of a free and tolerant South Africa where all races would be treated equally.
A gifted and inspiring teacher, Sr Áine was principal of a highly regarded Dominican school for white children. However, over the years, she gradually moved closer to the African townships and bridged two models of schooling. Working with the Quaker Service Fund and other ecumenical groups she was the main inspiration behind the development of the Early Learning Resource Unit.
Together with the women of the Nyanga township, they developed a “model” for early childhood education. The strategy built on their strengths and of local people, and their knowledge of how to quietly cross the barriers of severe political, economic and cultural restraints in order to build confidence and impart skills.
Nyanga township, like many others, had taken on the apartheid system and was subject to violent protests and gun battles with police. At the same time, women were moving from house to cramped house, trying out ideas and implementing successful education strategies.
Serious risks
There were serious risks involved. Sr Áine's role was to oversee the project while remaining invisible, and to hand over to others the sense of ownership. It became a model of community development.
A Dubliner (Nancy to her family), Áine Hardiman was the middle child in a family of seven. She had five sisters and one brother, Tom, three years her junior. She attended an Irish-language school, Scoil Chaitríona, attached to the Eccles Street Dominican Convent. On finishing secondary school she announced her intention to become a missionary Dominican sister in South Africa.
Her disappearance into a cloistered novitiate in Kerdiffstown House near Naas, Co Kildare prepared her family for the reality of her departure to South Africa.
Her brother Tom Hardiman, who spoke at her memorial Mass in Dublin on March 22nd, recalled her departure through London and the realisation that she was gone. By then she had obtained her degree in mathematics and Latin in UCD. Building on her solid education, she familiarised herself with the culture and languages of the townships in which she was involved.
The Second Vatican Council gave her an opportunity to study its theology at the Corpus Christi Catechetical Centre in London and to reacquaint herself with her family and with events in Ireland. On her return to South Africa she had a new understanding of the missionary charism of the Christian churches and the need for co-operation between Christian churches, as well as with other religions.
In keeping with the spirit of Vatican II, she returned on a regular basis to Ireland and took a keen interest in her nieces and nephews.
When she walked with other sisters in the “Free Mandela” march in Capetown she was among those arrested. After a weekend in prison, she and her companions were brought to a public hearing, where she spoke so ardently about the oppression and injustice that characterised South African law and order that those who listened to her, including the prosecutor, were visibly moved. The case was dropped.
The historian on the Irish missionary movement, Edmund Hogan, says the contribution of Catholic and Protestant women was a factor in upgrading the status of women in the townships, where roles of subservience were often the norm.
Before Sr Áine's funeral Mass, the crowded congregation in Springfield sang Xhosa hymns and The S truggle Song, " Malibongwe Makhosikazi ", naming her among women to be praised for courage and leadership in the cause of freedom and justice.
She is survived by her sisters Mona Travers and Detta Cahill, and by her brother, Tom.