Women played an important role in the initial spread and
development of the Bahá’í Faith in Australia. In doing so,
they struggled to break the bounds that traditionally defined
women's place in the life, and organization, of a religious
community. For women like Margaret Dixson, the Bahá’í
teachings provided a worldview, and a value system, which gave
meaning to their individual life-struggles, and became the basis
of their identity. Through what we know of the experience of
Margaret Dixson - one of the first Melbourne Bahá’ís - we
can chart the progress of a small community through years of
obscurity and struggle.
The Bahá’í teachings were brought to Australia at a
time when traditional values were being questioned. The scale of
destruction of the first world war, together with the involvement
of the churches in actively supporting both enlistment and
conscription, contributed to a post-war disillusion with
religion.1 Many discontinued church attendance, and
occupied themselves with rebuilding their lives, and work. For
others, a much smaller number, the 1920s became a time of search.
In the various state capitals a sub-culture of 'seekers' emerged,
who shifted their attention from the mainline political parties,
and Christian denominations, to an intriguing variety of
movements -social reform, esoteric, mystical, numerological, and
metaphysical.
Hyde and Clara Dunn arrived in Sydney, from California, in
April 1920. This Englishman, and his Irish born wife, had decided
to spend their remaining years in Australia, promoting the
Bahá’í message of universal peace. Hyde acquired a job as
a commercial traveller for Nestles, a job which took them to all
states of Australia. In his teaching of the principles
established by Bahá’u’lláh, prophet-founder of the
Bahá’í Faith, Hyde Dunn stressed the need for renewal of
spiritual values, and for social reforms, in the quest for world
peace; and the need for the individual, in investigating the
Bahá’í revelation, to escape the blind imitation of
traditional values.
The Dunns quite soon discovered that response to their message
came most readily from the metaphysical groups, such as New
Thought, the New Civilization Centre, the Harmony Centre, even
the Radiant Health Society. They were welcomed, in addition, to
the platforms of Theosophists and Spiritualist Churches.
Across Australia, the first Bahá’ís came from such
groups as these. The first Australian Bahá’í, Oswald
Whittaker, was interested in Theosophy, and Effie Baker, the
second, heard Hyde Dunn speak at Melbourne's New Civilization
Centre. Margaret Dixson met the Dunns, and was introduced to the
Bahá’í teachings, at the New Civilization Centre, in
November 1923.
The Shanns were a genteel Anglican family. Margaret Bertha
Shann, born in 1877, had a good education for a Victorian
schoolgirl at the end of the last century, although her life
story is one of hardship. Her parents separation, not common at
that time, scattered the family, and left Margaret with little
family support. One brother, Frank, became headmaster of Trinity
Boys College, Kew, while the other, Ted, became Professor of
Economics at the University of Western Australia. Margaret went
to work as a governess on a farm in northeast Victoria, and later
married her employers' brother. By 1916 she was widowed with
three children to raise.
All the years she had lived in the country, as a farmer's
wife, she missed the city, and longed for the intellectual
stimulation Melbourne could provide. She organized musical events
at the farmhouse to which she invited townspeople, but mostly,
the years in the country were filled with hard work.
Her grand-daughter, Miriam Dixson, has recorded:
My own grand-mother, Margaret Bertha Shann, was a
deeply intellectual woman. But because she married a
farmer in north-east Victoria, the life of the mind was
often denied her, for example, by the need to cook for
farm labour during harvest, by tasks such as carrying
water to the kitchen (Grandfather was reluctant to
'waste' money needed for capital improvement by piping
water to the kitchen) and hand sewing clothes for Dad and
my aunts...On Sunday mornings, outside a one-roomed
wooden church at Yarroweah in north-east Victoria,
Grandpa Dixson used to join the other farmers in
discussing money-making, weather and crops.2
Following her husbands' death, she returned to Melbourne,
purchased a house on a violet farm at Pascoe Vale, and earnt her
living by doing housework, and teaching when she could. What work
she could get was not enough, and two of her children, Mollie and
Jack, had to leave school rather than continue their schooling.
At one time, Margaret earnt her living house-keeping for her
niece, Ruby Dixson, an opera singer in Sydney, and, in later
years, she earned a small income by conducting a kindergarten.
Even when funds were low, Margaret regularly travelled by tram
into the city to attend various meetings. About 1922 she began
giving numerology classes at the New Civilization centre, (at the
Playhouse, opposite the Princes bridge), which were advertised in
the Age and Argus. The New Civilization Centre,
established by the medical doctor Julia Seton, was based on New
Thought, a philosophical and mental therapeutics movement
developed in North America. It was individualistic, and
non-liturgical, and emphasised the power of constructive
thinking. It regarded God as "universal mind", or
"infinite wisdom", and held that a "new age"
was emerging.
The night Hyde Dunn spoke to the group, in November 1923, four
women became Bahá’ís. Just one month before, Hyde had
written of the Melbourne Bahá’ís as being "two
strong, the others weak".3 The Bahá’í
administrative system was in its infancy in the 1920s, and even
Hyde Dunn was unsure of the details. All that was known was that,
because the Bahá’í Faith had no clergy, administration of
the religion was the responsibility of the community's members.
Thus, those who became Bahá’ís soon became involved in
helping organize Bahá’í affairs. The administrative
structure had more than merely local consequences, however, for
it was on the basis of local Assemblies, once established, that
National Assemblies could be elected; and on the basis of
National Assemblies that the international administrative body
could be elected. By December, 1923 there were enough Bahá'ís in
Melbourne to establish an Assembly, complete with office bearers.
The election was held at Margaret Dixson's home, on 9
December, at 82 Leopold Street, South Yarra.4 She had
recently taken a two years' lease, and her home became the
Bahá’í centre for Melbourne. It was a time of much
excitement for the small group, as they prepared for the visit of
Martha Root, the celebrated Bahá’í speaker, world
traveller, and Esperantist. Hyde Dunn described the Melbourne
Bahá’ís as "a wonderful little nucleus, the first
fruits of this continent."5
The seventeen people present at the formation of the assembly
were mostly women. Few were married, most were single, or
widowed, and all had been involved to some extent in one or other
movement. Mrs Harris, the first "president", was
"really like an angel".6 Mrs Stanton invited
Hyde to speak to a group of twenty-two people at her home about
his "peace religion".7 Mrs Dixson was, felt
Hyde, "a fine type, clever and a good firm character, all
that will go to make up a fine Bahá'í."8 The
Dunns stayed with Margaret at Leopold street before moving on to
Tasmania, where they were joined in a "Bahá’í
home" by the misses Effie Baker and Mabel Hastings. Hyde had
hopes that Margaret's house would continue to be a centre for
Bahá’í activities in Melbourne.
The Melbourne Bahá’ís met together, but no public
meetings were held. Thus the visit there by Martha Root provided
a shining example of what a woman could achieve, in addressing
the public. Following an 'extravagant welcome'9,
Martha Root gave 25 talks in Melbourne, including one at Dr
Charles Strong's Australian Church, scene of his 1904 lecture on
Abdu'l-Bahá.10 Margaret was greatly enthused by Martha
Root's example, and wrote to Shoghi Effendi of her wish to follow
it:
As a result of her example and the study of the Divine
Plan, I feel that I can no longer remain here living in
comfort and tranquillity while there is [sic] such
immense efforts needed to bring the message to the rest
of the world. So I earnestly desire to be a travelling
teacher in this Cause, giving all I have of means and
ability to help further the Cause of the Kingdom of Abha.11
Margaret had expressed her hope to the Guardian that she might
be able to travel within Australia, and later overseas, and to
finance her travels by the sale of some land, and later, with
money from her late husband's estate. These plans evidently came
to naught, as Margaret stayed in Melbourne until November 1925,
when Clara Dunn, suffering illness, sought her assistance in
Sydney. During the almost two years Margaret, John and Molly,
spent in Sydney, she acted as secretary for the Sydney Assembly.
It had been formed just as she arrived, in November 1925, and
meetings were held in the flat occupied by the Dixsons and the
Dunns in Avoca Street, Randwick. Later, the Sydney Bahá'ís
contributed to the rental of a room in the city.12
The Dunns' Randwick home was, wrote Margaret, 'an outpost in a
desert of unbelief and materiality'.13 She remained
close friends with the Dunns, even when they moved on to live in
Brisbane, and later, Adelaide. In December 1926, she accompanied
Clara on the S.S. Canberra to Melbourne,14 and in 1927
she was to travel with the Dunns on a pilgrimage to Haifa - a
pilgrimage which, for some reason, Clara Dunn eventually made on
her own.15 Before returning to Melbourne in August
1927, Margaret described the Sydney group as a "handful of
followers" with little to show for their efforts, except a
bond of unity, a spiritual love in their hearts, and undying
devotion to Clara and Hyde Dunn, their "noble
teachers".16 Later, she described a visit to the
Dunns in Adelaide as "An Australian Pilgrimage to the
Australian Pilgrim House".17
While Margaret was in Sydney, the Melbourne Bahá’ís had
continued to meet. An assembly elected in 1926 included Olive
Richards, Mrs Potter, Major McLeod, Mrs Laws, Amy Thornton, and
Mabel Hastings. With her return to Melbourne, meetings were once
again held in Margaret's home. The group was planning to have a
"sale of gifts to augment funds".18 It had
previously sent money for Bahá’í flood victims in Iran,19
and sent also a contribution toward the purchase of land on Mt
Carmel.20 A little later, the group sent donations to
the American Temple fund, and to Effie Baker in Haifa, as well as
subscriptions to Star of the West and Herald of the
South.21
Although the group was not very active during 1928 when the
Dunns were in Queensland, it had placed several books in the
Melbourne Library, and received from Shoghi Effendi a copy of the
first Bahá’í Year Book. Clara Dunn had recognized
Melbourne's problem early, when she described it to Gretta
Lamprill as "a little timid and no husbands and wives to
work together - they lack men there and both are needed for good
work".22
In October the group hosted its biggest meeting ever, with 42
people gathered to hear the Dunns, who were in Melbourne for just
one night.23 Actual membership, however, was
declining, and no LSA was elected in 1929. By the late 1920s,
Margaret was secretary for the group, which met in a rented room
"centrally located in the city".24
Melbourne re-formed its Assembly in 1931, when enthusiasm was
mounting for Keith Ransom-Kehler's visit to Australia.25
This American traveller spoke, as Martha Root had done, at many
organizations in Melbourne, including the Theosophical Society,
the Unitarian Church, and at Mrs Hangers' Spiritualistic Church.
Margaret organized for her an impromptu meeting with a group of
girl guides. Mrs Ransom-Kehler's main concern, however, had been
to establish Bahá’í administration, on the basis of
loyalty to the "Covenant" - dedication to the authority
of the Guardian, as outlined in Bahá’í scriptures, as a
protection against some future usurpation of religious authority,
and an assurance that the community grew as a world-embracing,
single organism.
For some Melbourne Bahá’ís, the transition of a
'movement' to an organised religion was not easy. For Amy
Thornton, the task was to try to set an unfailing ideal in which
all can unite... not as a system, creed or observance, but as a
stimulus to a perfect life, because there is a deadness in things
conventional...26
Margaret Dixson had felt, similarly, the need to "attain
to perfect unity as a group" before they could hope for
"greater usefulness further afield".27 Yet,
for the Melbourne Bahá’ís, the harmony had been sought at
the expense of clarity. Members had continued their previous
affiliations, in addition to their involvement in the
Bahá’í Assembly, the result of which was little unity of
thought, belief, or action. Mrs Ransom-Kehler recorded of the
situation
In the evening I spoke to a group at Mrs Richards and
to my intense amazement I am discerning that the people
who are serving on the so-called Assembly are not
Bahá’ís at all; they have all sorts of
reservations ... it has been a most amazing experience.
It transpires that Mrs Richards wants good orthodox
people working in their churches to be of just as much
value in establishing the Kingdom of God as
Bahá’ís...
The Bahá’ís (now decimated to Dixson, Hastings,
Stevens, E Millar, Richards and Sindrey) want to discuss
the Tablet of Ahmad tomorrow...28
Far from being merely the expression of noble ideals about
future civilization, the Bahá’í administrative order
sought to establish a practical basis to the community's
activities. The utopian notion of 'perfect unity' held by the
Melbourne Bahá’ís had clearly been impractical. Refusing
to move forward until they felt themselves to be in complete
agreement had only led to disillusion. Awareness that individual
differences matter, and are properly resolved through
consultation rather than a necessary consensus, was slow to
develop.
A later meeting convened by Hyde Dunn to determine whether the
Melbourne Bahá’ís were prepared to give their allegiance
to Shoghi Effendi, as Guardian and head of the Bahá’í
Faith, revealed that, of all the long-standing Melbourne
Bahá’ís - Mrs Wheeler, Miss Hastings, Alice Culbert,
Margaret Stephens, and Emily Millar, only Margaret Stephens and
Emily Millar (who spoke also for Margaret Dixson who was away in
the country) were prepared to give it.29
No doubt, the groups' members were influenced by their
backgrounds in the metaphysical movements. Having previously
rejected ecclesiastical religion, they resisted the evolution of
religious authority within the Bahá’í community, and hoped
it might remain an informal gathering of people interested in
progressive thought. Hesitancy to give full allegiance to the
Bahá’í cause may also have come from pressure to
conformity from family and friends. Emily Miller and Margaret
Stephens, were among those treated harshly by their families upon
becoming Bahá'ís.30
For some, the Bahá’í teachings were coupled with a keen
interest in esoteric subjects such as numerology and astrology.
Margaret Dixson continued her study of numerology. While staying
with the Dunns in Sydney she had attended regularly the sessions
of Ernest Wilby, astrologer and numerologist. Her belief in the
appropriateness of his ideas must have been strengthened when
she, together with Clara Dunn, introduced Emily Millar to the
Bahá’í teachings at a meeting of Wilby's. Several years
later, in 1934, Emily Miller and Margaret Dixson were the two
Melbourne Bahá’ís present at the formation of the National
Spiritual Assembly in Sydney.
Wilby's thought, that "a great hidden principle exists,
which reveals the true and scientific relations of all types to
each other", impressed Margaret Dixson. She felt it may have
been one of the new sciences, that Bahá’u’lláh said
would one day appear, and wrote to Shoghi Effendi to enquire if
he thought it a good idea for her to earn her living by writing
about the subject. Although discouraged in this,31 she
wrote, in November 1926, to the North American National Assembly,
to enquire whether its members might know of a publisher for Mr
Wilby's work "Harmony and the Zodiac".32
In 1928 she established a class to study Wilby's astrology,
and in 1929, wrote letters to overseas Bahá’í communities
seeking support for a special commemoration of the next armistice
day, as it was to be held on the 11th hour of the 11th month of
the llth year of the signing of the armistice ending the first
world war.33
If numerology did not gain wide acceptance among the early
Bahá’ís, Esperanto did. Margaret commenced learning the
language soon after becoming a Bahá’í, and perhaps after
meeting Martha Root. Esperanto was also enthusiastically taken up
by the Adelaide and Auckland Bahá’ís, and regular lessons
were included in Herald of the South, the Bahá’í
magazine begun in New Zealand in 1925. Amy Thornton contributed
to it an essay, "The Value of a Universal Language".34
Six months after beginning to learn the language, Margaret
established a small class, and hoped to eventually translate
Bahá’í writings. Several years later, she conducted
correspondence in Esperanto with a Czechoslovakian Bahá’í,
Vuk Ecktner.
In the early 1930s there were no more than 5 or 6
Bahá’ís in Melbourne. Margaret was living at 14 Avoca St
South Yarra, Miss Hastings and Sindrey in the same suburb, while
Mrs Wheeler lived at Ascotvale, Margaret Stephens, the secretary,
at Malvern, and Miss Emily Millar and Harry Hepburn both at
Montague St, Moonee Ponds.35 The small group met on
alternate Saturday and Sunday afternoons at Margaret Dixson's
home, to study the Dawnbreakers. 36 Emily Millar was
invited to give several addresses to Mrs Smith's spiritualistic
church, at the Henry George Club.
Because the Melbourne community had not grown sufficiently by
1934 to re-establish its Local Assembly, its members were not
involved in the formation of the National Spiritual Assembly,
(apart from having Adelaide Bahá’ís stay with them when
travelling to and from the first convention).37
However, Margaret and Emily Millar attended the first convention
in Sydney. Emily Miller travelled second class, borrowing the
money to do so, and Margaret travelled third class. Her record of
convention, possibly the only personal account extant, shows
clearly her appreciation of the event, with the key points of
each talk, and discussion, being noted. In her first diary entry,
dated 28 January 1934, Margaret had written
I shall try to set down faithfully hereafter all the
Bahá’í events that transpire in the hope that some
day they will be of historical value.38
She took her writing seriously, and her published passages,
while few in number, are autobiographical, and reveal, as
intended, her character. Following her study of Nabil's
Narrative she wrote an account of Shaykh Ahmad for Herald
of the South.39 Another article written for Herald
of the South, "The Four Causes: A Bahá’í Story
for Children" (April-May 1927), began with Molly and her
mother sitting at breakfast in their Sydney flat, and described a
mother's attempt to explain a concept from Abdu'l-Bahá's Some
Answered Questions.
Two further articles demonstrated Margaret's identification
with the spiritual purpose animating her faith. The theme of her
1935 Herald of the South editorial (January-March),
"SEVERENCE - OBEDIENCE - SERVITUDE" reflected on her
own circumstances:
Those who have heard the Call of God reverberating
through the Bahá’í Message, and hearing, have
turned to investigate for themselves, and investigating,
have found that which has strengthened the mind and
filled with joy the heart, are privileged to send an
answering message to the storm-tossed ones who realise
their need for help...
The article goes on to describe the journey of a soul,
having entered the protective "ark" of the
Bahá’í revelation, if it wishes to perfect itself
for service to its' Lord.
A second, undated essay, entitled "Scintillating
Jewels", meditates on two passages of Bahá’í
scripture:
O Son of Spirit,
Ye are my treasures, for in you I have treasured the
pearls of My mysteries and the gems of my
knowledge...Bahá’u’lláh
and,
While you are in the possession of scintillating
jewels, why do ye attach your hearts to crockeries?
‘Abdu’l-Bahá
The essay features a conversation between a woman
(autobiographically, Margaret) and a male companion. The two sit
on the grass in a park while the woman explains to her friend the
gems she possesses, a diamond, a ruby and an opal. The diamond,
she explained corresponded to joy; the ruby, love; and the opal,
understanding. Having explained these gems, her companion did not
reciprocate, by answering whether he had any such jewels of his
own:
"Nay, dear, not today. That is another story."
And saying this he left her ... alone.
Ending the essay, Margaret allows her mind to drift back to
the experiences through which she gained her gems:
she saw... A silent house ... a darkened room ... a
woman bowed with sorrow, entering the room alone,
creeping to a bedside and laying aside the coverlet, she
looked, with burning eyes at he, who lay there, so calm
and yes ...ah, yes...so beautiful.
As she gazed long and silently at his face, she
marvelled at the changes death had wrought in that it
revealed what life had hidden, calmness, nobility and
peace. After years of strife, weariness and pain here, at
last, was Peace, and kneeling there she felt that same
Peace enter her soul and knew that after much searching
she had found her Pearl ... a pearl of great price indeed
...the Pearl of Peace.
If not for a series of illnesses, Margaret Dixson would have
written more, and played a more prominent role in the Melbourne
Bahá’í community. She spoke of her religion when ever the
occasion arose: to a Jewish gentleman, Mr Wineburg, at the
entrance to a crowded meeting for Krishnamurti; to Joseph Lamb, a
young man met on the boat journey to Sydney; to fellow patients
during her several stays in hospitals and nursing homes.40
She took a year to recover from a heart attack, suffered in July
1937, and so was unable to do much for a special teaching
campaign in Melbourne in 1938, organised by the National
Assembly. (see E. Wheeler letter on Dixson illness, 19/12/38 at
0302/0110.)
A decade earlier, when in Sydney helping Clara Dunn recuperate
from her illness, Margaret herself suffered a tumour, and took
several months to recover. Shortly after writing a paper to be
presented at the Yerrinbool Summer School in January 1939,
Margaret suffered a 'kidney fit'. Unable to attend the school,
the paper was read by Hilda Gilbert, on her behalf.41
She was able, however, to attend some of Martha Root's
engagements during her second visit to Melbourne, February 27 -
March 20, including a supper given by Martha for sixteen guests
at the Tudor City Lounge:
We passed a most heavenly and enjoyably evening and I have
felt immensely strengthened and refreshed all day, by the contact
with this pure soul. She spoke to us of many personal experiences
in China and of the bombing which took place while she was in
Shanghai.42
On 29 May 1940 Margaret recorded in her diary "Moved into
little room. Nook of my own to study and prepare. At last,
evidently I was not ready sooner." She died one month later,
on 26 June 1940 (Mrs Wheeler says 17 June), and was interred in
Springvale Cemetery. The service was conducted, as she had
wished, by Rev. Bottomly, a Unitarian minister who had attended
Martha Root's Melbourne lectures.43
Through nearly two decades Margaret Dixson was absorbed in
seeking to understand, and to promote, the Bahá’í
principles. As one of the first Australian Bahá’ís, she
endured consciously the loneliness of the pioneer. As a woman,
she struggled to move beyond the traditional Christian
world-view, with its' subordination of the female to the male, in
the family unit, the church and in Australian society generally.
She did this a generation before attempts by the women's movement
to reform institutional Christianity in Australia began in the
late 1960s.44
By 1940, the Melbourne Bahá’ís had only taken small
steps forward. The Melbourne Assembly was barely established.
It's members were mostly poor, marginalized women. Their
promotion of the Bahá’í principals was hindered by poor
health, and lack of finances.
Even so, it was on the basis of the spirit, resources, and
energy of this handful of women, that the Melbourne Bahá’í
community was established. The New Thought movements, and the
popular ideas of the 1920s and 1930s have either disappeared, or
greatly diminished in the post-war years. For Margaret Dixson, a
life of hardship and personal disappointments was transformed
into one of inner contentment through religious belief. How
appropriate were the words of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, placed by
Margaret in the front of her diary:
Behold a candle how it gives its light; it weeps its
life away drop by drop in order to show forth its flame
of light
ENDNOTES
Footnotes have been lost in this online edition.
In writing about Margaret Dixson, my thanks go to her
daughter, Mollie Cox, for an interview (with Jane McLachlan-Chew)
12 September 1987; and to her grand-daughter, Miriam Dixson.
Thanks to Dicy Hall for typing out "The Diary of Margaret
Dixson", and to Jane McLachlan-Chew for her paper "The
Early History of the Bahá’í Faith in Melbourne (to
1940)".
Source materials from the following archives have been
referred to: National Bahá’í Archives of the United States
(USA); Australia (Aust); New Zealand (NZ); the San Francisco
Assembly Archives; as well as the Department of Archives,
Bahá’í World Centre (Haifa), and the Victorian State
Library (La Trobe Library), Melbourne.