Obituary

The Tongan historian Dr Elizabeth Wood-Ellem (better known as Besi Wood) passed away on the evening of September 8 at St Vincent's Public Hospital, Melbourne, two days before her 82nd birthday.

Elizabeth was born in Tonga as a daughter of Methodist missionaries Rev. A. Harold Wood and Dr Olive Wood who worked in Tonga from 1924 to 1937. She spent her early years living with her parents and siblings at Tupou College, Nafualu, and remembered visits from both Queen Salote and Tungi Mailefihi and the mana that surrounded the Queen during the pre-War period.

Elizabeth’s early career was in publishing, working first in Sydney and then in London, where she developed meticulous copy-editing skills, before working as an archivist at the then Churchill College in Cambridge, England.

After 15 years abroad she returned to Australia and began research in 1974 for her doctoral thesis, on the dual leadership of Queen Salote and her consort Tungi Mailefihi, as Queen and Prime Minister. Her doctorate was from the University of Melbourne.

Elizabeth Wood-Ellem

By living in and frequent visits to Tonga over the following 34 years, she became intensely interested in Tongan society, and how it had changed since the death of Queen Salote in 1965.

The culmination of Elizabeth’s work was the publication of a biography, Queen Salote of Tonga: the story of an era 1900-1965 (1999, University of Auckland Press and University of Hawaii Press). She delivered the historical biography after an enormous commitment to researching almost untouched archives in several countries and talking to many people, and it received very considerable academic and popular aclaim.

From an interest in Queen Salote’s oratory and writing, Elizabeth over many years supported a collaborative work to collect the songs and poems of the Queen.  She was a presenter and the editor of Songs & Poems of Queen Salote, (2004, Vava'u Press, Tonga).

"I learned not only about the paradise of my childhood (which is no paradise, but I cannot help being loving and wanting the best for Tonga), but my mind was stretched, and I made many friends, both Tongan and papalangi, in the course of researching, writing, releasing, and listening to responses about  [the books]," she later wrote.

Survivor

In May 1977, while working in Tonga, Elizabeth survived the sinking of a small cabin cruiser while returning from a picnic on Malinoa Island. She had been curious to visit the island where the men were shot for the attempt on the life of Shirley Baker. On the way back three of the passengers were drowned while Elizabeth and several others, who had clung to parts of the wreckage praying, were rescued at night after many hours in the sea. Her friends said she spoke often of the bravery of the men from ‘Atata who rescued the survivors, of the love and care she received from her Tongan friends, and the many kindnesses of strangers. Elizabeth spent two weeks in hospital in Nuku'alofa recovering from her exposure in the sea. She felt even more bound to Tonga after this experience, and considered she had been spared in order to do what she could.

Elizabeth was a leading light in the Tongan History Association, which later became the Tonga Research Association, of which she was vice president for 12 years. She was a contributor to and editor of Tonga and the Tongans: heritage and identity (2007, Tonga Research Association).

She was invested as Commander of the Order of the Crown, for services to the Sovereign, by the late King George Tupou V during his coronation celebrations in July 2008.

Elizabeth lived in Victoria, Australia, where she was an honorary senior fellow in the School of Historical Studies at the University of Melbourne, and a respected mentor for students of Tongan studies, and for many Tongan students in Australia who, like all her many friends, benefitted from her personal kindness, generosity and intellectual acumen. An esteemed Pacific historian, she had many other interests and was a keen member of the Uniting Church, in the last few years attending classes in theology at the MCD University of Divinity. As her death notice in Melbourne noted she was ‘a worker for justice, peace and equality for over 60 years’.

Elizabeth continued to take an interest in all things Tongan and to write, until she was taken ill and admitted to hospital on September 5.

Her funeral, to be held at the Church of All Nations, 180 Palmerston St, Carlton, Victoria, Australia, at 12 Noon Friday September 14, will be attended by HM Queen Nanasipau'u of Tonga. - MLF