It is with much sadness that I said my last goodbye to my mentor Besi Wood-Ellem tonight. A Historian and accomplished author who gave so much to the people of Tonga. Her belief in me started my career in the arts. May she rest in God's eternal peace, 'ofa atu fau!
Please join us for a service of thanksgiving for the life of Dr Elizabeth Olive Wood-Ellem; Commander of the Order of the Crown of Tonga. 12noon Friday 14 September at Church of All Nations, 180 Palmerston St, Carlton (Melbourne).
Link: ABC Radio Interview
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| Liōngi at Besi Wood-Ellem's Funeral Photo: Jorge De Araujo |
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| Thanksgiving Service Photo: Jorge De Araujo |
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| Dr Elizabeth Olive Wood-Ellem BA, PhD Melb Commander of the Order of the Crown of Tonga 10 September 1930 - 8 September 2012 Photo: Jorge De Araujo |
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| Her Majesty Queen Nanasipau'u Tuku'aho & Rev. Siupeli Taliai Photo: Jorge De Araujo |
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| Her Majesty Queen Nanasipau'u Tuku'aho Photo: Jorge De Araujo |
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HRH Princess Angelika Tuku'aho & Besi Wood-Ellem at the Melbourne Tapa Launch (2 August)
Photo: Ema Fifita Uhi
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| Besi with Ma'ata Palavi-Makasini @ Melbourne Tapa Launch Photo: Jorge de Araujo |
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| Besi with Gareth Evans Photo: Jorge de Araujo |
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| Besi with Ma'ata Palavi-Makasini |
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| Queen Sālote of Tonga |
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| Songs & Poems of Queen Sālote |
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| Tonga and the Tongans |
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| Tonga and Politics, a film Besi and I collaborated on. |
Nuku'alofa, Tonga
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.
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.
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 received an Order of the Crown, Commander, for services to the Sovereign, presented 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 MCDUniversity 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 a member of the Royal Family of Tonga. - MLF
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