Ngā Rauropi Whakaoranga

Born near Lyons, France. Studied chemistry, medicine and botany . Served as a nursing sister in the Crimean War. Brought to New Zealand by Bishop Pompallier in 1860. Nursed in Auckland, Hawkes Bay, Wanganui - always among the poor. During the 1880s founded the Order of the Daughters of Our Lady of Compassion, worked tirelessly for the distressed and deprived. In 1908 she opened the Home of Compassion at Island Bay in Wellington. Reknowned for her herbal remedies, made mostly from native plants. Refused offers from pharmaceutical companies to manufacture her medicines. Eventually destroyed formulae.

Some notes on Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Botany Division files, 22/15, Christchurch made by Ruth Mason in an interview with Sister Angela of the Home of Compassion, 14 August 1940. Manuscripts by Mother Aubert preserved in the archives of Our Lady"s Home of Compassion, Island Bay, Wellington.

Possible references of interest are #38 Household Hints, #39 Medicines for Farm Animals, #59 Various properties of plants. Envelope #7 Correspondence re herbal medicines. 8 letters, 1 document. Account of treatment of leprosy case in 1876; flax as purgative, daily increasing doses of arsenate of soda, sponged 4x daily with warm decoction of blue gum or ngaio leaves. Infusion of inner bark of kōwhai occasionally taken as tonic. After 6 months, woman recovered. Supposedly published in Lancet.(Ruth Mason, Botany Division, Christchurch could not find it ). See letter from Mother Aubert, Island Bay 8 October 1924 to Dr. Valentine, Wellington. Xerox held by Department of Health, Wellington. Formulae for herbal medicines destroyed in 1913. Sample bottles of 9 herbal medicines remain. Include "karana", "marupu", "paramo", "natanata". A copy of notes in Mother Aubert"s handwriting thought to refer to medicinal plants lists the following ; flax, kareao, mānuka, kawakawa or raukawa, horopito or kohekohe, pukatea bark, koromiko, rātā bark or toatoa (?) tōī tōī, tawa, kawa, Hoheria, Pimelea (Tarata), Sanguisorba, kōwhai bark, karamū (sic., from notes in Botany Division, DSIR, files, 22/15, 14/8/40)