Fonds 2008.3 - Bridget Moran fonds

Title and statement of responsibility area

Title proper

Bridget Moran fonds

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  • Textual record
  • Graphic material
  • Moving images
  • Sound recording
  • Electronic record

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  • Source of title proper: Title based upon creator of fonds

Level of description

Fonds

Reference code

2008.3

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Issuing jurisdiction and denomination (philatelic)

Dates of creation area

Date(s)

  • 1935 - 1999, predominate 1954 - 1996 (Creation)
    Creator
    Moran, Bridget

Physical description area

Physical description

3.96 m of textual records and other material

  • 2 optical disks (1 CD-R and 1 DVD)
  • 47 computer disks : 9 x 9 cm and 13 x 13 cm
  • 51 audio recordings (49 audiocassettes and 2 audio reels)
  • 12 videocassettes
  • 327 photographs (273 prints : b&w and col. - 54 negatives)

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Archival description area

Name of creator

(1923 - 1999)

Biographical history

Bridget Moran (née Drugan) (September 1, 1923-August 21, 1999) was a prominent social activist, social worker, writer and mentor who spent most of her adult life in British Columbia. She was born in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, and shortly after her birth the Drugan family emigrated to Success, Saskatchewan, where Bridget spent her formative years. She attended Normal School in Saskatchewan and taught school in rural Saskatchewan until 1944 when she enlisted in the Women's Royal Canadian Service. After her discharge from the Navy in 1946, Bridget entered academic studies at the University of Toronto, where she received an Honours B.A. in Philosophy and English and was the recipient of a gold medal upon graduation. She began work on a Master's Degree in History in 1950, however she soon realized it would be impossible to continue as the federal Department of Veterans' Affairs refused to provide her with financial support on the grounds that they found no women teaching in history departments in Canada.

In 1951 Moran decided to immigrate to British Columbia where she began a career as a social worker; first in welfare offices in Haney, Salmon Arm and Vernon, and then in 1954 in Prince George where she took a position as District Supervisor of Welfare Services for a large section of the Central Interior of BC. For the following ten years Moran worked as a social worker based out of Prince George attending to the welfare service needs of BC’s Central Interior population. However, Moran’s career with the public service came to a very public end when she was suspended from her position in 1964 after she wrote an open letter in a Vancouver newspaper criticizing Premier W.A.C. Bennett’s Social Credit government for what she saw as gross neglect in addressing the needs of child welfare in the province. Although Moran eventually won reinstatement after a two year battle, she was told there would be no work available for her in the BC Ministry of Social Services. She continued her career in social work; first, for the Prince George Regional Hospital, and later with the University of Victoria Social Work Department as a practicum instructor for social work students in Prince George. In 1977 she practiced social work with the Prince George School District, where she remained for twelve years before retiring in 1989.

After Moran’s retirement from the Prince George School District, she pursued her ‘second career’ as a writer. In 1988 she wrote Sai’k’uz Ts’eke: Stoney Creek Woman: The Story of Mary John (1988) based on extensive oral histories that Moran conducted with Mary John about life on the Stoney Creek reserve. Moran’s second book Judgment at Stoney Creek: Sai’k’uz Ne ba na huz’ya, (1990) is based on her account of the inquest into the death of Coreen Thomas and provides an in-depth analysis of tenuous white-native relations in rural BC in the 1970s. Moran’s next book, A Little Rebellion (1992) provides an auto-biographical account of her public dispute with the Bennett government. The book Justa: A First Nations Leader, Dakelhne Butsowhudilhzulh’un (1994) is based on extensive oral interviews Moran conducted with Tl’azt’en Nation member, Justa Monk, who transformed his life and was elected Tribal Chief of the Carrier Sekani Tribal Council. Moran was commissioned by the Elizabeth Fry Society to write the case history of “Theresa” a battered woman, for the book Don’t Bring Me Flowers (1992). Her last book Prince George Remembered from Bridget Moran (1996) provides a series of excerpts of oral history interviews that Moran conducted in the late 1950s with white settlers providing memories of their arrival in Prince George c.1911-c.1920.

Scope and content

This fonds illustrates Bridget Moran’s careers as a writer, a social worker and a social activist primarily within the Prince George region of British Columbia. This fonds also contains records pertaining to her personal relationships with family and friends and her receipt of various honours and awards.

Types of records reflective of her career as a writer include: published articles and unpublished manuscripts, drafts and front cover mock-ups, correspondence with editors from Arsenal Pulp Press, grant applications, notebooks, background material, writer’s workshop invitations and overviews, photographs, oral history interviews and transcripts, and VHS recordings of classroom talks given by Bridget Moran, Mary John and Justa Monk re: her publications.

Types of records reflective of her career as a social worker and social activist include: annual reports, work journals, correspondence and published newspaper articles re: social policy, photographs, and general background material. Correspondence, photographs and newspaper clippings highlight her personal relationships, while her receipt of honours and awards is demonstrated through copies of letters of recommendation, newspaper clippings, photographs, VHS recordings of award ceremonies, event itineraries, congratulatory correspondence, and invitations.

The Bridget Moran fonds has been divided into the following four series:

  1. Published and Unpublished Materials
  2. Career Related Materials
  3. Personal Papers and Correspondence
  4. Honours and Awards.

Notes area

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    Script of material

      Location of originals

      Northern BC Archives & Special Collections

      Availability of other formats

      Access copies have been created for all original audio and video cassettes. As well, all electronic files stored on 5.25” computer disks have been migrated to a CD-R format. All access copies are available for public viewing.

      Restrictions on access

      Some restrictions apply. Contact archives@unbc.ca for more information.

      Terms governing use, reproduction, and publication

      Personal or academic use of materials is welcomed under the standard fair dealing and educational use clauses of Canadian Copyright Law. Commercial use is, however, forbidden without the express permission of the copyright holder. For information on obtaining written permission from the copyright holder, please contact the Northern B.C. Archives and Special Collections.

      Finding aids

      Uploaded finding aid

      Associated materials

      • The "P.J. Moran fonds" is located at the Fraser-Fort George Regional Museum. P.J. (a.k.a. “Paddy”) Moran was the third Magistrate in Prince George, and was also Bridget’s husband’s uncle.
      • The Arsenal Pulp Press fonds is located in the UBC Library, Rare Books and Special Collections. This publishing company published four of Bridget's five non-fiction works and its fonds consists of some materials pertaining to this process.
      • A transfer from the Social Work Department at the University of Northern British Columbia also has material pertaining to Bridget Moran as this transfer includes three videocassettes and a working paper from a forum held on November 24-25, 1994 entitled: “Social Work from the Periphery – The Social Work Community Consultation at UNBC”. Bridget Moran attended this forum and provided the “Community Address” on day two. This material is located at the Northern BC Archives as accession no. 2008.15.

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