A Profile In February/March 2013, New Zealand welcomes the visit of Fr David Kammler OP. With that in mind, a group of lay Dominicans decided to seek an answer to some questions: Who are the Dominican laity in New Zealand? How are they connected to the Order of Preachers and to the global Dominican family? What structures are in place holding the Dominican laity together as a cohesive group? In 2012 a survey was constructed by lay Dominican Norman Gray, to seek answers to these questions. This profile arises from that survey. Background The Dominican connection started in Aotearoa New Zealand when a Dominican friar, Fr Anton Villefeix OP, said Mass in Doubtless Bay, in 1769. He was chaplain on the ship St Jean Baptiste, captained by French explorer Jean François Marie de Surville. At the start of the 20th century two friars came to New Zealand as missionaries: Fr Herbert Gilbert Tigar OP and Fr Alfred Benedict Tickell OP. Later, friars from the Australian province began a lengthy presence here as parish priests, university chaplains, and in other ministries including Tui Motu, the Maori community, the Peace Place and the Cook Island community. The sisters were first invited by Bishop Moran to establish a school in the new diocese of Dunedin. Nine sisters, with Mother Gabriel Gill as prioress, arrived in 1871. From this beginning grew schools in Dunedin , Invercargill, Oamaru, Queenstown, Milton and Lawrence, and also in Auckland and later Feilding (school for the deaf). Building on
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