Joan Eoe: A Pilgrim’s Journey, Prime Animator of the Mission

The Brothers pray daily: “In your providence, Lord God, you chose John Baptist de La Salle…raise up today teachers who will dedicate themselves wholeheartedly to the human and Christian education of youth.” Joan Eoe, Affiliated Member of the Brothers’ Institute,  has dedicated long years exemplifying such a Lasallian teacher, and forming other Papua New Guineans to join and be enriched in the mission.

Known to all Brothers who have ministered in our Melanesian neighbour, Joan has been until last year caring in her own house for a young student from Jubilee Catholic Secondary School, where she has worked for fifteen years. She took on the care of the young man whose mother was not working, and who contracted tuberculosis for 7 months. He required much time in recovery. He has now completed Year 12 and graduated, with options for his future.

Born in Kagua, in the Southern Highlands Joan grew up in a very strict environment. Her father worked as a clerk in an administrative government office. Her parents had six children, of whom she was the last. From Mendi hospital, where she was born premature, she was flown to Goroka hospital and put in an incubator to survive. It was there that the nurse gave her the name ‘Joan’.

As Joan grew up, she was attracted to the job of an agriculturalist, but told this was not employment for a woman. Rather she took up the idea of teaching. Her schooling was at Marianville, with the Sisters, and then Wewak for Years 11 and 12. She went to Goroka Teachers College where she graduated. Her first post was fortuitous for Lasallians, as she was taken on by the Sisters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart (OLSH) teaching the girls on Yule Island in 1984.

Here the Brothers had taught school since 1948, and eventually teacher trainees until 1971 with the OLSH Sisters. At that stage – 1980’s -  in the Congregation’s development, there was no formalized familiarization of lay staff with the Lasallian charism. When the girls were moved to De La Salle Mainohana at Bereina in 1989, and amalgamated with the Brothers’ boys school, Joan had a stable and long-term teaching position in a well-run mainland boarding school.

By the 1990’s, the Brothers were promoting the ‘Lasallian family’ and the extraordinary life project and spirit of John Baptist de La Salle. There was a regular formation / in-service course at Narooma NSW. Br Bede Mackrell Principal of Mainohana, saw Joan’s calibre and perhaps looked to the future, in terms of embedding teacher formation in PNG. This teacher formation was always a part of the Brothers’ mission, from the founding of Bomana, and the commitment to the teachers’ college on Yule Island, and later, at Mt Hagen Teachers College.

Br Bede offered in-service to Joan by her attending the Narooma course in 1994. As she herself says: “Narooma resulted in a 360-degree approach in my teaching”. It introduced her into the network and wider community of Lasallian teachers that were emerging at the time. Furthermore, her new understanding was that the Lasallian teacher, as she saw herself, had the opportunity to be firm and gentle, but not stentorian, in building relationship with students. This was “a blessing in disguise” for her as a Lasallian-influenced teacher. She was employed by the Brothers to animate interest in the Founder and his pedagogy among ex-Yule Island women teachers in schools in the Bereina diocese. The work also included the Brothers’ schools in Port Moresby.

Having moved to the capital, Port Moresby, she gained employment in 2002 at Jubilee Catholic Secondary School from Ms Bernadette Ove, the Principal (and also an Affiliated Member of the Institute). Jubilee had quickly become recognised as a Lasallian school, and in 2006, the PNG Sector of the District employed Joan to co-ordinate Lasallian teacher mission formation, youth ministries, and retreats in National Capital District & Central province – including the Bereina diocese.

She was the first to admit that the important ministry which she developed till 2012 was not easy. Two challenges in the nation were obvious – transport and communication, prior to good roads and modern internet. It was a new concept for teachers in the field, requiring “beginning of pathways of bringing together… (teachers in disparate largely village schools)…the majority being Catholic, and former students from Yule Island Teachers’ College”.   

Today the fruit of this early work by stalwart women like Joan, Madeline Fakepo, Bernadette, and number of others, who still continue the leadership of the LS mission, has grown with the adoption by many Catholic teachers becoming part of the “Lasallian Family movement” in the NCD and southern provinces. The movement was begun in the Highlands by Br Ignatius Kennedy at Mt Hagen, and with youth ministers, retreats, and formation seminars nation-wide, it flourished. It has been orchestrated over the last years by Grace Wrakia. It is now a shining light of a Lasallian lay-led movement in the District and the nation itself.

In an unself-conscious assertion, Joan, when asked what her passion is today, says:

“as teacher, to help young people becoming connected to Christ, and what they can achieve in their lives for their personal betterment, and for God. At the end of the day, it is a pilgrim’s journey”.

From a desperate start in life at her birth, Joan believes that “God had a calling for me …to look after my mum and dad”, and today, helping others around her. Recently retired from teaching, after more Jubilee School service (2013-24), Joan loves sewing, reading her novels, and deepening her prayer-life: “The Holy Spirit uses me a lot”.

A Christian pilgrim’s journey, matured in mind, persevering in work, and with a vibrant heart.

Source: Br Gary Wilson

Photos: Supplied by Br Joe Gabel