Olive Nelson

Olive Virginia Malienafau Nelson (17 August 1911 – 18 March 1970)[1] was the first Pacific Island graduate of the University of Auckland.[2]

Nelson was born in Samoa, the daughter of Olaf Nelson, a political leader in Western Samoa, and Rosabel Moors. She had two sisters and one brother, although her brother died of influenza in the 1918 epidemic.[3][4] In 1919 the three sisters were sent to New Zealand to study at an exclusive school in Remuera.[5]

In 1931 Nelson received the Butterworth Prize for the highest law exam results in the university. In 1933 she travelled to Samoa with her sisters and father, and then returned to Auckland to continue her studies.[6] Nelson completed her law degree in 1936 and was admitted to the bar the same year.[7] Following her graduation, she returned to Samoa and became the country's first female barrister and solicitor.[8][9][10]

In 1939 she won the Western Samoan mixed doubles tennis championship with future Minister of Finance Fred Betham,[11] who she went on to marry in 1942.[12] She died in 1970.[13][14]

See also

References
  1. Olive Virginia Malienafau Nelson Betham Billion Graves
  2. "125th Pacific Ball – The University of Auckland". www.alumni.auckland.ac.nz. Archived from the original on 23 January 2019. Retrieved 23 September 2017.
  3. "Tautai: Sāmoa, World History, and the Life of Ta'isi O. F. Nelson — Coconet". Retrieved 23 September 2017.
  4. "OLAF FREDERICK NELSON | NZETC". nzetc.victoria.ac.nz. Retrieved 23 September 2017.
  5. Koehler Sutter, Frederic (1989). The Samoans: A Global Family. University of Hawaii Press. p. 161.
  6. "Olaf Nelson and the place of afakasi in Samoa | NZHistory, New Zealand history online". nzhistory.govt.nz. Retrieved 23 September 2017.
  7. "NZ University Graduates 1870–1961". shadowsoftime.co.nz. Retrieved 23 September 2017.
  8. "Early traces of Pacific students at The University of Auckland" (PDF). September 2009. Retrieved 23 September 2017.
  9. "Olive Nelson, a pioneering Samoan woman". Samoa Observer. Retrieved 20 January 2019.
  10. "What distance travelled?" (PDF). Uni NEWS. September 2018.
  11. Mr G.F. Betham Pacific Islands Monthly, December 1939, p57
  12. Marriage of well-known Apia couple Pacific Islands Monthly, December 1942, p33
  13. South Pacific Bulletin, Volume 21. South Pacific Commission. 1971. p. 19.
  14. Hensley, Gerald (2013). Final Approaches: A Memoir. Auckland, New Zealand: Auckland University Press.


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