Sister Eucharia

Aboriginal women sewing Bima wear garments at the factory at Nguiu, Bathurst Island.

Olive May Pearce, also known as Sister Eucharia (14 December 1914 – 5 October 1999) was an Australian religious sister best known for her work with Aboriginal children and leprosy patients.

Early life In 1914, Olive May Pearce was born in Glenbrook, New South Wales. She was the second child into a humble, working-class family with no strong religious ties. Olive woke one morning at the age of 14 to a vivid dream calling her into the service of the church. Pearce moved with her family to the Sydney suburb of Enfield, where she worked with her father in a cake shop for a short time before becoming a domestic servant. She then, at the age of 22, became a religious sister in the order of the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, taking the religious name of Sister Eucharia. Plagued by poor circulation in her legs, and serving most of her time as a nun in the sweltering humid heat of the tropics of Northern Australia, Sister Eucharia was restricted her mobility, a disability which plagued her for life.

Later life After four decades of service, aged 67, Sister Eucharia was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in a ceremony on Bathurst Island In 1981.