Veronica Willaway

Veronica Therese Willaway OSB (born 9 December 1944) also known as Sister Veronica, is a Yued Noongar woman from New Norcia in Western Australia. She spent her childhood at St Joseph's school and orphanage, an institution for Aboriginal girls in New Norcia, before deciding to become a Benedictine sister herself.

Early life and education Willaway grew up in New Norcia, Australia's only monastic town, which is located 130 km north of Perth, Western Australia. She was one of six children of Philomena and Harold Willaway. When she was six years of age her parents placed her at St Joseph's Orphanage under the care of the Spanish Benedictine Missionary Sisters. It was common practice at the time that many Aboriginal children from the New Norcia area came to live at the orphanage. Willaway's five siblings also came to live there.

Religious life Influenced by the sisters and monks at New Norcia, in 1958, at the age of 14, Willaway decided to become a Benedictine sister herself. After a year as a postulant Willaway entered the novitiate on 23 January 1960. Her profession date was 21 January 1962 and she took her final vows on 12 March 1966 when she was 21. Willaway was the second Aboriginal sister to join the congregation; Sister Cecilia Farrell had been the first. Most of Willaway's early religious life was spent time working in St Joseph's Orphanage in New Norcia, which later became a school. In 1974 Willaway moved to Girrawheen, a suburb of Perth, where she ran a childcare centre.

Willaway contributed to an episode of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's (ABC) Compass program, Series 30 - Episode 10, hosted by Geraldine Doogue. The episode, titled "Salvado's letters", was about Rosendo Salvado, the Spanish Benedictine monk who founded the religious community in New Norcia in 1847.