Activist, environmentalist
devoted to Pacific
Date September 28, 2012
The Melbourne Age
Ruth Lechte in Mexico City in 1975 at the International Women's Year
Tribune, a non-government organisation meeting held parallel to the UN
World Conference on Women.
RUTH LECHTE
PEACE ACTIVIST, FEMINIST,
ENVIRONMENTALIST
8-8-1932 — 19-9-2012
In 1968 when general secretary of the Fiji YWCA.
By Anne Walker
RUTH Elizabeth Lechte, peace activist, feminist and
environmentalist, has died aged 80 in Coolum, Queensland,
after a stroke.
Lechte was born in Melbourne and attended Methodist Ladies
College in Kew.
She taught science at Korowa Girls School before training as
a social worker and youth worker at Westhill College, Selly
Oak, Birmingham, England.
In 1962, she and Anne Walker went to Fiji, at the invitation of
a group of local women, to be the first staff of the Fiji YWCA.
With Amelia Rokotuivuna of Fiji, they worked throughout the
1960s with women leaders to establish multiracial
kindergartens and more than 50 youth and women's clubs.
Activities included vocational training, public affairs, music and
drama, crafts and art, and multiracial sports clubs in netball,
softball, cricket and tennis.
The Fiji YWCA was instrumental in supporting and organising
the Pacific region nuclear-free movement after nuclear tests
started in Mururoa, French Polynesia, in 1968. The Fiji YWCA,
along with students from the newly formed Pacific Theological
College and the University of the South Pacific, organised one
of the first marches in Suva against the tests.
The YWCA was also deeply involved in activities leading to
Fiji's independence. In 1970, Lechte, Rokotuivuna and Walker
were honoured with the Fiji Independence Medal.
When Rokotuivuna took over as general secretary of the Fiji
YWCA in 1974, Lechte became Pacific Area secretary of the
World YWCA. She advised women's groups, independence
movements and youth initiatives across the region, working
with women in several Pacific countries.
Lechte then worked with the World YWCA in the international
portfolio of environment and appropriate technology. Based in
Geneva, Switzerland, and Nadi, Fiji, she contributed to
women's small business and service initiatives in more than
80 countries. She served on the board of the Environment
Liaison Centre, Nairobi, Kenya, and with the World YWCA and
the International Women's Tribune Centre, organised displays
on women's technologies and science during the NGO forums
at the UN World Conferences on Women in Nairobi in 1985
and Beijing in 1995.
After Lechte's retirement from the World YWCA, she worked
on an environment education program for the Fiji Environment
Department, was a trustee for Fiji Women's Crisis Centre and
the Fiji Traditional Healers Association (Wainimate), and
supported young women and environment programs. She also
assisted United Nations programs for women through
UNIFEM in their Women and Politics training in Fiji, Vanuatu
and East Timor, and co-ordinated a Pacific islands regional
women in science and technology study. Lechte was awarded
an Order of Fiji in 1995, and an Order of Vanuatu in 2009 for
"duties of great responsibility to the people of Vanuatu".
In June 2002, Lechte and partner Diane Goodwillie moved to
Coolum Beach, Queensland. They teamed up with the
Coolum District Coast Care Group to volunteer for practical
projects to protect the Sunshine Coast dunes, rocky
foreshore, rivers, mountains and wetlands and to educate the
public about biodiversity and the environment. They were
founding volunteers at the Coolum Community Native Nursery
and volunteered for national parks service in the Epping
scientific park, Lady Musgrave Island and Heron Island. They
also supported the formation of young women's programs,
including the YWCA in Timor Leste.
Lechte is remembered by friends and colleagues worldwide as
a forthright spokeswoman for the causes in which she
believed and in support of the people she loved.
She was a friend and mentor to young people and was
devoted to her family and the children and grandchildren of
her friends.
Among her many interests was a passionate love of
gardening, classical music, birds, cricket and her beloved
Essendon Bombers.
Lechte is survived by Diane Goodwillie, her partner of 34
years, her niece Robyn and family Duncan, Nick, Tom and
Alex Goode, nephew Rodney Lechte and her cousin Lisa
Corben and family.
With DIANE GOODWILLIE, MARK and STEPHEN
GARRETT
Anne Walker worked with Ruth Lechte at the Fiji YWCA
from 1962 to 1972