Miriam Soljak

Miriam Bridelia Soljak (née Cummings; 15 June 1879 – 28 March 1971) was a pioneering New Zealand feminist, communist, unemployed rights activist and supporter of family planning efforts. Born in Thames, New Zealand, she was raised as a Catholic and studied to be a teacher. From 1898 to 1912, she taught in native schools, learning about Māori culture and becoming fluent in the language. In 1908, she married Peter Soljak, an immigrant from Dalmatia, now part of Croatia, but at the time part of the Austrian Empire. In 1919, because of war legislation, she was denaturalised and forced to register as an enemy alien, because of her marriage. Despite their divorce in 1939, Soljak was unable to recover her British nationality.

In protest, Soljak led a campaign that lasted for nearly thirty years for women to have their own individual nationality in New Zealand. She was involved in health issues which included child welfare, family planning and contraception, infant and maternal mortality, and sex education. Economic concerns such as mother's endowments, pensions for elders and the infirm, unemployment compensation for women, as well as policies that assisted homeless women, widows, and separated women were also a focus of Soljak's work. She also strove to support indigenous communities, becoming involved in the protection of Māori women and girls and Samoan independence movement, though she was a pacifist. In 1946, New Zealand amended the nationality law, changing the policy that a woman automatically acquired her husband's nationality upon marriage.

Early life and education

Miriam Bridelia Cummings was born on 15 June 1879 in Thames to Annie (née Cunningham) and Matthew Cummings. Her mother was of Scottish heritage and her father, a carpenter, was from Ireland. There were eight siblings in the family and because of their parents' religious differences, the boys were raised as Protestant and the girls as Catholic. Cummings attended school in Thames and New Plymouth for her high school education. In 1896, she entered the pupil-teacher programme at New Plymouth Central School and finished her apprenticeship at Kauaeranga School in Thames.

Teaching (1898–1919)

In 1898, Cummings took up a teaching post at Taumarere Native School in Northland. Moving to Pukaru (also shown as Pakaru), near Kawakawa, she lived with a Māori family and taught at the native school. Cummings became very interested in the Māori culture and the welfare of the Ngāpuhi Maori communities in that area. She became fluent in the Māori language. She left the area and in 1905 had a daughter, Dorothea Grace, in Auckland. Moving to Rotorua, she worked as a domestic in private homes until 10 June 1908, when she married Peter Soljak. He was an immigrant from Dalmatia, at the time part of the Austrian Empire, who had little education or fluency in English, but was prepared to work at various jobs to support the family. He had left his homeland to avoid conscription into the Austrian army and strongly opposed Austrian rule in Dalmatia. At one time he worked as a gumdigger and at the time of their marriage, was a restaurateur.

Resuming her teaching at Pukaru in 1910, Soljak was provided with nursery care for her children because of her skill working with Māori students. Peter worked nearby in Kawakawa building a bridge. When Soljak gave birth to her fourth child in 1912, she left teaching and the family moved to Tauranga, where Peter worked on various construction and transport projects. They struggled financially and moved often. Soon after World War I ended, when her seventh child, Paul, was born in 1919, Soljak was refused a bed in the maternity home and told it was because she was an enemy alien and had forfeited her nationality by marrying a foreigner. Given the option of prison or registration, Soljak registered as an alien "under protest". The action also revoked her right to vote.

Nationality issues and beginning of activism

New Zealand's first nationality law, the Aliens Act of 1866, specified that foreign women who married New Zealanders automatically acquired the nationality of the husband. It applied only to the wives of British subjects. Because of the way British nationality laws were drafted, persons became subjects or were naturalised as British based upon local definitions for each jurisdiction. There was not an overriding imperial definition for who was a British subject. This meant that someone could be a British subject in one part of the empire, but not considered British in another part of the dominions of Britain. In 1914, this was rectified when the British Nationality and Status of Aliens Act provided that the nationality of a British subject would be the same for each place within the realm. New Zealand introduced a measure to adopt the common code of British nationality in 1914, but passage was postponed by the outbreak of the war.

War measures such as the 1916 Amendment to the War Regulations Act and the Revocation of Naturalisation Act and Registration of Aliens Act of 1917 addressed denaturalisation procedures for women. Under the 1916 amendment, wives of enemy aliens were automatically denaturalised as enemy aliens, even if they had been born British. Provisions in the 1917 Revocation of Naturalisation Act stated that revocation of an enemy alien's nationality did not impact his wife and minor children. The Registration Act merely required an alien to list the names and ages of his wife and children. However, an amendment to the Registration of Aliens Act in 1920 clarified that married women in New Zealand who lost their nationality because of marriage were required to register as aliens. Despite the contradictory provisions in the law, women like Soljak were deprived of their nationality during the war. The experience turned her life towards activism, bringing her to national prominence.