Helping make restorative work possible
1923–2014
Timaru Girls’ High School
Nursing
Peace work
Philanthropy
Restorative justice
Orari
I first came across Diana Mary Unwin while researching women connected with national recognition.
Her name appeared through the Diana Unwin Chair in Restorative Justice at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington. The South Canterbury connection emerged through a much smaller record: a telegram sent to Diana at Timaru Girls’ High School in 1935.
Her mother was writing from Hanmer Springs to wish her good luck in a sporting event. A second document records that, in 1938, Diana received a New Zealand Amateur Swimming Association certificate of merit for swimming 880 yards while representing Timaru Girls’ High School.
Family photograph collections held by the Alexander Turnbull Library also connect Diana with Orari and Timaru during her infancy and childhood.
Diana later studied history at the University of Otago. In 1944 she completed an MA Honours thesis titled Women in N.Z. Industry, with special reference to factory industry and conditions in Dunedin. A contemporary graduation report records that she received first-class honours in history.
Her research examined women’s place and conditions within industrial employment. It is evidence that women’s work and social conditions were serious subjects of her study as a young historian.
The National Library later described Diana as a Wellington Hospital staff nurse who was active in peace and anti-nuclear issues. She collected records from the Wellington Peace Forum Network and helped preserve papers from Nurses for Nuclear Disarmament.
These records document the work of many organisers, nurses and campaigners. By ensuring that they reached a public archive, Diana helped preserve evidence of peace and anti-nuclear activity in Aotearoa New Zealand.
In 1992, Diana established the Grace Memorial Trust.
The Trust later became a partner in establishing the Diana Unwin Chair in Restorative Justice at Victoria University of Wellington in January 2014. The university states that the Chair was created in recognition of Diana’s philanthropic commitment to restorative justice, peace and social wellbeing.
Restorative justice asks how harm can be acknowledged, responsibility accepted and repair made possible. Diana did not create restorative justice or personally deliver the later projects associated with the Chair.
Her contribution was to help provide a lasting institutional base for the work.
The Chair now leads Te Ngāpara Centre for Restorative Practice, supporting research, teaching, evaluation and collaboration between practitioners, public agencies and community organisations.
One documented example was the 2019 restorative process for people harmed by surgical mesh. More than 600 people shared their experiences, helping identify physical, emotional, financial and relational harm and contributing to 19 agreed actions.
That work belongs to the people who experienced harm, the advocates who supported them and the researchers and facilitators who carried out the process.
Diana’s legacy was helping create an institution with the knowledge and relationships needed to respond when such work was required.
She also left family papers, photographs, peace-movement records and Trust documents in public collections. These records allow later researchers to continue investigating her life and the networks of people around her.
Diana died in 2014.
Impact: Diana Unwin helped turn philanthropic support into lasting capacity for restorative justice. Through the Grace Memorial Trust, she became part of establishing an enduring base for research, teaching, evaluation and professional practice. Her impact was not that she personally carried out every later project, but that she helped make sustained work on harm, responsibility and repair possible.
Timaru and South Canterbury connection Family photographs connect Diana with Orari and Timaru during her early life. A 1935 telegram and 1938 swimming certificate confirm her connection with Timaru Girls’ High School.
WuHoo blog: Finding Diana Unwin: A telegram, a swimming certificate and a legacy of repair
Concise sources
Alexander Turnbull Library, Diana Unwin family papers and photographs
New Zealand Amateur Swimming Association certificate of merit, 1938
University of Otago graduation report, 1945
Hocken Collections guide to women’s factory and industrial history
Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington Peace Forum Network records
Alexander Turnbull Library, Nurses for Nuclear Disarmament records
Alexander Turnbull Library, Grace Memorial Trust records, 1992–2020
Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington, Diana Unwin Chair and Te Ngāpara Centre for Restorative Practice
New Zealand Ministry of Health, restorative process for people harmed by surgical mesh
Research still open
identifying the sporting event mentioned in the 1935 telegram
listening to Diana’s 2007 oral-history interview
locating her own words about Timaru Girls’ High School
examining the Grace Memorial Trust records in detail
finding further contemporary evidence of her South Canterbury connections