Their stories – our history: John Fry, President of the Association 1972-4

Abstract

This article is based on an interview with John Fry, one-time President of the Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Workers of which he is now a Life Member. It describes, often in his own words, one man’s contribution over a 40-year period, to the social work profession and to the communities with which he worked. He is able to describe the early periods of urban drift, especially for Maori, and was respectfully working with traditional Maori communities in ways that challenged the dominant colonial attitudes present in the government institutions of the day.