Zena Isabel Daysh (née Clarke, 30 April 1914 – 23 March 2011) was a New Zealander who was influential in the human ecology movement and the founder of the Commonwealth Human Ecology Council in 1969.

Early life

Zena Daysh was born in

New Plymouth New Plymouth ( mi, Ngāmotu) is the major city of the Taranaki region on the west coast of the North Island of New Zealand. It is named after the English city of Plymouth, Devon from where the first English settlers to New Plymouth migrated. ...

, New Zealand in 1914, the daughter of the

mayor of New Plymouth The Mayor of New Plymouth is the head of municipal government of New Plymouth District, New Zealand. Since the 2022 local elections, the mayor is elected directly using the single transferable vote electoral system; prior to that, first-past-the-p ...

. Her father, James Clarke, died in November 1920 in the country's second fatal air crash. She was a proficient fencer and well-known in New Zealand

fencing Fencing is a group of three related combat sports. The three disciplines in modern fencing are the foil, the épée, and the sabre (also ''saber''); winning points are made through the weapon's contact with an opponent. A fourth discipline, s ...

circles. In the 1930s she moved to live in England where she married Mr N. Goodlet Daysh though they separated in the 1940s.

Career

Daysh trained as a physiotherapist. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

she was well known in London society for her massage and exercise therapy. At the same time she became interested in the human and social needs of people working in wartime factories and developed a philosophy of the interdependence of people with each other and with nature. While she believed in people taking responsibility for their own health and in preventive medicine, she believed that communities and governments should work together to achieve healthy societies in a stable environment. After the war she returned to New Zealand until the late 1950s when she convened the Commonwealth Committee on Preventive Medicine in London. With a number of other health professionals she penned a letter to ''The Times'' calling for the formation of a Commonwealth Council of Nutrition to improve standards of health and nutrition in Commonwealth countries. In 1964 she proposed to the government of

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

that they use human ecology as the framework for development planning. Her work during the 1960s culminated in her founding the Commonwealth Human Ecology Council (CHEC) in 1969 and organising the First Commonwealth Conference on Development and Human Ecology in 1970. Daysh supported many community projects which were examples of human ecology and sustainability: community-based reafforestation in India, urban market gardens for women in

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierra ...

, reconstruction after a tsunami in

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

, and micro-banks to support women's businesses in Africa to name a few. Zena Daysh died in London on 23 March 2011.

Honours and awards

Daysh received a

CNZM The New Zealand Order of Merit is an order of merit in the New Zealand royal honours system. It was established by royal warrant (document), royal warrant on 30 May 1996 by Elizabeth II, Monarchy of New Zealand, Queen of New Zealand, "for those ...

in the 1999 New Year Honours in New Zealand followed by the UN–Habitat Scroll of Honour Award in 2003. In 2009 the

University of Waikato The University of Waikato ( mi, Te Whare Wānanga o Waikato), is a Public university, public research university in Hamilton, New Zealand, Hamilton, New Zealand established in 1964. An additional campus is located in Tauranga. The university perfo ...

awarded Daysh an honorary doctorate in recognition of her work in human ecology. After her death the University of Waikato received a $500,000 bequest from Daysh which it used to create a ''Dr Zena Daysh Fellowship in Sustainable Development'' to support research into sustainable development. In 2018 CHEC held the Inaugural Zena Daysh Lecture.

Publications

* Gorinsky, C., Shirley, D., Daysh, Z., & Commonwealth Human Ecology Council. (1991). ''Human ecology, environmental management education and training for development: Report of the Asian Seminar, Jaipur, India 8–12 May 1991''. London: Commonwealth Human Ecology Council.

OCLC OCLC, Inc., doing business as OCLC, See also: is an American nonprofit cooperative organization "that provides shared technology services, original research, and community programs for its membership and the library community at large". It was ...

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* Griffith, A., Daysh, Z., Shirley, D., & Commonwealth Human Ecology Council. (1992). ''The commonwealth and environmental management : a synthesis : Report of the Vancouver seminar 29–31 July 1991'' (Human ecology development series, 3). London: Commonwealth Human Ecology Council.

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* Daysh, Zena. Human ecology and health in a global system. In Boleyn, T., & Honari, M. (2005)
''Health Ecology: Health, Culture and Human-Environment Interaction''. p. xv–xviii.

Early life

Career

Honours and awards

Publications

References

Further reading