Off the Wall 22/July/2015
One of the
conversations which I followed with interest as an observer at last week’s
Uniting Church in Australia 14th Assembly, was the conversation
about the First and Second people and addressing dominant cultures within a
community of faith that is striving to be inclusive. The stories from the Assembly below illustrate
the conversation.
First Peoples are sovereign Peoples
The Assembly
accepted Proposal 25 to explore with the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander
Christian Congress what it would mean for the practices of the Church to
recognise and affirm that First Peoples are sovereign. The proposal had been
put on hold until the Congress could give more information about the words
“sovereignty” and “treaty”.
Uniting
Church President Stuart McMillan said the journey towards Indigenous
recognition in the Australian community echoed the Uniting Church’s deepening
relationship with First Peoples.
“As a Church
we have recognition of Indigenous peoples. Now we need to think about how we
take that further, and we are only taking the first steps towards that now,”
said Mr McMillan.
“We need to
have that conversation – if we recognise First People as sovereign, what does
that mean? It is not just about saying the words, it’s about what that means
for the way we engage with one another, the way we deal with property, and all
those things.”
Tasmania
Mission Development Presbytery Minister Michelle Cook noted that although there
is a definition of sovereignty in the preamble to the Uniting Church
Constitution, “The proposal is intended for the Uniting Church to explore what
it means practically, with the use of property, ministry in our schools,
everything.”
Another request
was added to the proposal for Assembly Standing Committee to develop resources
to educate the Church on the need for a treaty.
Opening a door for Indigenous recognition
The
President, along with the Chair of Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian
Congress in Western Australia, Rev. Sealin Garlett publicly demonstrated their
support for the Recognise campaign in the middle of the Perth CBD last week. The
Recognise campaign aims to garner support for a referendum to mend the
historical exclusion of First Peoples in the Australian Constitution, and to
eliminate racial discrimination in the founding document.
The two
Church leaders met with Mr James Back from Reconciliation Western Australia
outside the Wesley Uniting Church in the city. A five metre long banner was
hung on the front wall of the church building, and a giant sticker featuring
Recognise branding was placed on the busy pavement in front of the church.
Uniting
Church in the City Minister Rev. Craig Collas offered a prayer as he stood by the
sticker.
Rev. Garlett
said the prominent placement of the banner and sticker was a tremendous
statement in support of Indigenous recognition and would be a conversation
starter for the hundreds of people who pass the church every day.
“This jars
the door open for the community to meet us where we are,” said Rev. Garlett,
who is also a Nyungar Elder.
“One of the
things our community is very strong on now is that we have a lot of unanswered
questions. There tends to be a normality of illusions and conclusions that
people make. They put a mould on Indigenous people and put a capacity on where
we are meant to be.”
He said
recognising First Peoples in the Constitution was just the beginning of the
conversation for the community. By unveiling some of the false illusions placed
on his people this recognition would allow the Australian people to take the
next step towards true reconciliation.
“We’ve
worked with a lot of good intentions… it’s time to walk the talk.”
One of the
proposals before the 14th Assembly was to continue to support recognition for
Indigenous people in the Australian Constitution “as long as the form of
recognition offered can be seen as a step towards and not a blockage to the
larger issues of sovereignty and treaty”.
Annual Week of Prayer and Fasting for First
Peoples
Every year
the Uniting Church will have a week of Prayer and Fasting in solidarity with
First Peoples on their journey towards justice and reconciliation.
The Standing
Committee, in partnership with the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian
Congress (UAICC), will facilitate the Week of Prayer and Fasting, which may
involve a pilgrimage to the capital city.
The aim of
the Week will be to deepen the Church’s covenant relationship with First
Peoples, rather than the event being an end in itself.
The first
Week of Prayer and Fasting was held in 2014 as part of the ‘A Destiny Together’
campaign calling for justice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.
It included
a prayerful protest on the lawns of Parliament House in Canberra, and involved
Church members from all over Australia, led by ex-President Rev. Prof. Andrew
Dutney and former Chairperson of the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Congress
Rev. Rronang Garrawurra.
Throughout
the week, members, groups and congregations engaged in a discipline of fasting
and prayer.
The first
Week of Prayer and Fasting was organised as a response to the story-telling and
listening to First Peoples at the 13th Assembly in 2012.
The decision
to make this an annual event was presented along with a number of other
Congress proposals aiming to take the relationship between First Peoples and
the wider Uniting Church to the next level.
The Uniting
Church President, said the Church’s call to prayerful protest was an important
step in moving forward and journeying together.
Standing united against community closures
The 14th
Assembly of the Uniting Church in Australia also stood as one to oppose the
forced closure of remote Aboriginal communities.
The symbolic
action of solidarity was the result of a heartfelt plea by a contingent of
youthful members who pleaded with the Assembly to respond to the potential
closures.
The entire
Assembly meeting including President Stuart McMillan, Nyungar elder Rev. Sealin
Garlett and UAICC Chairperson Rev. Dennis Corowa moved outside the venue of the
assembly, the University of Western Australia’s Winthrop Hall to signal as one
their solidarity with indigenous people in threat of being forced off their
land by Federal and State Government policies.
The full
text of the youth statement can be read at: http://assembly2015.uca.org.au/standing-united-against-community-closures/
More on the
Uniting Church and First people can be found at http://assembly2015.uca.org.au/14th-assembly-approves-congress-proposals/
Whether we
belong to a church, a faith community or merely just wish to live in harmony
with the diverse communities that have come to know Fiji as their home, there
is much we can learn from these conversations that the Uniting Church in
Australia is having. We can reflect on the issue of dominant cultures and minority
cultures; the sovereignty of indigenous people; issues of justice, of listening
to the hurt of people, and the hurt of the land. We can respond to these
conversations by how we chose to live as a multicultural community that
respects the deep spirituality of people, respects an understanding of
relationship to the land, creation and each other; and listens to those in the
margins not just as minorities, but as those whose experiences can empower
others.
“Simplicity,
Serenity, Spontaneity”
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