From the Chaplains

This week at the College we have been reminding ourselves of the importance of Reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. The theme for this year’s National Reconciliation Week is ‘Be a Voice for the Generations’.

It is heartening for me to see this generation of young people, on the whole, growing up to have a good understanding of the wrongs that have been committed in the past and how these wrongs have caused trauma and disadvantage that continues into the present. Best of all, many of our young people want to be part of the generation that makes things better for everyone. While directing political decisions is not the role of the school, it is our role to educate, engage students in important topical issues, and stimulate curiosity and respectful debate.

An educative document I share with my students is the interactive Massacre Map developed by the University of Newcastle. This map continues to evolve, being constantly added to as more evidence and stories come to light. It documents the massacres that occurred during Australia’s frontier wars between 1788 and 1930. A few of the dots on the map mark the sites where First Nations people killed colonists. The vast majority show where colonists killed First Nations people. Men, women and children died. It makes confronting reading.

In a joint statement, the President of the Uniting Church in Australia, Rev Sharon Hollis, and the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress (UAICC) Interim National Chair, Rev Mark Kickett, affirmed their strong support for a Voice to Parliament as a critical step toward honouring the sovereignty of First Nations Australians in this land and furthering the work of truth-telling and treaty. The Assembly Standing Committee (ASC) in March declared the support of the Uniting Church in Australia for the change in the constitution to recognise an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to Parliament. The Uniting Church have developed an online resource that you may wish to read which outlines their rationale for supporting The First Nations Voice proposal.

Ahead of the Australian Indigenous Voice referendum later this year, all Australians are encouraged to listen, learn, consider the facts, engage in respectful debate and think deeply about where our nation has come from and where we are going.

“All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.”

Edwina O’Brien

Assistant Chaplain