This weekend Catholic Churches across Australia celebrate Social Justice Sunday. The Australian Catholic Bishops annual statement is entitled Listen, Learn, Love: A New Engagement with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People. The statement contains a reflection from John Lochowiak, Chair of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Catholic Council. I found the statement quite moving. John Lochowiak shares the story of one person’s experience of living in Cherbourg, a government sanctioned protectorate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Queensland. It is a sobering read. This story was repeated in States and Territories around Australia, as Indigenous communities were coerced on to Aboriginal Reserves during the first half of the twentieth century. In Victoria the Coranderrk Station was the earliest of such settlements.
The truth is that the engagement with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in Australia has been fraught for over two centuries. The Social Justice Statement profiles the results of the 2022 Closing the Gap report. While there are a few positive indicators, there are some alarming gaps that must still be addressed. Life expectancy, incarceration and suicide rates are among three of the most concerning. An Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander male has a life expectancy of eleven years less than other Australian males. For females the gap is four years.
So, the Australian Catholic Bishops are calling Australians to a new engagement. Their plea is for an engagement that begins with listening, learning and loving. I think I can do that. I think that I can listen more to the stories of Aboriginal and Torres Islander people. Sometimes the listening brings with it things that I do not want to hear or that I find hard to hear: stories of racism, stories of people being treated as inferiors; stories of those being told by others what is best for them. And of course there are wonderful invigorating stories: there are the stories of how to live in a harsh land, stories of ancient wisdom and spirit; stories from the great south land of the Holy Spirit.
I am sure that I can learn too. I know that my own education has many gaps in the history and experience of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. I can’t have a new engagement without learning more. Tricia Norman has collated a number of resources for us as parishioners in the learning of the stories and perspectives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. In particular, she has collated resources that may help us explore the issues around The Voice and the upcoming referendum.
I also hope that in my listening and learning I can learn to love more. The Statement of the Australian Catholic Bishops urges us to foster a civilisation of love. ‘To come together in friendship and love to show all that love can not only change individual lives, but that it can change society for the better’.
I would encourage you to read this year’s Statement. I hope you find it as stimulating as I did. I will give the final word to the Australian Bishops Conference itself:
We urge every Catholic and all people of
goodwill to take every opportunity to join with
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in
dialogue about their hopes and dreams for
the future and about whether the Voice
proposal could help to bring about change for
the better. Listen and learn from what you
hear. Let love guide you in making a decision
that supports Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander peoples to find justice.
19 Brenbeal Street, Balwyn VIC 3103
Telephone: 03 9816 9291
Email: [email protected]
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Jim Boyle says:
A YES vote on the referendum about a VOICE will support the clear, just and passionate call of our First Nations community as expressed so eloquently in the “ULURU STATEMENT FROM THE HEART.”
If you haven’t read that statement, which was constructed after much careful consideration over multiple consultations across many meetings of our First Nations community, find yourself a copy and consider it carefully.
If anyone has any doubt about the desires of our First Nations community – please read and think on the issues and options that can be made available to all Australians by a successful referendum, and the disastrous problems that a NO vote would undoubtedly unleash.
In justice – please vote YES and do all that you can to develop and spread better understanding of the real issues than the trite nonsense of the rhyming slogan – “If you don’t know – vote no.” That slogan recommends that if you don’t know the issues and options involved, make your vote before making any effort to dispel your ignorance.
As a responsible citizen, don’t you want to have a positive effect in our community worthy of more respect than a vote where you’ve not understood and seriously considered the relevant issues?
Each of us has a vote, please use your vote responsibly after carefully getting information to understand the issues and options involved, rather than contributing a vote that is unduly influenced by a simplistic rhyming slogan. This is an important issue, far too important for such a trivial consideration as the simplicity and rhythm of a slogan.
Maureen O'Halloran says:
Thank you Father Brendan and Jim Boyle I agree with your comments. We all need to “listen, learn, and love” more and to make an effort to read and understand the true history of our Country and acknowledge the good and the bad of that history no matter how difficult it may be to accept. It is only right that we finally update our Constitution to include First Nations. I look forward to Tricia Normans collated resources for further learning.
Neil De Cruz says:
I agree that this debate cannot be reduced to the simplistic slogan “If you don’t know, vote no” – If you don’t know, please educate yourself to work out the issues involved, read the “Yes” case, read the “No”case. As Catholics we are required to inform our consciences…..