Glenn Loughrey
14 October 2024
This is part one of a paper, delivered at a recent public forum, outlining the situation Australians find themselves in. It points to the real work required to ‘close the gap’ for justice and unity.
It is now twelve months since the referendum on the Voice. For both First Peoples and allies the result ranged from disappointment to devastation as our Voice as a way forward to deep reconciliation and justice was rejected.
Many of us withdrew from any engagement in this space for a period, allowing ourselves to grieve and reflect on what had happened and what may be possible going forward.
What is needed in this space is not performative or colonial reconciliation – reconciliation that does not change the relationship between the wider society and First peoples – but a radical re-engineering of how we think, see and engage with each other. Our cultures, as I will show are not the same, they are essentially different at their foundation and therefore reconciliation, recognition, Treaty and justice will only be attainable when we recognise this and then commit to the deep work necessary to make the change.
In Luke 4:18-20 Jesus is clear about both his mission and ours. He speaks of systemic and spiritual change that will bring about a new way of being in the world – the kin-dom of God. In its initial hearing it would have been disturbing and revolutionary. It became more so as those who heard it saw him put it into practice in his day-to-day utterances and action.
Jesus called for change that disturbed the foundations of society. As then, for this to happen now requires a re-engineering of self and society for the betterment of all.
Since October 14, 2023, Australia has undergone a transformation in its affection for First Peoples of this country.
I have watched state after state walk back justice and treaty projects. The Northern Territory change of government sees all Australian states committed to 10 as the age of criminal responsibility. NT has also committed to bringing back the spit hood, has promised truancy police and the criminalisation of families whose children find themselves out of school or enmeshed in the criminal justice system and more. The federal government has walked back the promise of national truth-telling and Treaty, instead promising we can own our own houses through mining for minerals necessary to achieve net zero emissions.
Read more: ‘Keep the fires burning’ calls the Church to repentance, reconciliation and justice
Developed in 2017, the Statement from the Heart was discerned during a positive movement of support for First Peoples. It was a time of hope for us and you, hope that we were on a path to a deep time renewal and conciliation worthy of a 21st century nation. This was a false dawn, and we have, as noted before, walked back into the darkness of a colonial past, which is now our colonial present.
Colonialists and missionaries derided our humanity, intelligence and our right to be human. The lack of interest in another teenager committing suicide in custody (in Western Australia) or the responses made to generations-old issues, such as those present in Alice Springs, reminds us little has changed. We remain less than in every way people are judged as human.
White Australia likes our art on their walls (if the colours match the décor) but they won’t break bread with the artist; likes our culture because “it is the oldest living culture in the world”; likes us individually when we become them by going to their schools, speaking their language, go to their universities to become doctors and lawyers; but only want to hear our voices when they need help with insurmountable problems they themselves caused.
Achieving reconciliation, recognition and Treaty becomes more complex when we consider the two cultures involved and realise we are not comparing apples with apples but apples with oranges and, like apples and oranges, the two cultures are radically not the same. You cannot graft an orange tree into an apple tree. If we want to cross apples and oranges then we need to use genetic engineering.
Read more: The church, like society, has become more unsafe for our people
To achieve the objectives set out in the Statement from the Heart, you will need to engage in a serious dose of genetic engineering. Why? You cannot resolve a problem by using the same methods which gave them birth. The Western Eurocentric fetish of possessiveness is responsible for many of the problems of the modern world because of the mission to possess all lands, peoples and resources not themselves, from the 15th century onward. The Doctrine of Discovery laid the philosophical foundation for a world in which invasion, annihilation, assimilation and conscription made all like them and continues to do so.
Coming to the Statement and asking the question, “Is there hope for recognition, reconciliation and treaty, seeking the wisdom of First Peoples to find the way forward?”, could be seen as a continuation of the process of possessing others to get what you need to survive as the dominant culture, even if you couch it as good for all.
Without a large dose of genetic engineering this is doomed to fail.
Why?
Because the genetic material of the culture that produced the wisdom you seek is so unlike yours, that you cannot embrace it and survive without a radical letting go of your privilege, power and right to be right.
In the second part of this article, I am going to address the question of why Australia’s Indigenous peoples and the dominant white culture struggle to connect. I will examine why deep time history is responsible for the difference in cultures. 65,000 years of Aboriginal culture is embedded in a constant renewal that sits within a circle of relational, contextual, birthed knowledge.
The Venerable Canon Uncle Glenn Loughrey is Archdeacon for Reconciliation, First Nations Recognition and Treaty. Part two of his article will follow soon in The Melbourne Anglican.
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