Glenn Loughrey
8 July 2024
As Australia prepares to celebrate the first NAIDOC Week after the failed referendum what are we celebrating?
Official NAIDOC documents suggest we are celebrating resilience and culture: the resilience shown by First People to remain hopeful despite all that has happened, and the culture which remains the oldest living tradition and is held up as a key difference between Australia and other nations.
Resilience is the essence of the slogan, “Keep the fires burning”. It encourages us not to lose hope for a better future for ourselves, our children, our elders and our country.
Read more: New safe space for First Nations’ people
This hope we are called to is not hopeful but feels deeply hopeless for we are dispossessed repeatedly of its fulfillment. Despite the many commitments, declarations and promises, what we hope for has never materialised. Is this a slogan of possibility or of disempowerment? Does it keep us locked out of the decision making, equality of voice and power, and marginalised in a story of deficit and disorder?
Culture remains our prison. Mainstream Australia celebrates and benefits economically from our culture, art, and land care, but fails to recognise the people who are responsible for its production. The divide is glaring – we only recognise First People when they assimilate into the middle-class aspirations of education, career, home ownership, faith and success, not when we are our original selves, pushing back against the capitalist anthems of growth, success and progress. Culture is powerful when in synergy with country but powerless when separated from it and used for economic or ideological purposes.
The NAIDOC website suggests the second theme, “Blak, Loud and Proud” encapsulates the unapologetic celebration of Indigenous identity, empowering us to stand tall in our heritage and assert our place in the modern world. This theme calls for a reclamation of narratives, an amplification of voices, and an unwavering commitment to justice and equality.
At the recent Provincial Evensong, the Anglican Province of Victoria took an important step towards “reclamation of narratives, an amplification of voices, and an unwavering commitment to justice and equality”. The collation of a Provincial Archdeacon for Reconciliation, First Peoples Recognition and Treaty is a Treaty action in itself. It signifies that the Church is open to covenanting with First Peoples to address past actions and to come together for a better future for all.
Read more: Australians urged to respect elders, past as they look to future
In the presence of church leaders and representatives of the Yoorook Truth and Justice Commission, the First Peoples Assembly and other First Peoples present, the church confirmed its response to Commissioner Lovett’s question at the recent Yoorook hearings, “Is the church open to treaty as a firm and confident yes?”
In his sermon Bishop Richard Treloar stated;
In the written submission of Victorian dioceses to the Yoorrook Justice Commission, and at the hearing, the emergence of a Provincial Aboriginal Anglican Council was an example of how we are seeking to address historic and systemic injustices, with Indigenous clergy and lay people being supported in key leadership roles.
He continued:
Today represents an important step forward in that process, and the project Archdeacon Glenn now leads is potentially transformative – if we are open to what First Peoples in our church might ask of Second Peoples in our church, and, indeed, open to the recommendations the Commission will make in due course.
“Keep the fires burning” calls the Church to faithfulness to repentance, reconciliation and the call for justice and love at the centre of the gospel, while calling First People to remain faithful to the cause of justice and repair at the centre of country.
May this NAIDOC see us beginning this exciting adventure together, Blak Loud and Proud as we all keep the fires burning.
The Venerable Canon Uncle Glenn Loughrey is Archdeacon for Reconciliation, First Nations Recognition and Treaty.
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