I recently participated in the annual Eucharistic celebration held at the St Francis Church in Melbourne to mark the closure of NAIDOC week – a most significant event for our Australian society. At this Mass we were welcomed by women - aunties who are esteemed by their communities as valiant women of faith (Proverbs 31). Surrounding them were their families and the next generation of grandchildren. As they processed into the Church, they proudly announced their culture, with didgeridoo and clap sticks echoing throughout the community. They announced ‘we are here, we are present and our presence echoes our presence over 60,000 years’. What a moment of revelation for those gathered.

The liturgy was written by Fr Kevin B. McKelson, Pallotine priest, who spent his years immersed in the cultures of the indigenous peoples of the Kimberley. There he learnt their deep spirituality, grounded in the Spirit of the land itself upon which they tread gently over centuries. Kevin became proficient in several of the local indigenous languages and, in doing so, absorbed their understanding of spirituality and place. The indigenous liturgy approved for the Eucharistic Congress in 1973 in Melbourne is a tribute to his collaborative efforts.

The music that accompanied the liturgy was beautifully arranged for organ and clap sticks! It was so natural, engaging all of those gathered together IN eucharist to participate and respond. One could not help but be drawn into this sacred moment, of the ancient and the ‘now’, as young children danced, curiously pointed and explored the sanctuary where they were at home in God’s house.

The eminent American psychologist Thomas Moore wrote in his exploratory work, Original Self (Harper Collins, 2000), based on his lifelong learning from Carl Gustav Jung:

When a society loses its soul, it develops many neurotic behaviours, among them paranoia and xenophobia. Xenophobia is an anxiety in the presence of strangers or simply whatever is strange and unusual. The ancient work the Odyssey, is a story about a wandering man who is always a stranger among those he visits on his journey. (p 23)

In further reflection on The Voice to Parliament, I wonder if Moore’s words might capture something of the fact that, in so many ways, we recent arrivals are strangers in a land we do not yet know and have little understanding and appreciation of its story. Strangely, while the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders feel dislocated from their land, we as recent arrivals have little spiritual connection to it at all. We are strangers in a foreign land.

Acknowledging our shared dislocation might well be the place of engagement. Together we can walk a journey to discover the inherent richness of storytelling that will speak the truth in love, revealing the wounds and scars of past atrocities that continue to traumatise their descendants and family groups today. In reflecting on the mystery of past hurts, the distinguished theologian Jürgen Moltmann reminds us:

‘Seeking to forget makes exile all the longer; the secret of redemption lies in remembrance.’ These words are inscribed on the Jewish Holocaust Remembrance Centre at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem.[1]

To honour the memory of re-member-ing is intrinsic to healing a past that has abused, misused and violated. The danger is in the forgetting of the past and the wounds inflicted that cry out for healing and atonement.

The focus of this year’s NAIDOC week announced by Aboriginal Catholic Ministry is Sent Forth in Strength and Hope. How appropriate is this in the Jubilee Year of Hope which summons us all into this mystery of seeing beyond the current realities. I conclude with the powerful words contained in the Mass booklet for the celebrationof ATSI Sunday:

Our Catholic Church is a tapestry woven from many cultures. From the ensuring wisdom of the world’s oldest continuing cultures – the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples- to those who have journeyed from distant lands, we are the one body of Christ. In our diversity, we discover the richness. In our unity, we find strength. And in every heart, we see the spirit of God at work. (Celebrating Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Sunday with the Aboriginal Catholic Ministry, 13 July 2025, St Francis Church Melbourne)

[1] Jürgen Moltmann, Hope in These Troubled Times, WCC Publications, 2019, p.179, https://www.oikoumene.org/sites/default/files/2024-06/Hope_in_These_Troubled_Times_Web.pdf