It was with the rich timbres of a didgeridoo that Sydney’s annual Mass to commence NAIDOC Week began, as dozens of Sydneysiders gathered at La Perouse’s Reconciliation Church for a celebration and commemoration of Australia’s Indigenous community, reports The Catholic Weekly.

Through original hymns composed by Aboriginal Catholics past and present, parishioners sung for Christ to give strength and vision to the next generation of advocates, and to move forward from losses, including the failure of the 2023 Indigenous Voice Referendum.

*Fr Frank Brennan SJ (left) at Reconciliation Church, La Perouse. PHOTO: Supplied/Catholic Weekly.*

Fr Frank Brennan SJ also remarked on the sentencing in June of the killers of WA Indigenous teenager Cassius Turvey, and said despite a greater awareness of the need for healing injuries of the past, Australia still possesses “the social sin of racism”.

“As Roger Haight, a very fine American Jesuit theologian, said: ‘Cultural and social racism in its more objective forms subsists in the setup of society in which we all participate’,” he said.

“The same can be said of Australia. While we are not a society of racists, we are a racist society.”

Fr Brennan also expressed hope that Catholics across Australia would continue to pray to Christ for cultural parity with the First Nations community.

“May the coming generations find strength and vision through the legacy of their forbears,” he prayed.

“Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.”

Present at the Mass was Noel D’Souza, a councillor for the Randwick City Council, and parishioner of St Agnes Catholic Parish in Matraville.

He told The Catholic Weekly the Catholic community has a significant role to play in continuing to address cultural polarities between the Aboriginal community and wider society.

“The very theme of NAIDOC Week this week is strength, vision and legacy, and that says a lot because, as Fr Brennan pointed out about losing the Voice vote, we’re still healing,” he said.

“Our words can help people to heal from that, and can be a continuation of a process where as a nation, we need to face the truth and move forward.”

Fr Brennan agreed NAIDOC Week showcases the church’s sense of hope across the nation.

“It’s such a wonderful celebration of everything Pope John Paul II said back in 1986, about making this the church for Aboriginal people,” he said.

“We need to stand together to get our society together, rather than divide society apart.”

This article by Alex Woolnough was published in The Catholic Weekly.