In the small town of Sevenhill in the Clare Valley of South Australia, a handful of Jesuits gathered with representatives of Jesuit schools, ministries and Aboriginal colleagues to chart a path for the Australian Province’s Indigenous Ministry.
Fr Brian McCoy SJ, Provincial Assistant for Ministry among Indigenous Peoples, convened the gathering together in late August with Fr Pat Mullins SJ and Fr Maurie Heading SJ. These three priests are considered pioneers in this work, with over four decades of accompaniment and service to various Indigenous communities across Australia.
The ministry finds itself at a crossroads, with fewer priests and a different socio-political environment far removed from the heightened activism of the past. “I sensed it was time to recognise we are at a turning point,” said Fr McCoy. “This is not the 1970s. There aren’t 20 Jesuits in their 30s busting to get out there. But there are things happening. Often it is laypeople picking up some of this work. I thought it was time to bring some of these people together.”
Participants shared stories and reflected on ways to proceed from these experiences. Fr McCoy asked, “How do we work with the education mob, how do they link across with social ministry, how does social ministry work with parish ministries? How do these things get brought together? It’s not enough to be active. We have to be far more reflective and reflexive.”
“Nothing about them without them” is the guiding mantra for the ministry’s future direction, Fr McCoy emphasized. Relationships need to be at the heart of the Indigenous ministry, and the work should be built and maintained in partnership with Indigenous people.
These challenges will be played out in the recently opened Aboriginal Catholic Services building on the premises of the Holy Family Parish in Emerton, a Jesuit parish in the Greater Western Sydney region.
The region is home to the biggest number of cultural groups and is one of the most marginalised communities in Australia. The parish already hosts a range of social programmes in partnership with groups such as St Vincent de Paul Society, Jesuit Social Services and the Men’s Shed.
The addition of this building presents opportunities for collaboration between the community and the parish, as they work together to deliver a range of services dealing with concerns on youth, men’s health, women in prison, education, employment and domestic abuse.
Finding a home in the Emerton parish was a triumph for Aunty Janice Kennedy, Team Leader at Aboriginal Catholic Services. “We’ve been waiting all our life to say we’ve got something of our own!” she said.
Aunty Janice’s jubilant words echo the longstanding struggle for Indigenous participation and self determination, one of the core issues of Indigenous advocates.
Another issue important to Indigenous communities is the mainstream recognition of their culture and heritage.
Testifying to a Jesuit tradition of respect for Indigenous culture is the new Aboriginal Studies Centre in St Ignatius’ College Riverview. The Centre was named “Yennibeu”, an Aboriginal word which means “coming together to become one, respect and caring for each other, a unification of spirit”.
According to Mr Shane Hogan, headmaster at Riverview, the name was chosen after a long and painstaking process, an experience that shows the complex role of language and culture in establishing these relationships. “Even the process of getting the name explains something to us in dealing with our Indigenous brothers. It’s not as easy just to take a name and stick it on the outside,” said Mr Hogan.
These stories not only reaffirm the increasing prominence of laypeople in carrying out programmes within this ministry, but also show the need for attentiveness in relationship building. “All of us still have a lot of learning to do,” Fr McCoy said. “We have to start by being more reflective about what we do and how we do it. It is not enough to say we mean well.”
The Indigenous ministry can be a difficult frontier in the Province’s mission. All over the world, advocates for Indigenous people encounter the challenges facing them as the toughest issues to resolve.
The Sevenhill gathering takes a step forward in its commitment to bring Indigenous communities into the decision making process. It also demonstrates that Jesuits and laypeople are committed to strengthening the capacity of the Province to create and sustain alliances across a growing network that also shares this work.
In the meantime, the word “Yennibeu” from Riverview is a most useful reminder. The emerging path should be one of “coming together to become one, respect and caring for each other, a devotion to each other, a unification of spirit”.
Photo: Fr Brian McCoy, Provincial Assistant for Ministry among Indigenous Peoples, convened the gathering at Sevenhill along with Fr Pat Mullins SJ and Fr Maurie Heading SJ.