The Divine Word Missionaries and Holy Spirit Sisters were well-represented at the recent National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Catholic Council (NATSICC) Assembly in Townsville, along with members of the First Nations communities with whom they live and work. 

SVD confreres from Central Australia, Palm Island and Townsville travelled to the significant national event to share about their ministries and learn from others, under the Assembly theme of ‘Holy Spirit in this Land’.

Townsville Bishop Tim Harris opened and closed the Assembly with moving words and the Assembly also received a video message from the Australian Ambassador to the Holy See, Chiara Porro.

Darwin Bishop Charles Gauci said conference members discussed the proposed referendum for an Indigenous Voice to Parliament in “great detail”. 

“We also talked about actioning the holy spirit, the Uluru Statement, and discussed how we can support Indigenous Australians in becoming church leaders,” he told The Catholic Leader.

Parish Priest of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Parish in Alice Springs, Fr Prakash Menezes SVD, says it was “a very positive meeting”.

He says it was an opportunity for the Central Australia Aboriginal Catholic Chaplaincy, together with community members, to share about the new Catechist Pilot Program being trialled in Central Australia.

“This is a project supported by Catholic Mission, NATSICC, Darwin Diocese, the SVD and the Central Australian Arrernte people,” Fr Prakash says.

“The project aims to create faith leaders from within the Arrernte people’s own community to share their faith and stories with the next generation.

“We were asked to present about the project to the NATSICC Assembly and we received very good feedback about it.”

Fr Prakash says two elders, one candidate for the Catechist Program and one youth were part of the presentation, which was facilitated by NATSICC Deputy Chairperson, Shirley Quaresimin.

“The elders and candidate led the morning prayer at the Assembly on Thursday morning and then in the afternoon, gave the presentation,” he says.

The Central Australian contingent also presented a piece of original artwork at the Assembly.

“Everyone was asked to bring an artwork expressing their idea of leadership in their community,” Fr Prakash says.

“The ladies from Central Australia had been painting their artwork for the two weeks leading up to the Assembly and it expressed their idea of leadership, which involves the whole community – the yarning circle, where ideas come not from the top down, but from the community up.

“The elders are our consultants on this Catechist Program.”

Fr Prakash says the Central Australians also made some bookmarks as a gift to Assembly members, featuring the basic Catholic prayers of the Our Father and the Hail Mary in the Arrernte language.

Fr Alfonse Nahak SVD, who is part of the Central Australian Catholic Chaplaincy, says he gained a lot from his first NATSICC Assembly.

“It was a wonderful experience for me, meeting people from different parts of Australia who are engaged in this ministry with our First Nations people,” he says.

“The meeting made me feel like we in the Catholic Church, despite our challenges and failings, are really trying our best to walk together with First Nations people.

“Sometimes, out in Central Australia, we feel that our ministry is hard, so it was interesting for me to hear stories from some other people about how they do their ministry, and of course, to hear from the First Nations people themselves.”

Fr Manh Le SVD was part of a group from Palm Island who attended the Assembly, along with Holy Spirit Sisters Mere and Gracia and members of the island community.

Also part of the group was local First Nations woman Dianne Foster, who shared with members of the Assembly something of the troubled history and present-day situation of Palm Island, located just off the Townsville coast.

Today's population on Palm Island are mostly descendants of people taken to the Palm Island Aboriginal Settlement from 1914 up to 1971. Estimates vary, but the number of tribal groups represented by the descendants, known as the Bwgcolman people, is at least 43 and has been said to represent 57 different language groups. At least 5,000 people were forcibly removed to the reserve from all over Queensland, the Torres Strait and Melanesian islands. 

While out on a field excursion visiting some of the traditional sacred and hunting sites of the Townsville area during the NATSICC Assembly, Dianne and her husband Stanley were asked to give a brief history of Palm Island, which the group could see in the distance.

“So, my husband Stanley and I gave a bit of a talk on how it came about that all the Aboriginal people from all over ended up on Palm Island, and people were really interested in the story,” she says.

Dianne’s maternal grandfather from Central Australia was sent to Palm Island after “getting into trouble for hunting on their own land”. Her father’s family, from rainforest country in North Queensland, had a similar story.

“We told the people at the Assembly about all the struggles and the government Acts we had to live under, how people from different tribal groups and different language groups all ended up trying to co-exist and how people felt about going back to their own home country on the mainland.

“There was a lot of inter-generational trauma and people are still struggling with it today.”

Dianne says she found the NATSICC gathering “just beautiful”.

“I really feel things are coming together for Aboriginal Australians in the Catholic Church,” she says. “People are wanting to know our story now, to know more about our culture and our history, and that feels really good. It means we can start walking the road of recovery together.”

Occurring every three years, the NATSICC assembly invited Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Catholics and other community groups to gather and discuss prominent issues. NATSICC Chair and Indigenous Australian, John Lochowiak said the five-day event was a fantastic opportunity to share culture and stories. 

Also attending this year’s assembly were Fr Joseph Reddy SVD and Fr Clement Baffoe SVD from the Good Shepherd Pastoral Region in Townsville and Shehan Fernando, an SVD student currently on pastoral placement in Central Australia.

PHOTOS

TOP RIGHT: Some of the SVD and SSpS contingent at the NATSICC conference in Townsville.

MIDDLE LEFT: NATSICC delegates take part in a Yarning Circle during the Assembly.

MIDDLE RIGHT: The original painting presented at the Assembly from the Central Australia delegates, expressing their vision for leadership.

BOTTOM LEFT: Some of the NATSICC delegates from Central Australia and Palm Island.

BOTTOM RIGHT: Members of the Palm Island NATSICC delegation.