It’s a long way from Fr Prakash Menezes SVD’s home in India to his parish of Santa Teresa in the Central Australian desert country, but it is exactly the kind of Christ-led and people-centred life he hoped for when he signed up to be a missionary priest.

Fr Prakash joined the Divine Word Missionaries in India and undertook his theological studies and formation in Melbourne, where he made his final vows and was ordained to the priesthood in 2014.

There is no second-guessing, the current life-style of many Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples is a battle ground for people who care. Who else in the world is suffering from dispossession, relocation and separation without having to leave their country? You don’t need to visit off-shore detention centres to feel the misery of a people longing for full liberation.

The massive challenges facing the first peoples of this land are far from over. Like everyone else on this planet, the needs are real because the people are real. The ministry today is absolutely hard yakka for anyone willing to have a crack at it.

When the small Central Australian community of Santa Teresa empties out every year on the Sunday of the June long weekend as the residents head out to watch all the action of the Finke Desert Race, Fr Prakash Menezes SVD knows exactly what to do – he takes Mass to the people, trackside.

The tradition started about 10 or 12 years ago, long before Fr Prakash arrived, but he is happy to keep it going.

The Alice Springs parish is planning to mark two historical milestones while strengthening the fruits of reconciliation Pope Saint John Paul II spoke about during his visit there three decades ago.

Parish priest Fr Asaeli Raass SVD said the parish had much to celebrate this year with the 50th anniversary of their church – Our Lady of the Sacred Heart – and 90 years since the parish’s first priest, Fr James Long MSC, celebrated the first Catholic Mass on the land of the Arrernte people.

Fr Nick de Groot SVD has hit the ground running on his new assignment to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart parish in Alice Springs, meeting the people and “soaking up the atmosphere” of the Central Australian community.

The new assignment came as somewhat of a surprise to Fr Nick, who had recently moved to the SVD’s Marsfield community to take up retirement.

The Santa Teresa Parish in Central Australia has been celebrating this month, with hard-working, but humble, parishioner Miriam Dieudonne being awarded a Service to Community Award from the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Catholic Council (NATSICC).

Miriam was the winner of the Non-Indigenous category in the awards which recognise and celebrate the efforts of those involved in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ministry. Fellow long-time parishioner Bill Ryan was also awarded a certificate of recognition in the same category.

Reconciliation Week is observed in the last week in May. This year, it runs from Sunday May 27 through to the June 3, also coinciding with the first anniversary of the ‘Uluru Statement from the Heart,’ issued by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander elders at their gathering in Central Australia in 2017.

The voiced essence of the Uluru Statement was the seeking of constitutional reforms to empower the First Peoples to take their rightful place in their own land: not tokenistic gestures of recognition, but true voices enshrined in the Constitution of Australia, with all peoples walking together into a better future.

Fr Vincent Mai SVD was born in Saigon, Vietnam, and since being assigned to the SVD AUS Province, has ministered in Alice Springs, Santa Teresa, and now Katherine, in the Northern Territory. Here Vincent shares his story, along with his hopes for his new parish assignment in the Top End.

"My hopes for ministry in Katherine are that, in my role as priest, I can share and proclaim the Good News for my sisters and brothers here as much as possible."