The Santa Teresa – Ltyentye Apurte community in Central Australia has celebrated its 70th anniversary with prayer, thanksgiving and a pilgrimage back to the location of the Little Flower Mission, where it all began.
Parish Priest of Santa Teresa, Fr Olivier Noclam SVD, said the anniversary celebration was “a really great occasion”, as the community of Eastern Arrernte people remembered not only their rich cultural history over thousands of years, but also their history as a Catholic community.
“It was a really great experience for those of us who were there,” Fr Ollie said. “It was a really good celebration.”
The celebrations got underway on Friday, October 20, the week before the actual anniversary with a pilgrimage retracing the early history of the Santa Teresa community to Charles Creek, Arltunga and back to Santa Teresa.
“We started with a Mass at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart church in Alice Springs, beginning with a smoking ceremony and parts of the Mass in the Arrernte language, and the blessing of the Anniversary Cross” Fr Ollie said.
“Then we had a barbecue together organised by the priests and the seminarians.
“The next day we headed to Charles Creek, where we had Mass to celebrate and commemorate the history of the Charles Creek mission.”
The roots of the Santa Teresa community go all the way back to 1935 when Fr Patrick Maloney MSC established the Little Flower Mission in the backyard of the Catholic presbytery in Bath Street, Alice Springs.
According to a history compiled by the OLSH Sisters, Fr Maloney’s primary mandate was “to establish a mission for the Central Australian Arrernte tribe who had been despoiled of their hunting grounds because of the advent of the mining and pastoral activities in the area, and who were living as fringe-dwellers around the town”.
Fr Maloney, who had been providing some food and assistance to the people, started a school for the children, using the space underneath the presbytery for the classroom.
Knowing he couldn’t continue alone in this ministry, with only the assistance of Brother Bennett MSC and Frank McGarry, a layman, Fr Maloney wrote to the Provincial of the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, Mother Concepta Henschke, asking her for help.
In February the following year, 1938, the first three of the promised six sisters arrived.
In the meantime, as the presence of the Aboriginal people was deemed to be causing problems for the townspeople, the Government Administration offered Fr Maloney a tract of land outside the town for a mission reserve – at Charles Creek, near Anzac Hill, about 1km from the centre of Alice Springs.
In 1937, Fr Maloney established a church school on the site.
The number of Eastern Arrernte people moving to Charles Creek placed an enormous strain on the scant water supply and as World War Two got underway, the struggling village at Charles Creek was turned into a vast war supply dump as well as an important military centre for troops.
The proximity of the mission at Charles Creek to this bustling town was now deemed to be unsuitable for the Aboriginal people.
In September 1942 the whole community was moved to a temporary home at Cross Roads Well near Arltunga about 130km north-east of Alice Springs, but the water supply problem continued there. Under the pastoral care of Fr Harry Eather MSC who had succeeded Fr Maloney, and the OLSH Sisters, the Arltunga Mission continued there for 10 years, providing education, health care, maintenance, spiritual and material support to the East Arrernte people. But the perilous water supply meant that in 1953, a reluctant decision had to me taken to move the mission for a third time, this time to Santa Teresa, about 80km south-east of Alice Springs.
The new Santa Teresa mission stood on land granted as a lease to Bishop John O’Loughlin MSC by the Administrator of the Northern Territory, which boasted a plentiful supply of underground water.
In 1976, in accordance with the Aboriginal Land Rights (NT) Act, the lease converted to Aboriginal freehold land. The administration of the area was taken over by a Land Trust comprised of traditional owners and the area was renamed Ltyentye Apurte.
The community has remained firm in its Catholic faith and the Divine Word Missionaries took up the pastoral care of Santa Teresa in 1998.
Fr Ollie said the pilgrimage back to Alice Springs, Charles Creek, Arltunga and finally Santa Teresa was very meaningful for those who took part.
“At Arltunga we toured the old Little Flower Mission, had an evening meal around the campfire and camped overnight, and then on the Sunday, we had Mass on the concrete floor of the old and destroyed Little Flower church, followed by a ceremony in the cemetery at Arltunga for a blessing of the graves before leaving for Santa Teresa after lunch,” he said.
“Then we finished with a concluding prayer at the Santa Teresa church in the afternoon.”
On the following weekend, the celebrations got underway on Friday afternoon with children’s games and a barbecue, followed by the anniversary Mass on Sunday and a community breakfast.
The anniversary Mass was celebrated by Darwin Bishop Charles Gauci, along with Fr Ollie, former parish priest and newly appointed Vicar-General for Darwin Diocese Fr Prakash Menezes SVD, and the Marist Brothers Provincial in Australia, Brother Peter Carroll FMS.
“Another highlight was the lighting up of the Santa Teresa cross,” said Fr Ollie.
“This cross is on a hill standing above Santa Teresa and can be seen for a long way around out here.”
Fr Ollie said the Santa Teresa community continues to develop, and, while remote, it now features a range of community services, including a health clinic, a creche, a school (pre-school to Year 12, providing bi-lingual education), the church, general store, police station, sport facilities, community aged care centre, and the renowned Spirituality Centre, where the women of the community paint crosses and other works of art and faith for sale around the world.
“From a spiritual perspective, the people of Santa Teresa remain Catholic and it is a very stable community, with not much violence or drinking like in other places,” he said.
“Together, we are always trying to promote the Arrernte culture, especially in the liturgy, and the people remain strong in their traditional culture knowledge and practice.
“The anniversary was a really good celebration and it helped people get back in touch with this part of their story.”
PHOTOS
TOP RIGHT: The anniversary celebrations began with a smoking ceremony and then Mass at Our Lady of the Rosary church in Alice Springs.
TOP LEFT: The Mass included the blessing of the Anniversary Cross.
MIDDLE RIGHT: The plaque commemorating the Little Flower Mission at Arltunga.
MIDDLE LEFT: Bishop Charles Gauci celebrates the 70th Anniversary Mass at Santa Teresa.
BOTTOM RIGHT: Members of the Santa Teresa community after Mass at the conclusion of the anniversary weekend.