An Obadiah Slope column
Archbishop Kanishka Raffel asked three indigenous leaders, Larissa Minniecon, a Synod member from St John’s Glebe; Naville Naden, Indigenous Ministry Officer of Bush Church Aid; and Michael Duckett, pastor of Macarthur Anglican Church, to address the Sydney Anglican Synod (church parliament) on reconciliation and the Voice.
Larissa Minniecon spoke of her experience as a young Indigenous woman, using the lens of Intersectionality.
She began by referring to Psalm 89: “Last year, when I stood up here to give my maiden speech, I offered the Scripture to you. God has set the standard of justice as part of his character, he cannot be unjust, and he defines his work as perfect. And all of these ways are just God is just. ‘Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your term. steadfast love and faithfulness.'”
She explained intersectionality as being experienced “when oppression and privilege intersect.” “I’m standing before you as an Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander. I’m single. I’m from social housing. I have a low income. And looking at this, when we look at when we look at oppression, this room is majority male, of a certain age, of a certain race, of a certain education, of a certain position in society.
“But then I look at my parentage, and the practice that I have access to. This is a privilege – that I stand here before you as a synod member. It is a privilege that I represent in this Voice. And it is a privilege that I am holding my church’s values. And it is a privilege that, as a synod member, the power that our hope is a collective one. And that there are multiple layers to my identity.”
Minniecon used the story of the Samaritan woman at the well to point out shifting power dynamics between the women who had the power to give Jesus a cup of water and Jesus who offered living water. “It’s a privilege Jesus is offering living water as a gift. And there’s the oppression that the Samaritan woman is debating this gift in the position of distrust and skepticism.”
“Today, the position of truth telling in the church is one of the most important roles that we need in our communities. For First Nations Christians, we see our wells of living water, running dry. You can see interpret this as members of the Church, pastors and ministers and chaplains and deacons.”
Minnieconn hailed two heroes, Aunty Pat Anderson, an Alyawarre woman and the Chairperson of the Lowitja Foundation, and Law Professor Megan Davis, a former Chair of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. “Their professionalism and grace during this referendum has been the catalyst of why I’m saying yes to compact to campaigning for the Voice and understanding that I’m not trying to create guilt or apathy for the Australian people. But to see that through an intersectional lens, we can create a well of living water. That is, steadfast love, faithful and righteousness as we move not towards the referendum but beyond this referendum.”
Neville Naden recounted a history of attempts at reconciliation: the Royal Commission in to Death in Custody, and the March for Reconciliation across the Harbour Bridge in 2000. “22 years later, the question has to be asked, what have we achieved over 22 years of trying to address the issues of a divided country? What have we achieved I suggest very little.”
He described sovereignty and reconciliation as the concepts underpinning the voice.
“This country has endeavored since colonisation, to have a situation whereby past injustices to our First Nations people can be addressed. The question that has to be asked is, is reconciliation possible outside the church? In 2 Corinthians 5:8–20, we have what I believe is the prescription for a reconciliation that does work. And it doesn’t come from a walk over a bridge. It doesn’t come from two parties sitting down and discussing how they can be one. It doesn’t involve a council saying what will or what won’t work for bringing people together as one.”
Naden outlines that the ministry of reconciliation described by Paul is superior to secular reconciliation because God overcomes the human element. And reconciliation implies that a oneness existed before. “And we know that that’s never existed in this country and my people say, ‘How can we have reconciliation when we will never one in the first place?’ And that is so so true.”
“I’m talking about put reconciliation in two categories. One is biblical reconciliation,then there’s secular reconciliation. Secular reconciliation says if you do something for me, and I do something for you, we can have a relationship. You get that that’s what this country has been trying to do since colonisation, doing something for one another, in order that we might have a relationship. Biblical reconciliation says it is not what you do for me, or what I do for you, it’s what Christ has done for both of us.”
Biblical reconciliation is what the church should concentrate on, Naden said. “And I want to remind us, guys, that’s our core business as the church. Let’s not get distracted from doing that reconciliation. There are plenty of people outside the church that can work towards a secular reconciliation that leads to, you know, better jobs and so forth and so on. And that’s important. Don’t get me wrong. But our core business is a biblical model of reconciliation.”
Addressing sovereignity, Naden said that it truly belongs to God. “God doesn’t give His sovereignty to anyone. You don’t see anywhere in Scripture that God gives away his sovereignity, he gives custodianship of stewardship to people. A healthy understanding of those two things that [are]underpinning this voice – that’s what’s needed in this space.”
Michael Duckett: Referring to his dot painting of a map of Sydney Diocese with three circles for Aboriginal-led churches, he recounts getting out his paintbrush that morning and squeezing in a fourth. Having spent times with Ray Minniecon, Larissa’s father, he wanted to honour the work God is doing in Glebe’s Aboriginal ministry.
“So here you’ll see four different identifies gatherings amongst 50,000 people [the Indifenous population od Sydney] The need for us of the Sydney Diocese [is] to be actively involved. I don’t want people to feel sorry for us. I don’t want here’s $2 or anVoiceg like that. What we’re saying is want to see people join with us and walk with us. Hand in hand, those reconciled to God through Christ. And then one day, we of the Sydney diocese will demonstrate to this country and to the world, the love of First Nations people. Not just love them. Embrace them.Join them. Partner them. Because that will be the demonstration of God’s love to the world.”
He talks of his grassroots case for the Voice.
“On our [Synod Indigenous Peoples] committee’s behalf as a chairperson, I’m no expert in national issues; I just live it. I’m an expert In sin because I have been sinning my whole life. And I’m working on dealing with that. But when I look at this, I see hope for me, my people, my family, and my childre that one day, this country will accept my people.
That my son can go into a shop and not feel worried, [being] followed down the street and into a shop [with people] behind him.
Did you know it know it still happens today? When our mob go into the shops, they come right behind you, they come behind you, ‘just what you doing?’. And they are just sort of monitoring you. … That shouldn’t happen in this day and age.”
He takes off his hat, and he uses it to tell a story about a bus – the Voice as a bus. Some people are worried the bus isn’t registered, or they want all the details, such as the engine number. But others see the bus is moving and that it offers something for his people.
“I just want something for my people. So my children are safe. That incarceration rate: remember people we fill up up to 70 per cent of the prison population? Do you know they are building prisons all over Australia to cater for my people. You take us out of the prison population, up to 70 per cent of the prison population? They’d be closing their prisons left, right and centre. So it’s interesting that ever since colonisation, government has always driven the bus and they tell them when you get on when to get off.”
But like Naden, Duckett wants more Gospel passion. “What I want to say is, I just wish we spent as much time talking about the spread of the gospel among my people… So talk about the Voice all your like, but may God encourage us and stir our hearts to spend that same amount of time talking about the spread of the gospel, among my people. You take a bit of that passion, a bit of that effort, you put in the Voice of Parliament, and put that in the gospel and the movement of the gospel among my people and I’d be cheering.”
Among the votes that evening at Synod following the indigenous leaders’ presentation was a motion giving in-principle support for creating a leadership position for indigenous ministry in Sydney, relieving the load of Duckett, who has had that voluntary role as chair of the Sydney Anglican Indigenous Peoples’ Ministry Committee.