22 January 2023 Aboriginal Sunday

This sermon uses the resources for Aborigine Sunday provided by Common Grace.

I start this morning by reading an excerpt from the Uluru Statement of the Heart

With substantive constitutional change and structural reform, we believe [our] ancient sovereignty can shine through as a fuller expression of Australia’s nationhood.

Proportionally, we are the most incarcerated people on the planet. We are not an innately criminal people. Our children are aliened from their families at unprecedented rates. This cannot be because we have no love for them. And our youth languish in detention in obscene numbers. They should be our hope for the future.

These dimensions of our crisis tell plainly the structural nature of our problem. This is the torment of our powerlessness.

We seek constitutional reforms to empower our people and take a rightful place in our own country. When we have power over our destiny our children will flourish. They will walk in two worlds and their culture will be a gift to their country.

We call for the establishment of a First Nations Voice enshrined in the Constitution.

Makarrata is the culmination of our agenda: the coming together after a struggle. It captures our aspirations for a fair and truthful relationship with the people of Australia and a better future for our children based on justice and self-determination.

Through our scriptures we often hear the call for those who believe to – remember; to heed the wisdom and stories of the past.  And this word ‘remember’ appears about 240 times in our scriptures.  God’s people ‘remember’ God’s faithfulness; God’s character; God’s promises; and all that God has done.

In this short passage from Deuteronomy, Moses is about to lead the people of Israel into the promised land.  He is teaching them song, and in the lyrics of the song, he is begging them not to forget what their elders knew and experienced.  He is imploring them to hold the truth of the generations that have gone before them close to their hearts, so they do not forget and find themselves turning away from God.

When we consider how well, or badly, we really do remember things from the past, we find that our inattentiveness to the past often betrays us.  We often don’t hold the lessons of the past as important, we feel there is no need to heed what has happened before because ‘we can do it better’; we don’t need to remember because ‘we have better knowledge’; ‘our generation’ is more superior to those of the past.  We fail to listen to and learn from the wisdom of those who have gone before us, and so we fail to progress in the direction they have pointed us in.

In his time, William Cooper continually advocated for justice, not just for Aboriginal people, but for all who were in need.  In 1938, William Cooper, when he heard of the brutality and treatment of European Jews in Nazi Germany, led the only protest, anywhere in the world, against Hitler.  They were just a dozen people, but they gathered and marched to the German consulate in South Melbourne.  In 2010, this action was formally acknowledged with an education memorial, established in Cooper’s honour at the Jerusalem Museum.

Cooper recognised injustice when he saw it and called Christians to act to address it.  He established the Australian Aborigines’ League, the first all Aboriginal advocacy organisation.  Together they advocated for greater land rights, a voice in the political system and more support for Aboriginal people.

Sir Douglass Nichols, a member of the league, carried on this work after Cooper.  He was the grandnephew of William Cooper, and a professional athlete, who received an OBE, and MBE and a Knighthood, and, as Governor of South Australia, is Australia’s only First Nations Governor.  He was instrumental in Australia’s most successful referendum – where Australia removed negative discrimination in its constitution towards Aboriginal people and ensured they were counted amongst the population.

Now, through this upcoming referendum, we have the opportunity to continue their legacy.  Australians, together, can continue pushing forward the progress of these Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander brothers and sisters.  We, the people of this land, can take big steps to continue to push towards reconciliation and flourishing.  The Uluru Statement calls for the enshrining of a First Nations Voice in the Constitution.  And if this is achieved, we can come together and show that we are listening to the hearts of our First Nations Peoples and their forebears.  If we fail, it will set efforts back for decades.  This is a once in a lifetime moment to push for truth telling, treaties and justice.