New Zealand’s Anglican Archbishops are drawing attention to a statement which is sharply critical of Australian federal and state government treatment of Aboriginal peoples.
The World Council of Churches was recently invited to send a Living Letters team of indigenous and non-indigenous Christians to the Northern Territory to meet Aboriginal communities.
That 10-strong ecumenical team, which included members from Bolivia, Egypt, the USA, the Philippines, Indonesia, Australia – and two leading Anglicans from New Zealand – spent last week travelling through the territory, and in a new WCC Living Letter they report being “profoundly moved” by what they have seen and heard:
“We are concerned to observe the discrimination, oppression and racism that Aboriginal peoples experience on a daily basis. We are dismayed by the lack of consultation and negotiation from Governments of all levels as they make and implement policies and programs that have significant impacts on Aboriginal Peoples.
“Many of us are shocked because we did not realise this is still happening in Australia. We have had insight into the ‘other’ Australia. The one that is hidden away and not talked about honestly.
“Our shock was compounded by the fact that Australia is quick to condemn human rights abuses in other countries, and yet perpetuates them in its own backyard.”
The WCC team is particularly critical of the Northern Territory Emergency Response – known locally as “the Intervention” – which was introduced by the John Howard Government in 2007.
This gave authorities sweeping powers over the lives of Aboriginal peoples – ostensibly to deal with child abuse. According to the WCC team’s report, the Intervention has failed badly:
“We have heard of the people’s confusion and despair at these extreme measures and their hope for change with the change of Government in 2007.
“Despite this hope, the Labour government has continued the Intervention which remains a blight on Australia’s reputation.
“We say to the current Government: ‘You have had three years to reset the relationship with Aboriginal peoples, yet you have failed to do so.
“In fact we have heard in every place we visited that life has not improved under the Intervention, it has in fact deteriorated. We have heard of despair, anguish and confusion throughout the Intervention years and the dismantling of communities.”
The WCC team was invited to the Northern Territory by the Australian National Council of Churches and the Torres Strait Islander Ecumenical Commission. It was welcomed to Darwin on September 12 by an elder of the Larrakia people (the tangata whenua of the Greater Darwin Region) and by regional church leaders.
Those regional church leaders included the Anglican Bishop of the Northern Territory, Greg Thompson.
Bishop Thompson said then that he was glad the WCC team had come “to listen to the voices of the Aboriginal people who are so often silenced and excluded from the decisions and debate about issues that affect their lives.”
The WCC team included two New Zealanders – Ms Hera Clarke and the Rev Dr Anthony Dancer – who are both prominent members of the Anglican Church in Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia (Dr Dancer is the church’s Social Justice Commissioner).
And their Archbishops, David Moxon, Brown Turei and Winston Halapua, have drawn attention to the letter to which they contributed.
“We have learned of the visitation of a World Council of Churches Indigenous Peoples’ delegation to the Aboriginal communities of the Northern Territory of Australia over this last weekend.
“This visitation was at the invitation of the National Council of Churches in Australia, of which the Anglican Church in Australia is a member. One of the hosts was Bishop Thompson, Anglican Bishop of the Northern Territory.
“The outcome of the visit is a World Council of Churches Indigenous Communities’ Living letter, which we are asked to engage with, as neighbours in the Pacific rim.
“We invite people to read this letter carefully. The letter calls for ongoing transformation of unjust structures in the Aboriginal community context and seeks new forms of self-determination and a greater commitment to restorative justice.
“We pray that these challenges will be taken seriously, as they should be wherever they occur around the world."
Archbishop David, Archbishop Brown and Archbishop Winston
Endorsed by the Social Justice Commission of Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia.
• • • •
“Living Letters” are small ecumenical WCC teams which, upon being invited, visit a country to listen to afflicted groups and to bear witness to their plight in a “Living Letter.” The team to visit the Northern Territory included six international delegates:
- Ms Hera Rere Clarke, WCC Central Committee member, New Zealand, Anglican
- Ms Renée Grounds, United Methodist Commission on Religion and Race, United States
- Dr Hanna Grace, Egypt, Coptic Orthodox
- Rev Dr Mindawati Perangin-Angin, WCC Central Committee member, Indonesia, Karo Batak Protestant Church
- Fr Rex Reyes, general secretary of the National Council of Churches in the Philippines, Episcopal
- Rev Dr Anthony Dancer, Social Justice Commission of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand, and Polynesia (accompanying member)
Plus two local delegates:
- Ms Georgia Corowa, coordinator, Queensland Churches Together Indigenous People's Partnership
- Rev Sealin Garlett, deputy chair of the NATSIEC Commission, Uniting Church in Australia
And two World Council of Churches and National Council of Churches or Australia/National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Ecumential Commission staff:
- Mr Graeme Mundine, NATSIEC-NCCA (local coordinator)
- Ms Maria Chavez Quispe, WCC
Living Letters teams take their name from a passage in one of the Apostle Paul’s letters: "You show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts." (2 Corinthians 3:3,RSV)
The full text of the release published at the time of the arrival of the Living Letters team in the Northern Territory can be read at: http://www.oikoumene.org/en/news/news-management/eng/a/article/1634/wcc-living-letters-team-t-2.html
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