Acknowledging that we live on Aboriginal land

Last night at our church we shared a meal and conversation with some Aboriginal people about the importance of the acknowledgement that people live on their land. It was interesting to hear people talk about the way such actions are really about a shift in the way we view the world, and are of deep symbolic value. Acknowledgement and, sometimes, arranging for a welcome to country, are respectful actions which honour Aboriginal people and their life and history.

I think it is also important for Christians to realize that acknowledgement is not ‘simply’ an act of justice, an attempt to build better relationships with First peoples. When Christians enact particular moral stances we are seeking to reflect our understanding of the nature and place of God in the world. We see this clearly, for example, in the way the Ten Commandments are delivered to the people of Israel. The beginning of this teaching or law is: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery” (Deut. 5:6). The laws that follow flow from that relationship, that sense of the activity and character of God.

To make this acknowledgement is to suggest something about the way we see God, our relationship to Jesus, and the shape of the Christian life. It is a way of imaginatively reconstructing the world and the way the church lives in invaded space.

The other thing that I found really uplifting in last night’s conversation was a new awareness of how hard people are working to reclaim their culture and language, including regaining skills to make some really important things like possum skin cloaks (which were worn across a large part of the eastern regions of Australia). And there is a wonderful dynamism to this as people now have to get pelts from New Zealand, and use the materials used to stitch saddles rather than sinews from kangaroos.

I am very grateful to Aboriginal people who are willing to share their life and stories with the rest of us. Thank you for you time and courage.