Close the Gap and Intervention events coming up...

There will be a Close The Gap event at the Victorian Aboriginal Health Service, 186 Nicholson Street, Fitzroy on Wednesday 25 June from 10am-2pm. Attendance at this event would provide an opportunity for those with a health interest to build bridges and network with health providers in the Aboriginal community. However, it would be helpful and courteous if you could phone ahead and express your interest in attending on 9419 3000.

On Saturday 21 June next, there will be rallies right across Australia as part of a National Day of Action to protest the intervention by the Australian Government in Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory. If you are interested be outside the State Library of Victoria on the corner of Swanston and La Trobe Streets, Melbourne at 12 noon. Planning for these rallies has been taking place for some time within Aboriginal communities across the country. Focus will be the non-consultative approach of the intervention and the over-riding of the Racial Discrimination Act to provide the legislative base for the intervention.

~~~
When you can do nothing else: bear witness.

Sense of Story

Hazel Mackinnon, Bob Randall's wife, is an artist and a listener. She says

Listening to people's stories, people who are relatives of Bob Randall and live in the desert region, I created the exhibition of Sculptures and Silk, The Stories of the Stolen Generation. There are a few people who can talk but most are deeply traumatised and affected by their treatment now and in the past. Our aim is to give these people a voice, for when they are heard, the healing can begin.

WAITING MOTHERS.

We cannot imagine the living hell that mothers go through waiting for their children to come back. Some mothers in their grief stricken minds visualise their child coming back as they were taken as a baby. Many, many mothers are still waiting for their stolen children.

Records of institutions are sometimes destroyed so names and histories are lost making it impossible for people to find their way home.

This is Miss Eagle's favourite piece. So poignant!

STOLEN

Bob Randall was taken away from Angus Downs station in 1939 by Constable Bill Mckinnon. He was put on a camel, taken to the Bungalow in Alice Springs and to Croker Islander on the Top End. He found his way back after forty years, but his mother had died. He now lives in his rightful land as a traditional owner of Uluru.

Miss Eagle commends Spiritual Songlines.

If you do nothing else towards Reconciliation between Settlers and the First Nations, visit this exhibition. Talk with Bob and Hazel. Glimpse the heartfelt feelings for the land and the wounds of its people. Learn how this country can transform and heal all of us if we just slow down, stop, and allow ourselves to listen and experience what has been provided for us.

Sense of Identity

Further to the previous post, Sense of Place , special guests at Kinross House - Uniting Arts Toorak are Bob Randall and his wife, artist Hazel Mackinnon. Hazel and her work will be the subject of a separate post. Bob is probably best known for his song Brown Skinned Baby which came into being out of the pain of the Stolen Generation. As the Rev. Anneke Oppewal of the Toorak Uniting Church explains in her background to the exhibition in the catalogue,

Bob Randall's life has been a journey seeking to reconcile aboriginal roots and new Australian culture. Passionate about his people, he has supported the weakest and most vulnerable in his community by organising practical aid and by working tirelessly for greater understanding of aboriginal issues. He has opened up discussion and provided information, through his music, the writing of a book, a children's book, an ABC televised documentary and now the production of a movie. Himself one of the 'stolen generation' children, he grew through hardship and difficulty into a man who is able to see both sides of Australian culture. He combines a deep sense of aboriginal spirituality and connectedness to the land with relatedness to Christian vlaues of love, justice and reconciliation.

Bob and Hazel were en route to the Sydney Film Festival where the film of Bob's story, Kanyini, will be shown.

The film will be previewed on Monday at the Toorak Uniting Church on Monday 19 June at 7.45pm. The Gallery at Kinross House will be open that night from 6.30pm. Prices are $10 and $5 concession. This gives admission to the both the film and the Gallery. There will be an opportunity to talk with Bob afterwards.

There will be two other opportunities to meet Bob this week. On Friday 16 June from 7.30pm to 9.00pm, Bob will be conducting a workshop on understanding Aboriginal culture. This will take place at Kinross House and admission will be $10. On Sunday 18 June at 9.00am everyone is welcome to a Family Service at Toorak Uniting Church where Bob will tell his story and perform his music.

Sense of Place

Barry Jones AO standing in front of Malcolm Jagamarra's Inapaku 2004 prior to opening the exhibition.

Friday night saw Miss Eagle at Kinross House for the Uniting Arts Toorak launch of Spiritual Songlines. Spiritual Songlines is a magnificent exhibition of Aboriginal art which runs until Sunday 18 June. The exhibition has been auspiced by the collector David Carazza who collects works from the Central and Western Deserts.

This year, Kinross House - a magnificent Victorian mansion - has focussed on the theme "a sense of place" based on Sally Morgan's book My Place. Spiritual Songlines extends the theme into a national context with a sense of place, land and identity.

The goal, as outlined in the catalogue of the exhibition, is to:

• promote indigenous art in all its depth and colour through the paintings David Corazza has so generously made available;
• provide an opportunity for learning about aboriginal culture and spirituality through workshops, art and the movie Bob Randall brings from Central Australia;
• support Bob's efforts to support his community with actual, practical help;
• deepen our understanding of the issues that need to be addressed if first and new Australian cultures are to be reconciled and made whole. According to Bob such reconciliation can only come about through the love and understanding that grows when stories are told and the experiences are shared.

Miss Eagle must advise, dear Reader, that the exhibition is rather stunning - and Miss Eagle has seen quite a diversity of Aboriginal art. Artists whose work is represented at the exhibition are Josie Petrick Kemmarre and Minnie Pwerle from Utopia; Shirley Purdie and Madigan Thomas of Warmun (Turkey Creek); Jack Britten of Worranginy; Malcolm Jagamarra of Alice Springs; and Makinti Napanangka of Papunya. (Footnote: Miss Eagle carries the Warlpiri skin name, Napanangka)

The exhibition was officially opened by Hon Dr. Barry Jones, AO.

Owning up and going from there

Boyd over at Non-violent Jesus has a great post on what we - and particularly those of the we who are Christians - should be doing. His post is out of the USA and relates to that nation's involvement in the war on Iraq. Miss Eagle has long advocated similar principles in Australia in relation to this nation's handling of reconciliation with the people of the First Nations and in the matter of refugees, asylum seekers, and immigration policies.

" 'Fess up!", Miss Eagle says. Come to grips with the truth about ourselves, our actions, our motivations. Then - and only then - can we move forward into new and creative policies and solutions. Christians, if we are worth our salt - or, as the good news says, if we are the salt which has not lost its taste and flavour - should stop shilly-shallying and being mealy-mouthed and lead the way in this direction. The principles espoused can be used on a number of fronts.

1. Honesty, self-criticism, confession.
2. Contrition, repentance, making amends, setting things right.
3. Reformation in our actions and ways of doing things. New actions. New attitudes.

These are principles that can be taken onto a number of fronts. Not only in the matter of war and peace. Not only in the matter of asylum seekers and hospitality. But also in the matter of the new workplace legislation. Miss Eagle has said harsh words, particularly about the Howard Government, in all this. But if Miss Eagle is to be honest, the most satisfactory result for all with justice for all - employers, employees, business and community - will involve reconciliation. And Miss Eagle has to say that the state jurisdictions - at least the one in which she worked in Queensland - have strong conciliaton processes, and the word 'conciliation' is in the title of the governing industrial relations tribunal.

But - most Christians sitting in pews do not seem to have a clue about industrial relations or the issues involved. In most parishes or congregations of most denominations, industrial relations is barely a blip on the agenda. In fact, some denominations have poor track records themselves in industrial relations. Yet the current state of industrial relations in this nation has the capacity to rend asunder community values and traditions with no significant benefit or enrichment to either. So, in the name of Christ, Christians, what are you doing?