Celebrating NAIDOC Week 2020 – ‘Always Was, Always Will Be.’

Our understanding and appreciation of history is an interesting thing. We like to think that history is an unchanging and factual field, and yet our personal and communal understandings of history continues to develop, change and evolve over time.

As children, we learn about time and history from the family around us. We are stunned to learn that our parents were once, in fact, children themselves – struggling to believe it even when photographic evidence is presented!

We develop an understanding of the passage of time and how change occurs as we hear stories from Grandparents of a world and life that sounds near impossible; when milk was delivered to the door each morning, or when new technology was the arrival of cars and television.

Our youthful assumptions are tested, and our minds stretch themselves to wrap around these new concepts until, one day, we easily comprehend them and value the lessons found in them.

As we arrive at NAIDOC Week, Australians are invited to celebrate together under the theme of ‘Always Was, Always Will Be’. As the NAIDOC Week website notes, “’Always Was, Always Will Be’ recognises that First Nations people have occupied and cared for this continent for over 65,000 years.”

The invitation to us this week is no small thing, and certainly much more significant and profound than a simple lesson of history.

We are invited to see, hear and learn the First Nations’ 65,000+ year history of this country. Australian history.

We are invited to embrace the true history of this country, dating back thousands of generations.

We are invited to celebrate together that we have the oldest continuing cultures on the planet.

And, with this, we are invited to recognise that sovereignty was never ceded.

The invitation is to develop and evolve our understanding of these lands we now call Australia, to better understand ourselves and our neighbour. The invitation is to intentional and active learning, learning in which I’ve found myself moved and humbled to uncover rich and profound histories of these lands and of its First Nations peoples.

With this too, however, I have come to learn more hard truths than I had previously known in our history and so have grown my understanding of the significance of the statement that ‘sovereignty was never ceded’.

There is an open and generous invitation to us this week, and from this renewed understanding we might stand to gain, with it is an invitation to respond.

And so, as Christians, let us find our first steps of humble response in thanks to our God, and in community together.

A prayer of thanksgiving for our First Nations peoples.

Father God,

we thank You for our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander brothers and sisters,
for their ancestors and for the rich cultures that have endured across so much time.
We thank You for their care and stewardship of these lands for over 65,000 years,
for their spirit of resilience and for the gift that they are to this nation and to Your Church, today.

We thank You for the chance to learn more this week about the rich history
found in these lands now called Australia and in its First Nations peoples.
We pray that our eyes and ears will be open to these lessons,
new to us and yet tens of thousands of years old.
We pray for these histories to be heard this week and into the weeks, months and years to come,
and we pray especially for those who carry and generously share these histories with us today.

As we come to You in thanksgiving, Father, we pray also for Your forgiveness.
For the times we have ignored the true history of these lands,
turned away from relationship with our brothers and sisters, and in doing so, turned from You.

We pray again for true, respectful, loving and Christ-centred relationships
among all people to deeply heal this Nation, Father.
We commit to continue listening, learning and working towards this healing,
in friendship with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and as led by You.

 

Resources and Opportunities to celebrate NAIDOC Week 2020.

There are many opportunities to celebrate NAIDOC week 2020.

• Common Grace are celebrating this year with a range of opportunities to hear from Aboriginal Christian leaders and learn about the Aboriginal and Torres Strait history of Australia with a Christian community. Head to the Common Grace NAIDOC Week page to access a range of resources and opportunities for learning, crafted specifically for Christians and their Church communities.

• Scarred Tree Ministries, based in the St Johns Anglican Church in Glebe, are also celebrating and inviting Christians to journey with them in learning and Friendship. Their Facebook page highlights the opportunities to get involved this week and beyond, including joining their regular Sunday Service to worship in community with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

• The official NAIDOC Week website is also a fantastic resource for finding opportunities to celebrate in your local community, allowing you to search what’s on near you. If you’re not sure where to start, why not download a NAIDOC week poster (or swing by your local Woolworths to pick one up), for your Church, your home or your community centre?

Libby Sanders, our Program Manager for Mercy and Justice and the author of this piece, extends her deep gratitude and acknowledgement to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who have shared their stories with her. This includes Aunty Jean Philips, Aunty Sharon Minniecon, Aunty Alex Gater, Aunty Revina Waldrin, Brooke Prentis, Safina Stewart and Larissa Minniecon, along with many others who have gifted their stories in both writing and yarning.

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