In the wake of the death of George Floyd and the worldwide Black Lives Matter protests, a spotlight is shining on “the appalling statistics of Aboriginal deaths in custody” in Australia, Fr Frank Brennan SJ says.
Fr Brennan, who received the Order of Australia for his work for Aboriginal rights, was speaking during a Mass for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Sunday, observed on July 5.
In his homily, he referred to the 2017 Uluru Statement from the Heart, where Indigenous representatives told the Australian people that their “sovereignty is a spiritual notion: the ancestral tie between the land, or ‘mother nature’, and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who were born therefrom, remain attached thereto, and must one day return thither to be united with our ancestors. This link is the basis of the ownership of the soil, or better, of sovereignty.”
The Jesuit said he hoped the statement would “change hearts, providing a more secure place for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the life of the Australian nation”.
There are around 760,000 Aboriginal people in Australia, making up 3.1 per cent of the population. Around 133,000 are Catholic.
The indigenous population in Australia suffers shorter life expectancy, higher rates of infant mortality, poorer health and lower levels of education and employment than the rest of Australians. In addition, the population has higher rates of alcohol and illicit drug use, mental health issues and childhood experience of violence.
Fr Brennan noted that the preparatory documents for the upcoming Australian Catholic Plenary Council has called for forging deeper relationships with Australia’s indigenous peoples.
“This Discernment Group has laid down the challenge: The Church in Australia must be shaped by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture and spirituality for it to be authentically a Church of this land. When the Church sinks its roots deep into Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture, it will authentically be a Church in the land with a new vision and energy for mission,” he said.
This article is an abridged version of a story which appeared in Crux. See the full story here.
See Fr Frank Brennan’s homily notes on the NATSICC website here.