Br Steve Morelli CFC. PHOTO: The Nambucca Guardian.
A Christian Brother who has helped preserve and promote the languages of Australia’s First Peoples on the NSW mid-north coast is one of three Religious to receive Queen’s Birthday Honours.
Br Steve Morelli CFC, Sr Adele Howard RSM and Sr Deirdre Browne IBVM received Order of Australia Medals in the Honours List published on Monday.
Br Steve, from Woolgoolga, has worked at the request of local Aboriginal elders for the past 30 years to help write a dictionary and teach the local language for the Gumbaynggirr people.
In addition to spending years working closely with the elders to compile a dictionary and grammar of Gumbaynggirr, Br Stephen has also co-developed courses up to Certificate IV level, and co-edited the Gumbaynggirr Yuludarla Jandaygam Gumbaynggirr Dreaming Story Collection.
Br Steve currently has two roles in the community in Aboriginal Catholic Ministry, as part of the Lismore Diocese, and teaching Indigenous language specifically through the Muurrbay Aboriginal Language and Cultural Cooperative.
The cooperative has been pivotal in the revitalisation and restoration of Aboriginal language and culture on the mid north coast.
“It spread its wings without me but I feel good that I helped, with the help of the Aboriginal people, to kick it off,” Br Morelli told The Coffs Coast Advocate.
“If there is an award it really belongs to them, (those) who worked to restore what had been taken.
“Any award like that says that the government recognises the property of Aboriginal people as being valuable and worthwhile.
“It’s saying that Aboriginal property such as language, story and songs ... they are important and they need to be foregrounded.”
Sr Adele Howard RSM. PHOTO: Mercy International Association website
Sr Adele Howard, who is a member of the Institute of Sisters of Mercy of Australia and Papua New Guinea, received her OAM for service to the Catholic Church of Australia and to the community.
Inspired by the document written by Pope Francis on Laudato Si’ - Our Common Home, Adele is committed to developing a clearer understanding of the crisis of climate change and our need to take action to reverse the damage of global warming.
Adele has also worked for many years with Indigenous friends and colleagues to promote ‘voice’ for Indigenous Australians, believing that unless we hear the true history of settlement and disadvantage from First Nations People in this land, we cannot find and walk a pathway of mutual respect, dignity and freedom into the future.
She says she has “tried to walk this pathway through many conversations, in many local places across this land and also through resource development of digital media stories, video documentaries and education presentations”. In recent years she has developed and led reflection processes both face to face and online and also produced web-based resources, on themes of integral ecology and reconciliation, for her Mercy organisation, locally and internationally, and for the wider community.
Sr Deirdre Brown IBVM. PHOTO: University of Divinity website.
Sr Deirdre Browne IBVM received her OAM for service to the community as a religious sister, through music, education and the liturgical arts.
She is a Loreto Sister with qualifications in music and composition from Sydney Conservatorium, University of Melbourne and University of London, and liturgical studies from CUA Washington DC and has produced a large and significant corpus of liturgical music over many years.
Sr Deirdre has wide experience as a teacher at primary, secondary and tertiary levels and as a consultant to parishes in music and liturgy. Her special interest is the relationship between spirituality, culture and the arts.