News Hope and healing UNITING Aboriginal Islander and Christian Congress (UAICC) members recounted their experiences of crossgenerational trauma – along with stories of hope and healing – at the 2018 National Conference. More than 130 UAICC members from Australia gathered at Geelong Grammar School in January to explore how Congress and the Uniting Church can work towards the healing of First Peoples. Canadian visiting keynote speaker Harley Eagle reflected on the impact of trauma among First Nations people in Canada. Mr Eagle is a member of the Whitecap
Dakota First Nations Reserve in Saskatchewan and implements cultural safety practices at Island Health in British Columbia. “Colonisation and unresolved trauma and all that pain affects our being and that can add to the way we interact with one another,” Mr Eagle said. “So the journey of naming trauma and telling stories and speaking about it is not an easy task.” Mr Eagle looked at the history of the Doctrine of Discovery as well as the area of epigenetics – the likelihood that trauma can cause inheritable damage to a
person’s DNA. During the conference, Congress members were invited to share their personal stories of post-colonial trauma. Mr Eagle praised Congress members for courageously speaking up about past injustices. “If you look at the root of the word ‘courage’, it’s from the French word for ‘heart’,” Mr Eagle said. “So courage is less an act of bravery and valour and more one that comes from your heart.” Rev Denise Champion and Old Testament lecturer Rev Dr Liz Boase of Uniting College
in Adelaide provided Bible studies, with Rev Dr Boase guiding the Congress through the Book of Lamentations. Anglican Wiradjuri man Fr Glenn Loughrey addressed the conference on the theme “Sovereignty and Treaty – It’s in Our Bodies.” Interim UAICC national coordinator Rev Dr Chris Budden believes the effects of colonialism – invasion, loss of land and loss of culture – are passed on across generations. Reflecting on the Gospel reading of Jesus raising a girl from the dead and healing a sick woman, Dr Budden said Jesus offers hope that healing is possible. “Christian people like us believe that
Going back empty MATT PULFORD “My wife was the eldest of 14 children and one day her mother and father went to the races on the mission, and the welfare came and took the 14 of them all in one hit.” “My brother died two months ago. We brought his body home yesterday. He didn’t speak good English, so he didn’t know when he was diagnosed with cancer.” “I was an unwanted child in the family - in my father’s side family and my mother’s side family… even today my father’s side family don’t see me as their family.” THESE are some of the stories shared by those attending Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress National Conference after listening to keynote speaker Harley Eagle, a First Nations member from Canada and expert in the traumatic effects of colonisation. “The first interactions with Indigenous people and the colonisers were of conflict,” Harley told the conference. “It’s never been resolved. Just living with it has been normalised. “If somebody has gone through a terrible situation – if that’s not dealt with then your whole life becomes about making sure that you never experience that trauma again. “So what happens if you’re living in a community where something terrible has happened to everybody and this goes on for generation after generation?” Harley’s account of the treatment of First Nations people in Canada is almost a mirror image of the abuses perpetrated against First Peoples in Australia. As in Australia, resistance to the colonisers in Canada was met with deadly force in places like Wounded Knee.
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Canada also has its own Stolen Generations. For more than a century, the Indian Residential School system, administered by churches, removed 150,000 First Nations children from their parents. Children were forbidden from using their language, and many experienced physical and sexual abuse. A class action by survivors led to a $2 billion settlement – the largest in Canadian history, and in 2015, Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission described the Residential School system as cultural genocide. Forced relocation of Indigenous families, also practiced in Australia, is known in Canada by a rather lyrical name - a “trail of tears”. On a more affirming note, Harley spoke of the ‘creative genius’ of Indigenous people in ‘going underground’ to preserve their culture. Members of the Métis Nation learned how to dance a jig without moving their upper body, due to the church’s disapproval of dancing at the time. Snooping neighbours walking past the Métis Nation houses couldn’t see their legs moving through the windows. “Colonisation has affected almost all, if not every, aspect of our lives,” Harley said. “So many people are carrying all kinds of unresolved trauma which results in many of us just being survivors and we carry that thinking into everything we do.” Some of the conference attendees said that Harley’s sessions had been a step on the path to healing. One of those who shared their story of pain thanked all who had done likewise. “I go back empty not having to take back what I’ve been carrying for long years now.”
CROSSLIGHT - FEBRUARY 2018