Reflections: Learn Wisdom from the Elders and Grow in your sense of Place

After the wonderful presentations at our FEN Ten Ways to Care workshop 2 in June at the Western Sydney Women’s IntHERfaith Initiative Blacktown (with participants joining in at our satellite hubs around Australia!) there was time for us all to get outside to get a sense of place.

Participants were invited to spend time in nature, use their senses to become aware of Country, and report back to the group any reflections that emerged. With their permission we here are some of the heartfelt responses from the Wisdom of the Elders and Grow in Your Sense of Place Workshop: 

"When footfalls trudge on land so ancient,
And immensity of sky descends
in spontaneous puddles,
Green and bronze Earth shares
Her sweet secrets,
And a Song of Silence springs in my heart
Of ancient wisdom forgotten..."
-Sushma Nadkarni (member of the Hindu community)

"I heard you calling me today
My small backyard space
You have a mandarine tree
And a lemon tree too
But you long for love and care
I feel like making you more beautiful
In the desire to make my life more delightful"
- Neeru Kumar (member of the Brahma Kumaris community)

 
FEN would like to thank our creative contributers from various walks of life and faith traditions. It is such a privilege to host this beautiful and inclusive space for people of faith who share a deep desire to care for biodiversity together. Here is a reflection from Toowoomba for us all to ponder until next time..

   
Saying Sorry to Country

Today as we gather
We are at the convergence of deeply spiritual moments
Laudato Si’ Week, Sorry Day
National Reconciliation Week and Mabo Day
These moments link the pain of Country to the call to conversion

We are at the convergence of the call to listen to
the interconnected cries of the poor and of the earth
And of the call to respond, to act
To say sorry and to build new and respectful relationships

We are at the convergence of different ways of truth-telling
Different ways of telling the truth of what has brought us to this point that in their essence
Call us to hear the cry of Country
To be confronted with the raw pain of Country
To tell the story of ongoing colonial violence to Country

Violence to lands, to water ways, to foreshores, oceans and reefs
Violence to birds and animals, to trees and plants
Violence to first peoples, to cultures, to livelihoods
Violence to social structures, to languages, to indigenous knowledges
Violence to hopes and dreams and future generations thriving
Violence to God experienced in and through Country

It is in this raw and painful context we are called to say Sorry
Kevin Rudd has begun a process that we need to own and build on
Kevin Rudd called his words a first step
He hoped for new solutions and a new mutuality
But Rudd’s sorry was only for a part of the bigger picture

Today we are called to respond to the bigger ongoing colonial dynamic
To hear the cry of Country and to take another step in our journey of saying sorry Today we are called to hear the interconnected cries of indigenous lands and peoples Today we are called to respond in word and action
Today we are called to walk a deeper journey of saying sorry

The profoundly interconnected spirituality of Laudato Si’
Calls us to an ecological conversion
Pope Francis calls us to see ourselves as part of our common home Not above, controlling and exploiting
Not disconnected and distant
But a constitutive part of God’s interdependent creation
To be at home and to rejoice that others, and all of creation,
Are at home in our common home

This ecological conversion is holistic
It calls us to recognise how we have harmed our common home Ecological conversion calls us to say sorry
and to change our thinking and behaviour
to change how we are in relation to the rest of creation

This call to conversion is a call to hear the cry of Country
To hear the cry of God and God’s millennia-old custodians in Country

Ecological conversion is a call to respect and protect Country It is a call to work with God and God’s custodians
So that Country can thrive and be the fulness that God intends

We commemorate Eddie Mabo
and his deep commitment to his right to be custodian
we celebrate the public negation of the
terra nullius lie
In celebrating Mabo, we commit ourselves to be allies Non-indigenous allies to Country and to the custodians of Country

So we open ourselves up to conversion
To a journey of feeling the pain of Country
To responding with a sincere apology to Country And to acting alongside the custodians of Country For the well being of Country and its fulness of life

- David Tutty, Social Justice Catholic Commission, Toowoomba