I’ve traveled as far away from Australia as I can without leaving the country on this Invasion Day.
I’m on my property. wiredjuri country. In our language, ngurrambang. I am able to take my ancestors’ position here. my family, my Miyagan.
I can say “marang ngarin,” or “good morning,” to my father.
We have managed to survive here. Wars have been fought. We have been imprisoned and separated. We are not included.
However, we are here. I get up early every morning and walk to the river, past the trees and the kangaroos’ watchful gaze, then sit by the banks to feel the country around me.
I feel confident that I am at home.
It is crucial at all times. in particular this year.
Already, it seems as though the Voice referendum is a vote on the Australian people as a whole, rather than merely on whether or not we are represented in the constitution.
Left and right arrows for seeking, space to play or pause, M to mute, and up and down arrows for volume.
Dispute over the specifics of the Indigenous Voice to Parliament is still intensifying.
This discussion is difficult to sit through.
It seems hostile.
Some authors describe us as if we don’t exist. They talk about or over us.
Tell us what is beneficial to us.
Politics cannot be avoided. But politics has a way of making us look smaller.
The Voice unquestionably summons us to a greater purpose.
the basis for who we are
This is a spiritual issue for me. a matter of our country’s soul.
As an Aboriginal person and a follower of God, I am aware that politics cannot save us on their own.
These queries are not esoteric. They affect the fundamental core of our country.
The 26th of January is difficult for Meena since she has both Indian and Aboriginal ancestry.
Meena travels between two worlds that are linked by a shared experience with British colonialism. And like a rising number of Australians, she has mixed feelings about Australia Day.
Profile of Meena
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Australia is a result of empire and colonization. a country that was founded on the notion of the divine providence of the West.
As if God approved of slavery, invasion, dispossession, genocide, and empire.
No, God didn’t board the First Fleet. God joined us right here.
On the country that God gave us, we are a people of God.
My faith teaches that God is present in each and every one of us.
To murder us was to kill God. It was theft from us that was theft from God.
The colonizers’ attempt to “civilize” and “Christianize” us failed because the bible proved their errors.
Anyone who lies or uses force to steal anything is guilty. And “he shall restore that which he forcibly took away, or the item which he has gained by guile” (Leviticus 6:4).
Additionally, what was taken should be returned in full.
In the face of injustice, courage
We still wait. The First Nations have provided routes to justice and peace. They have forced Australia to make amends.
Faith and the misery of my own people are difficult to reconcile.
How could a God let such things? We continue to be the most destitute and incarcerated group in the nation.
Workings of Voice to Parliament
Two papers have already outlined how a Voice to Parliament may function, despite criticism from certain sides that the details are lacking. This is what they claim.
On October 24, 2014, Butchulla native dancers performed on Fraser Island in southeast Queensland.
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Justice where is it? Mercy where are you?
Where is God, exactly?
These questions might be quite difficult to respond to. And I have battled them for all of time.
But strong black religious voices have led me. Uncles and aunts I have. My eldest Wiradjuri.
Aboriginal people have had a personal contact with God since the beginning of time, according to First Nations theologian Anne Patel Gray, and our bond with Jesus Christ “was formed a long time before the European invasion.”
She claims that missionaries were unable to “separate Christianizing from Westernizing.”
According to her, Aboriginal Christian leaders have prayed to a “God of justice” while fighting for their independence from Western domination.
My religion has remained strong in the face of adversity because to black prophetic leaders from this country and beyond the globe.
How has Australia changed in the 30 years after Paul Keating’s Redfern speech?
In fact, even pain itself has deepened that faith. Native Americans understand what it means to be abandoned.
Only the deserted know the truth, according to Simone Weil, a French philosopher and Christian mystic.
I was brought up in a cross-centered faith. I share it with those who are experiencing agony all across the world.
James Cone, a key figure in Black Liberation theology, was unambiguous in his belief that God takes sides and favors the suffering.
There can be no Christian doctrine, he asserted, that does not unconditionally identify with people who are denigrated and mistreate
“The black Jesus of the 21st century is the icon of the Indigenous liberator and transformer,” claims Julian Kunnie, professor of religion and African studies.
According to Kumis, Jesus is “indigenous, black, female, and economically destitute,” and he resists oblivion.
Male, white-dominated narratives of faith have been contested by the voices of women and the LGBTIQA+ community to remind us that Jesus can speak to their struggles as well.
Black people tend to question “does God care?” more often than “does God exist,” according to theologian Dennis Wiley.
Can our country do better?
It’s an opportunity for in-depth contemplation to be back in my native country during Australia Day celebrations.
to be seated in my culture and my beliefs.
a cornerstone of democracy in America
Martin Luther King Jr.’s America must be upheld if the US is to have a future and if democracy is to have a chance.
King, Martin Luther
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To live according to the teachings of Yindyamarra, a gift from my people that calls for us to act with peace and humility. to stroll slowly. to express affection. Not out of weakness but rather from the power of understanding who we are.
Every time I look at my people, I can see that.
As well as being a philosophy, Yindyamarra is a theology. What does the Lord want of thee except to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? That is the fundamental challenge of Micah (6:8).
Australia is a secular nation that is becoming more and more agnostic, according to the census.
But before the legislature, prayers are spoken. Although not all ministers do it, it is customary for them to take their oaths on the Bible.
Legal oaths are routinely taken when the Bible is being held in court.
Do such words imply anything, we must ponder?
We may replace God or Jesus with justice and truth for individuals who practice other religions or have no belief system at all.
They bring up the same query.
Is our country everything it ought to be on this Australia Day, Invasion Day, or Survival Day, depending on how we perceive it?
International affairs expert Stan Grant hosts Q+A on Thursday at 8.30 p.m. for the ABC. On Mondays at 9:35 p.m. on ABC TV and Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on the ABC News Channel, he also hosts China Tonight.
