Australian churches seek justice for Aboriginal peoples
-20/09/06
It is time for ìan u
Australian churches seek justice for Aboriginal peoples
-20/09/06
It is time for ìan urgent re-commitment to address the pressing problems faced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoplesî, according to the Rev John Henderson, General Secretary of the National Council of Churches in Australia (NCCA), launching the NCCAís 2006 statement to mark Social Justice Sunday on 24 September 2006.
He continued: ìWhile communities and governments have rightly responded to the international ëMake Poverty Historyí campaign based on the Millennium Development Goals, Australians need a similar commitment to Make Indigenous Poverty History.î
Declared Henderson: ìTo Make Indigenous Poverty History, we believe that what is needed is a fuller and far more effective program of spiritual and material regeneration than currently exists. Indigenous Australia deserves the equivalent of the Millennium Development Goals to provide a real framework of change. At the bedrock must be genuine self-determination and funding commensurate with the size of the problem.î
ìThe media and public attention given to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander issues frequently expresses itself in terms of a shocked moral distance, baffled incomprehension, or fresh forms of stereotyping. Instead, we believe that all Australians need to remember, to recognize, and to rectify the troubled history of Indigenous Australia.î
In particular, the NCCA is calling on all Australians to: Remember – so that no one can any longer act with surprise at revelations of Indigenous Poverty, or pretend that we do not know why, or how, such injustice persists.
Recognise, and implement the truth of the proposals for change made by representative Indigenous leaders and by national investigations such as the Royal Commissions into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody and the ëStolen Generationsí report.
And rectify the poverty and neglect which stand as a constant rebuke to our much vaunted values of fairness.
ìThe members of the National Council of Churches in Australia continue to remember and to confess our past and present failures to listen to and love Indigenous Australians properly. We make this pledge to our Indigenous Christian networks through the country: we commit ourselves to rectify the hurts of the past and present, and call on others to join us in this task,î the Rev John Henderson concluded.
With thanks to Doug Hynd.
[Also on Ekklesia: Australian Catholics seek support for Aboriginal people; Australian Christians focus on reconciliation between white and black; Church response to Australia’s Aborigines; Making indigenous poverty history in Australia; Surprise of the Sacred (book)]
Australian churches seek justice for Aboriginal peoples
-20/09/06
It is time for ìan urgent re-commitment to address the pressing problems faced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoplesî, according to the Rev John Henderson, General Secretary of the National Council of Churches in Australia (NCCA), launching the NCCAís 2006 statement to mark Social Justice Sunday on 24 September 2006.
He continued: ìWhile communities and governments have rightly responded to the international ëMake Poverty Historyí campaign based on the Millennium Development Goals, Australians need a similar commitment to Make Indigenous Poverty History.î
Declared Henderson: ìTo Make Indigenous Poverty History, we believe that what is needed is a fuller and far more effective program of spiritual and material regeneration than currently exists. Indigenous Australia deserves the equivalent of the Millennium Development Goals to provide a real framework of change. At the bedrock must be genuine self-determination and funding commensurate with the size of the problem.î
ìThe media and public attention given to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander issues frequently expresses itself in terms of a shocked moral distance, baffled incomprehension, or fresh forms of stereotyping. Instead, we believe that all Australians need to remember, to recognize, and to rectify the troubled history of Indigenous Australia.î
In particular, the NCCA is calling on all Australians to: Remember – so that no one can any longer act with surprise at revelations of Indigenous Poverty, or pretend that we do not know why, or how, such injustice persists.
Recognise, and implement the truth of the proposals for change made by representative Indigenous leaders and by national investigations such as the Royal Commissions into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody and the ëStolen Generationsí report.
And rectify the poverty and neglect which stand as a constant rebuke to our much vaunted values of fairness.
ìThe members of the National Council of Churches in Australia continue to remember and to confess our past and present failures to listen to and love Indigenous Australians properly. We make this pledge to our Indigenous Christian networks through the country: we commit ourselves to rectify the hurts of the past and present, and call on others to join us in this task,î the Rev John Henderson concluded.
With thanks to Doug Hynd.
[Also on Ekklesia: Australian Catholics seek support for Aboriginal people; Australian Christians focus on reconciliation between white and black; Church response to Australia’s Aborigines; Making indigenous poverty history in Australia; Surprise of the Sacred (book)]