Where to from here?
Reflection questions from the service
Reflect on the service and what impacted you?
Look through the different elements of the service and consider your thoughts, feelings and responses.
In Brooke's message she asks "How can you know if you have stayed awake? How can you tell if you are tuning in?" and she listed a few of the injustices that Aboriginal peoples experienced in 2020.
Below is a list of other instances of Aboriginal injustices, reflect on your awareness.
Consider how you could take action for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander justice? There are ideas for action here.
Go outside and look up at the night sky. Consider God's wondrous creation. Consider the thousands of years Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples across the generations, as the world's oldest, living, continuing cultures, looking at this same sky. Perhaps share Brooke's benediction.
Spend time in prayer for healing and justice in these lands now called Australia. Below is a copy of the prayer of the Common Grace movement prayed during #ChangeTheHeart, other prayers are available here: https://www.commongrace.org.au/aboriginal_prayer_resources
2021 Common Grace #ChangeTheHeart 2021 Prayer
Great Creator Spirit, Lord God, Papa, Jesus,
We pray together unto you.
From nation to nation
Right across these lands now called Australia
From north, to east, to south, to west.
From coast, to forest, to desert, to city.
We are tuning in together on country.
For land and waters and sky,
For trees and plants and flowers,
For animals and fish and birds,
For hills and rocks and mountains,
For all peoples...
For country...
Jesus, we lament the injustice of the past
Jesus, we lament the ongoing injustice in the present
Jesus, we confess we have contributed to injustice
Jesus, we confess to having not loved our Aboriginal neighbour as you have called
Jesus, we thank you for the resilience, survival, and leadership of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples
Jesus, we thank you that we have the opportunity for relationship and friendship
Jesus, we know we must do better
Jesus, we know we must make things right
Jesus, we ask for your guidance as we seek justice in our lifetime
Jesus, we ask you
To open our eyes to see as you see
To open our ears to hear as you hear
To open our minds to truth as you know
To open our hearts to love as you love
As a movement of people pursuing Jesus and justice
We come together for the common good
We discover common ground
We share in common grace
We long to embrace unity with diversity
May the beats of many hearts create a beautiful symphony
In tune
In rhythm
With each other, with all of creation, and with Jesus,
As we pray for justice to roll like the waves of the oceans that surround these lands now called Australia
We pray to #ChangeTheHeart of Australia.
Amen.
Tuning In? List of injustices 2020
Brooke asked - Were you tuned in to the racism, injustice, and discrimination that happens each and every day and the poverty that exists in Australia? How might you know if you are 'staying awake'? These are some other moments in 2020 that Brooke tuned into, how many were you aware of?
- New Closing the Gap Targets were announced but received no additional funding in the Federal Budget
- #RaiseTheAge - A call to increase criminal responsibility from 10 years of age
- Aboriginal Deaths in Custody - at least 3 deaths in 2020
- Destruction of a 46,000-year-old sacred site during National Reconciliation Wk
- The proposal from Aboriginal Senators to fly the Aboriginal flag was voted down during NAIDOC Week with the theme 'Always Was, Always Will Be'
- Australian Netball Indigenous Round - The only Indigenous player in the league was benched and didn’t get to play
- The Cashless Debit Card debates in Federal Parliament
- Drilling approved on sacred Lake Torrens Karrawirra Pari and destruction of the Djab Wurrung Directions Tree
- Strip Searches of Children (Aboriginal children 21% of searches when only 2.8% of the population)
- An incident with a 4-year-old Aboriginal girl in Port Augusta and racial profiling
- Australia asked the UN to dismiss Torres Strait Islanders claim that Climate Change affects their human rights
- Stolen Wages payment described as "disheartening" when 40 years of work resulted in $12,000
Closing Blessing
Written by Brooke Prentis
May the God of truth
– open our ears and eyes to the wind whistling through the Grasstrees.
May the God of justice
– open our minds to the flowing actions of the waters from refreshing rain, to gentle brook, from mighty river to raging sea.
May the God of love
– open our hearts to the beat of the Clapsticks calling us into rhythm.
Now go. . . to pursue Jesus, with truth, justice, and love.
Amen.