Fr Warren Kinne with First Nations Peoples - Photo: Fr Warren Kinne
Inclusion & Justice for Our First Peoples
On the topic of First Australians, my first thought returns to an incident where a parishioner here on the Gold Coast gave me a photo of our First Communion Class in Bundaberg in the early 1950s. There are a couple of Aboriginal children in that photo, and I have no recollection of anything about them so in retrospect they seem to have been "invisible" to me at the time. I have other childhood memories, like being in the bush on the outskirts of our town with another lad my age (11years) when we were startled by an old Aboriginal man sitting by himself and so we stayed well away.
During my time in Turramurra, I visited Fr Ted Kennedy's parish in Redfern, which lovingly operated as an open home for many of its indigenous members. Later, as a staff member at the Pacific Mission Institute, we would have Aboriginal Activist Maureen Watson come to address the participants. Then, in 1984, I was invited to help facilitate a Diocesan assembly in the Kimberleys. I visited many places there, from Lombadina to Fitzroy Crossing, Kalumburu to Turkey Creek - just about everywhere in the Diocese. I also made a trip to the Tiwi Islands, which Aboriginals occupied for at least 40,000 years and on a more recent occasion in 2019, I travelled to Kakadu National Park with a group of Chinese friends.
Yet, because I have lived overseas for the last 40 years of my life as Columban Missionary Priest, my contact with Aboriginal people is still relatively minimal. So, I speak as something of a neophyte in this area. I am trying to understand the whole reality better for myself and wonder how I can participate more in moving our nation forward in a way that will help build a more inclusive and just nation.
Photos: Fr Warren Kinne
My recent online exposure here on the Gold Coast to Archdiocesan modules about Aboriginals has raised my cultural awareness and appreciation of the complexity of family and kinship in First Nations Peoples. I see now the rich world of family and society that was theirs but with the massacres and forced removal of children who were raised in institutions, much of this is now lost. While all this is sadly true, there nonetheless has been significant changes through the referendum of 1967, the Mabo decision of 1992, and Kevin Rudd's 2008 formal apology on behalf of the nation to indigenous peoples at Parliament House.
However, we took a backward step in 2023 with a failed Referendum on a voice to Parliament. Yet the struggle goes on, and I note that the 2025 NAIDOC Week theme is, "The Next Generation: Strength, Vision & Legacy" which is similar to the National Reconciliation theme earlier this year of, “Bridging Now to Next.” There seems to be a deep desire to see the ongoing connection between past, present, and future.
Our path to truth and reconciliation, which seems to me an obvious way forward, though begun, is far from finished. Since my return to Australia, I have appreciated the diversity of views within our Australian society, as witnessed in the 2023 Referendum. Although Aboriginal people themselves voted overwhelmingly for a "yes," some significant Aboriginal leaders did not.
The path to truth, reconciliation, and subsequent healing requires the involvement of all of us. Truth and reconciliation have worked well in other places like South Africa, but we can also learn that this isn't the end of the road. Some sort of remedial path is needed for the wrongs done in the past. I do hope that we can create a new story of Australia that is truly inclusive of its Indigenous people and that we can find a new and common direction for our shared aspirations.
Columban Fr Warren Kinne lives on the Gold Coast, Australia.
