he National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Ecumenical Commission of the National Council of Churches in Australia is concerned at the rise of Racism in Australia towards Indigenous Australians.

“Over the last year we have seen several events which highlights this rise whether it be children tortured when people have taken the law in their own hands, Indigenous Australians still not receiving the same standards of service as other Australians, police not being investigated properly when their conduct has been brought into question or Governments which continues to single out and blame Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples for Government inaction.

We have seen that the law was very swift to take action against Aboriginal people after the events on Palm Island but has been very slow to act on those who were responsible for the deeds that lead to these events.

We call on all Australians to be ‘Alert’ against those within our community who carry out these racist acts against our fellow Australians and we should be alarmed that these acts are still occurring here in our lucky country in 2004”.

Graeme Mundine, Executive Secretary of the Commission said today.

Contact: Graeme Mundine  0419 238 788 / 02 9299 2215

 By Nicholas Kerr, who was part of a Christian World Service delegation to Kenya in August to visit Sudanese refugees.

Rev Gregor Henderson has seen refugee camps before. But he was profoundly shocked by what he saw in Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya.

There are refugees from eight African nations in the camp but most are from Sudan.

Mr Henderson led a small delegation from Christian World Service, the aid and development arm of the National Council of Churches in Australia, to find out more about the situation of Sudanese refugees in Africa.

We spent 24 hours in Kakuma. We slept in one of the refugee camp huts. Like the refugees we were without food for 24 hours.

"I’m going home with a pretty awful feeling," Mr Henderson said just before we left Kenya.

"My overriding reaction is one of distress.

"I’m distressed at the circumstances that face these Sudanese people. They’re living in such dreadful circumstances in Kakuma.

"I’m distressed that it has gone on for so many years.

"And I’m distressed that we in Australia are not doing more for them, as churches and as a nation."

As well as distress, Mr Henderson feels admiration for the way in which the people of Kakuma seem to cope with their circumstances.

"We saw so many expressions of hope in God," he said. "We saw so many acts of friendship with us, without any sense of resentment towards us, who have so much when they have so little.

"We even saw their ability to celebrate their culture and their Christian faith in the midst all this poverty, hardship and suffering and heartrending stories.

"In such uncertainty we saw people who seemed to be able to find hope from deep down.

"I’m distressed that people have been there eight, nine, 10 years - and a few even longer than that.

"They’ve had no useful employment in that time. They’ve lived grindingly on one meal a day. There’s a sense of the world passing them by and leaving them largely uncared for."

Mr Henderson left Kenya determined to do what he can to try to improve the conditions in Kakuma.

"We can’t just leave it there," he said. "We can’t just tell their story and leave it at that. We have to do something more active - as a church and as a nation - to respond to their needs."

Sudan’s future is uncertain. There is the tragedy of Darfur. A similar tragedy is looming in the east. And the peace talks between the north and the south have stalled yet again.

There could soon be fighting on three fronts between the Arab north and the Africans in the west, south and east.

Mr Henderson said there is a great deal of uncertainty about the peace process between the Arab, Muslim north and the African, Christian south.

"We got such mixed messages about it," he said. "The people from the church agencies seem to be much more optimistic than the people on the ground and the refugees themselves.

"If there is a peace agreement within the next few months, that will create a whole raft of new needs. And the people will be highly vulnerable as they seek to re-establish themselves in their own homelands with all the difficulties they will face there, not only in the initial few months but also in the months to come."

Mr Henderson said he is proud that the churches around the world are trying help these people.

"I’m sure that the suffering Sudanese would be even worse off if it weren’t for the churches," he said.

"Their own churches are obviously doing a tremendous job in the camp, holding them together and seeking to provide what little support for them that they can.

"The wider church community, including the Australian churches through Christian World Service, is offering them some assistance and offering to walk with them."

Mr Henderson wants the Australian churches to look at how we can provide more help to refugees who have been approved for resettlement in Australia to get here more quickly.

Too many refugees get visas to Australian only to find that the Sudanese in Australia can’t afford to pay their air fares. So their hopes are dashed and they go back to refugee camps.

Mr Henderson said Australian churches have been making statements that congregations would be willing to support asylum seekers to live in the community, rather than in detention centres, while their cases are dealt with.

"We should be able to help Sudanese refugees to get a new start in life," he said.

"Could churches supply no-interest loans for those the Australian Government has accepted as genuine refugees so they can come sooner, rather than later, and not have to depend on the Sudanese community in Australia to muster the money for their fares?"

He also hoped Australia can generate some concern about the paucity of rations for the people in Kakuma.

"Apparently all they are receiving is three kilograms of maize, with a little salt and cooking oil, per person per fortnight, with occasional lentils thrown in," he said.

"Surely the international community can do better than that. Surely they’re entitled to more than one small meal a day and a bit more nourishment for them and their children."

Refugees asked the delegation to take up three points with the Australian Government. They would like Australia:

• To increase the number of refugees.

• To support education for refugees in Africa.

• To be ready to help in the reconstruction of Southern Sudan when a comprehensive peace agreement is eventually signed.

"There’s plenty for us to speak to the Government about - and there’s plenty we can consider as further assistance from the church," he said.

Mr Henderson said he was very glad that the delegation had been invited to share the refugees’ conditions for 24 hours.

"I’m pleased we accepted the invitation of the Presbyterian community to live with them for 24 hours as they have to live," he said.

"Knowing that we were there for only a night and a day meant it was no great sacrifice on our part. But I’m please we made that act of solidarity. We probably gained in credibility because of that.

"Even that taste says to us that they have one very poor meal each day, and each of those meals is the same - what you could call maize porridge - day after day, year after year.

"Eating would be no pleasure. Your body must accommodate to it somewhat. You would go to bed hungry each night and wake up hungry every morning."

The delegation slept in a mud hut with very little ventilation.

"We were sleeping only two to a room. They sleep eight, or 10, or even 15 to a room. I can’t imagine that being anything but unbearable, night after night.

"There’s a complete lack of privacy and the sanitation provisions are so primitive. So are the cooking facilities.

"And the heat - and we were at the cool time of the year!

"This small taste we had of life in Kakuma makes me admire the spirit of the people.

"They seem so uncomplaining about their lot. If I had to do it for three or four days in a row I’d be at my wit’s end.

"You wonder what it must do to your long term health. Many of them, of course, said they feel sick. That probably speaks of malnutrition and various infections.

"We weren’t given mosquito nets - and we were blessed that there weren’t many mosquitoes."

Mr Henderson said there is a high incidence of malaria and digestive infections. "The level of medical care is very basic," he said.

"We saw people who had had broken limbs that had never been properly set. We met people who needed operations for bladder and other problems. They can’t have them because the facilities just aren’t there.

"So the taste of their life was depressing. It makes you marvel that they can cope with it.

"We heard that every week children die because of inadequate facilities and lack of nutrition.

"I’ve been in refugee camps in the Middle East and Sri Lanka. These are the worst I’ve seen in terms of provisions and facilities.

"There’s no way that people can grow anything for themselves with that climate and the lack of water.

"The welcome we were given, as members of the fellowship and family of Christ, was extraordinary. We weren’t bringing any solution for them.

"I’m pleased we were able to share their conditions, rather than go off at night to somewhere a little better than where they were sleeping.

"It was a solidarity visit, not a spectator visit.

"The grinding hopeless of it all is terrible. It really turns your heart over. It’s appalling. It shouldn’t be."

• Rev Gregor Henderson, of Canberra, is chairperson of Christian World Service, the aid and development arm of the National Council of Churches in Australia. He is also national president-elect of the Uniting Church in Australia.

The Christian community in Australia today expressed its deep solidarity with Christians in Iraq following deadly attacks on five churches in Mosul and Baghdad this week.

The National Council of Churches in Australia (NCCA) has conveyed its sorrow to church leaders in Iraq in the wake of the explosions which killed 17 people and injured more than 50 people.

Most of the victims were Christians who had been attending Church services. However, some passersby were also killed.

NCCA General Secretary, the Reverend John Henderson, called for prayers for all Iraqis who, in struggling to resume their lives after war and rebuild their country, were suffering and dying at the hands those who engage in terrorist activities.

“It is a tragic sign of the precarious situation in Iraq that people of any religious persuasion should be targeted as they worship,” he said.

“The Christian community in Australia, and I’m sure all Australians, expresses deep sorrow to the families of those killed in these blasts and to the wider Christian community in Iraq.

“We also acknowledge and endorse the call of the Chaldean Patriarch in Baghdad for all Christians to forgive those who caused the blasts and not to seek revenge.”

Mr Henderson said NCCA member Churches and their affiliated aid organisations would continue to provide assistance to the Iraqi people.

These church aid organisations have been supplying drugs and medical equipment to hospitals in Iraq since the war last year. They have also been implementing development programs in Iraq which include a supplementary food program for malnourished children, as well as provision of water and sanitation.

**************
 
For more information contact Rev John Henderson on 0419 224 935.

Christian World Service (CWS), a commission of the National Council of Churches in Australia has announced that it has made an initial contribution of AUD$15,000 to a joint Action by Churches Together (ACT International) and CARITAS International appeal to raise financial support for 500,000 people in Sudan.
The appeal aims to raise US$17.5 million worldwide to provide shelter, water, sanitation, basic sleeping and kitchen materials for people in camps and burned-out villages in the Darfur Province in Western Sudan. The program also aims to provide supplementary food rations to 50,000 children under five and education for school-aged children.
The Darfur Province is home to some six million nomads and farmers. It is estimated that there are over two million conflict-affected people in Darfur in need of emergency support.
The UN and humanitarian agencies in Sudan have described the situation as one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. Recent statements by the UN Security Council have described the situation as one of ethnic cleansing through the use of mass rape, summary killing and a “scorched earth” policy.
This is the first formal joint appeal between Protestants, Orthodox and Catholics in Darfur. Their goal is to help people affected by militia attacks maintain their basic daily activities with dignity and stabilise and then reduce environmental and health-related diseases. The CWS partner in Sudan, the Sudan Council of Churches (SCC) will be a key respondent on the ground in Darfur.
CWS has also announced that it is initially sending AUD$15,000 from its emergency fund to ACT International for families whose houses have been demolished in Rafah, Palestine.
CWS is a member of ACT and has been able to work with them to provide consolidated responses to emergencies in Sudan, Liberia and Iraq and Iran in the past few years. CWS seeks to assist those experiencing oppression and injustice during emergencies by working with partners throughout the world to bring relief and support. 

July 2004

GIFTS FOR THE DARFUR EMERGENCY CAN BE SENT TO CHRISTIAN WORLD SERVICE
VIA WEBSITE www.ncca.org.au/give-christmas_bowl,
TOLL-FREE PHONE 1800 025 101 OR
MAILED TO LOCKED BAG 199 SYDNEY 1230 AUSTRALIA

Australian churches signed a covenant during the fifth national forum of the National Council of Churches in Australia (NCCA). The forum was held in Adelaide last month.

Church leaders have hailed it as one of the most significant events in Australia’s ecumenical history. “It’s an international benchmark,” NCCA president, Rev Professor James Haire, said.
“No one else, I believe, anywhere in the world, has been able to produce anything quite as comprehensive as this.
“It’s true that the US is working towards something similar – but that doesn’t include the Catholics.”

In different parts of the covenant:

ALL 15 member churches of the NCCA reaffirmed their commitment to one another “as partners on the ecumenical journey”.

ALL 15 agreed to join in common prayer with each other and care for each other.

ALL 15 also pledged that they would explore further steps “to make more clearly visible the unity of all Christian people in this country”.

TEN of the churches agreed to support initiatives for sharing physical resources and to consult each other before major new developments are undertaken.

SEVEN churches agreed to explore issues and strategies for mission together. This would make the possibility of common mission a priority.

NINE churches agreed to recognise each others’ baptism and to promote the use of the common baptism certificate.

TWO churches – the Churches of Christ and the Uniting Church – agreed to “invite and welcome members of each other’s church to share in the Eucharist according to pastoral need”.

FOUR pairs of churches agreed to “continue to work towards the goal of sharing with each other a mutually recognised ordained ministry”. These are the Anglican and Lutheran churches; the Anglican and Uniting churches; the Churches of Christ and Uniting Church; and the Lutheran and Uniting churches.

Full details of the covenant are on the NCCA website.

James Haire described it a “a covenant in progress”.
“In future we can add new pages, as it were, to the document.
“Some of it’s fairly standard – that we’d pray together, and so on. But it’s still important. In the past churches didn’t recognise each other. Some Protestants wouldn’t pray with Catholics. Some Catholics wouldn’t pray with Protestants.
“There are two particularly interesting parts to the covenant.
“One is those churches who have undertaken not to buy new buildings, or sell buildings, without consulting with other churches. That’s very significant.
“Then there are the churches that will not engage in mission – what Catholics call evangelisation and Protestants call evangelism – unless they consult with the others.
“Then, of course, the Lutherans, Churches of Christ, the Anglicans and the Uniting Church have agreed to work together towards the recognition of each others’ ordained ministries.
“That may appear very clerical. But you don’t get organic union unless you’ve agreed on the question of ordained ministries.
“Once you’ve agreed on that, organic union will come fairly easily.”
Rev Dr Dean Drayton, president of the Uniting Church in Australia, summed up his reaction with the words: “Thank God! And it’s happened in Australia!”
Sometimes, he said, an event can open up whole new horizons.
“I believe this is the first time in any country that all the Orthodox, Catholic and all the Protestant groups that have a national body – other that the Baptists –have covenanted together to move on the road to Christian unity.
“It couldn’t have happened anywhere else but in Australia.
“No other country I know of has even got the infrastructure like the NCCA.
“This is more than a formal structure. It’s looking forward towards the future and asking God to take us on the way of moving beyond our differences to work together, in the name of Christ.”
Catholic ecumenist, Bishop Michael Putney, said the covenant was “a most important step in the ecumenical movement”.
“Some people think the ecumenical movement has slowed down,” he said. “I don’t believe it has.
“In fact, we’ve achieved so much that the next major steps are more difficult and will take longer.
“Covenants serve the purpose of enabling us to harvest all that we’ve achieved and to use that as a platform for actually doing concrete things that are possible at this point of history – so that we can keep the momentum going and move the ecumenical movement forward.
“In fact we’ve reached much deeper levels of communion through our dialogues, our collaboration and our councils. But we’re not living as though we’d reached those newer levels of communion.
“Covenants enable us to name the new stage we’ve reached and to name what that ought to involve, practically speaking.
“Covenants play a very important role in this point in the history of the ecumenical movement.”
Signing the covenant was an historic moment for the churches of Australia, he said
“The churches did three things.
“They named the level of communion that they’re reached.
“They expressed a commitment to try to live out that level of communion.
“They named, therefore, a goal of carrying the ecumenical movement forward into the future for the churches in Australia.”

The Forum of the National Council of Churches in Australia agreed to incorporate its international aid and development agency, Christian World Service.

NCCA Christian World Service Limited, a public company limited by guarantee, will operate as soon as possible as CWS Australia (CWSA).

The General Secretary of the NCCA, the Reverend John Henderson welcomed the decision and said : ¡§Following many months of consideration the Forum accepted a simpler and more transparent structure for CWS, while retaining CWSA firmly within the family of the NCCA¡¨.

Incorporation will
„hoffer the security of setting CWSA at a legal distance from NCCA to give it greater integrity and identity
„hprovide ongoing accountability and compliance for fundraising and reporting to supporters and funding bodies, and
„himprove stewardship, and maximise the ability to generate resources to expand work with partners overseas and in Australia.

Every year CWS, mainly through its Christmas Bowl program, assists people who are struggling for lives of sufficiency, dignity and peace in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and the Pacific, and supports refugees and asylum seekers overseas and in Australia, through direct assistance, through collaboration with other agencies, and through advocacy with community and government. It also supports Indigenous community projects identified by the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Ecumenical  Commission.

The Christmas Bowl program supports partnerships which put hope in the hearts of people through projects which address the big problems of our times: poverty and hunger, HIV/AIDS, education, health, child mortality, development, equality and empowerment, the environment and lack of safe water.

The Reverend Gregor Henderson, Chair of CWS, expressed his delight with the outcome  : ¡§It will enable CWS to increase its profile in the Australian churches and community, whilst retaining CWSA as a key component of the ecumenical family in Australia¡¨.

¡§CWSA will continue to be a significant expression of Australian churches together responding to need in the world through the Christmas Bowl program and other initiatives ¡V incorporation will in no way diminish this mission of  CWS¡¨, said Mr Caesar D¡¦Mello, National Director of CWS.

Further information :  Colleen Hodge, Education and Communications, CWS
   Telephone : 02 9299 2215/0419 6852 48

Australian Churches have received the recent Federal Government’s announcement about TPV holders with cautious optimism. They welcome any policy change that helps relieve the suffering of refugee and asylum seekers. They are concerned, however, that whatever their motivation these changes do not go far enough, and that Australia will continue to treat people who are not criminals as though they were.
 
“It’s good news that TPV holders can apply for migration visas and be granted 18-month ‘return-pending visas’ if they have no further need of protection,” said the Rev John Henderson, General Secretary of the National Council of Churches (NCCA). “We hope that the government will continue to adjust its policies to deal more humanely with people who arrive here seeking sanctuary. Building relationships of trust in our region and with the global community will do as much, if not more, to make Australia secure than building ever stronger fences to keep people out,” he said.
 
Leaders of the NCCA’s 15 member churches heard news of the Minister’s announcement while they met in Adelaide for the Council’s triennial National Forum.
 
“We accept that the government has the responsibility to manage Australia’s migration policies,” said Henderson, “but we ask that this be done in a way that respects the dignity and rights of each person. It is our moral responsibility as a nation, and in our best interests, not to demean, dehumanise, or cause unnecessary suffering and uncertainty to people who have already suffered great trauma.”
 
James Thomson, of the Council’s refugee programme, said; “We were concerned that recognised refugees judged to have no  further need of protection might be re-detained and forcibly deported. At least now they’ll have 18 months to prepare. Allowing TPV refugees to apply for migration visas will also come as welcome news, particularly to refugees who have become a vital part of the rural workforce, but most of the 9,500 refugees with TPVs applying for ongoing protection in Australia are unlikely to qualify.

“On their own, however, these measures are not enough” said Mr. Thomson. “The strict criteria preventing refugees from obtaining permanent protection visas in the first place remains, and refugees who receive TPVs are still being denied permanent residence, family reunion and settlement services.”

Australia is the only country in the world that grants recognised refugees temporary protection. Usually, it is only used when a crisis overwhelms a state’s ability to cope. Australia’s system of mandatory, indefinite detention for every, man woman and child seeking asylum without a visa is also unique. Additionally, there are still up to 1,000 asylum seekers in the community who are forced to survive off charity because they have been denied work rights, Medicare and income support.
For more information contact:  James Thomson on (02) 92992215 or 0402 67 55 44

This message is from an Iranian asylum seeker being held in Baxter Detention Facility, just outside Port Augusta, South Australia. He will meet Rev Dr Samuel Kobia today in Baxter. He cannot give his name. He feels it could jeopardise the chances of the Australian Government granting him asylum. He says he was persecuted in Iran, he is a convert to Christianity and, if he were returned to Iran, he could be killed as an apostate under Islamic law. It’s very cruel to be in detention without having committed any crime. Some of us have been in detention four or five years or more. We’re here, locked away, unnecessarily, without just cause. It isn’t a crime to flee from persecution. Locking us away doesn’t solve our problems. We’re being kept in detention indefinitely. In this country if someone’s sentenced for a crime, he’s given a definite sentence. He knows when he’ll be released. Criminals know how long they will be in goal – but we don’t know anything. We don’t know what will happen to us. We don’t know anything about our lives or our situation. This is a time of panic for us. We are very frightened. We don’t know what is to become of us. We’re asylum seekers. We’re here because of problems in our home land. The Australian Government claims we aren’t refugees. This is very frustrating. Many of us are from Iran, or Iraq. It will never be safe for us to go back there. The United Nations has condemned my country, Iran, for its violation of human rights. The European Union has condemned my country for its inhuman acts to its own people. In the detention centre, they make life very hard for us. We have no right to make any complaints. If we make any objections to what is happening to us here, we’re put in isolation for long periods, up to two months – what they call correctional management. This is causing great pressure on people. It’s leading to psychological problems and mental illness. People are confused. They don’t know why they are being treated so badly, like criminals, and eventually they lose hope. It seems they’re making us mentally sick so that they can control us more easily. It can make you very sick, so that you don’t want to eat or drink, and it’s a very cruel form of treatment. Depression is very real in Baxter. I would appeal to all Christian Australians to press the Government to do something about our problems. Christian people are the only ones who seem to remember us and to show any interest in us. This is why many of us have become Christians. Christian people visit us and write to us and show us the love of Christ. It is their kindness that has made us interested in Christianity and in Christ. But we will be persecuted if we are Christians and we are returned to our own countries where there are extremist Islamic governments. Under Islamic law you are punished by death if you abandon Islam and turn to another faith. The government in my country would not tolerate us. We would be seen as traitors to Islam – and that is punishable by death. Many of the people who are in detention were already being persecuted for various reasons by their governments at home. This would make them turn even more against us, because we are Christian now. We would not have any life there – but what sort of life do we have here? Christians are supporting us. Because of Christ’s love they are concerned about their neighbours and the problems that their neighbours have, and they are very kind to us. Christians feel not only for us, they feel for everybody. They’re full of sympathy. They’re kind people. We can’t understand the Australian government. Why does it find us such a problem? Why does it keep us here for such a long time? We can’t go to our own country. We can never go back. They can’t send us to any other country. I’m speaking out because I want people to know what the situation is and what our problems are. Christians are concerned about peace and love and goodness. These things are very important to us. Islam is being used to promote war and hatred and fighting – but Christians are concerned only about faith and love and helping others. What can we do? We are powerless in here. Will there ever be hope for us again? Photo: Sam Kobia with John Henderson and James Haire outside Baxter detention centre (Kerr)

From Nicholas Kerr, Friday, July 9

Rev Dr Samuel Kobia visited Australian Aboriginal people at a time when Indigenous people are facing a crisis.
They say their right to self determination is under threat.
The Australian Government has introduced legislation to disband the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC).
The Government wants to replace ATSIC with a hand picked advisory council.
Indigenous people see this as an attempt to silence the elected Indigenous voice and a blow to self determination.
They have welcomed moves by the Federal Opposition and minor parties for a Senate inquiry into the right of Indigenous people to determine their own future.
“The Aboriginal psyche has been dealt a heavy blow,” according to Alwyn McKenzie, chairperson of the Nulla Wimila Kutju ATSIC Regional Council, in the north of South Australia.
Mr McKenzie was one of the Aboriginal leaders who greeted Dr Kobia when he arrived in Port Augusta.
“We’ve had these blows time and time again in Australian history,” he said.
“Some of the legislation that has been put into place over the years has been introduced by fair minded, well meaning people.
“But the laws have turned out to be detrimental because legislators didn’t consult Aboriginal people first.
“The Government tends to put Aboriginal self determination into the background – but self determination’s of the utmost importance.
“Only Aboriginal people can articulate our vision for Aboriginal people.
“Non-Indigenous people shouldn’t decide how Indigenous people live.
“The Australian government is being incredibly paternalistic. Once again they’re telling us what is best for us. Once again Indigenous people are being used as a political football.”
Mr McKenzie said this was happening with ATSIC.
“Organisations that are supposed to be improving Aboriginal health and education, and finding Aboriginal people jobs, haven’t succeeded,” he said. “But it seems as though they’ll be rewarded and ATSIC will go.
“A lot of the ATSIC programs are going to be handed over to them on a silver platter.”
Mr McKenzie said there had been problems with ATSIC and reforms had been needed.
“But why get rid of ATSIC? Why not just get rid of the problems?
“It’s as if you had a Rolls Royce with two punctures. You wouldn’t throw away the Rolls Royce. You’d change the tyres.
“Most Aboriginal people believe that our Prime Minister has had a personal agenda for some time – to get rid of the Aboriginal voice.
“He’ll replace it with another sort of Aboriginal voice. There will be a council, picked by the Government. Aboriginal people will work in government departments.
“But it seems he wants to silence the authentic Aboriginal voice, the elected Aboriginal voice.”
“If the elected Aboriginal voice is silenced, who will evaluate what the government is doing? From time to time to government must be challenged. How can that happen if the aboriginal voice is silenced?
Mr McKenzie welcomed the Senate inquiry.
“The information it finds should be made available to every Australian,” he said.
Mr McKenzie feels the Government action could undo some of the achievements towards reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.
“We must work together on the question of reconciliation,” he said. “We must use the experience, the wisdom and the knowledge of all Australians, working in partnership.
“Indigenous people have an inherent right to be recognised as the first people of this country – and that needs to be recognised in the proper fashion.
“Aboriginal people will not have a real sense of pride until that’s happened.
“We’re occupied people in our own country.
“The Australian Government seems to be doing its utmost to get rid of Aboriginal people’s pride in their inherent identity as the first Australians.
“There is no other country that Australian Aboriginals can call home. This is it.
“We recognise that others, our fellow Australians, have a love for this country – but they take pride in their ancestry and their heritage from other countries as well.
“The same respect must be afforded to our heritage, our culture and our traditions.
“This is our country. We must be allowed to feel proud.”

Photo: Sam Kobia with local children at Port Augusta (Kerr)

From Nicholas Kerr, Friday, July 9

Indigenous people in Australia are going through a crisis, WCC general secretary, Rev Dr Samuel Kobia, said at a press conference in Adelaide, South Australia, today.
And, he said, there are racist tendencies in the Australian Government’s policies.
Dr Kobia condemned the Australian Government’s moves to disband the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC).
Legislation to end ATSIC has been introduced Australia’s Federal Parliament.
Indigenous people have welcomed moves by the Federal Opposition and minor parties for a Senate inquiry into the right of Indigenous people to determine their own future.
“The decision to abolish ATSIC is very unfortunate,” Dr Kobia said.
“The Government wants to replace ATSIC with a hand picked advisory council.
“The Aboriginal people see this as a way of denying them their rights to self determination and what they see as the legitimate voice of the Aboriginal people.
“The commission was composed of people who were elected by Indigenous people themselves.
“To replace this with a Commission of handpicked people – they think that would be undemocratic. It will not to provide them with a legitimate voice that will represent the aspirations of the aboriginal people.”
Dr Kobia was asked if he thought that Australian Government’s policies were racist.
“When I consider the way the Aboriginal people are treated here, and listening to them, I would say that one cannot avoid detecting some racist tendencies,” he said.
“I wouldn’t, however, call the Australian people, or Australia as a country, racist in the same way I would have called South Africa racist in the apartheid period.
“There are very commendable initiatives and efforts that the Australian people have made, both the churches as well as communities of people here.
“But in any society like this you will find individuals, or maybe some extreme organisations, that would want to continue with racist attitudes.
“So it would be, I think, unfair to say ‘blanket’ racist.
“On the other hand, I can’t say the racist motivated treatment of Aboriginals has completely ended. There is still someway to go before you can achieve that level.”
Dr Kobia said the World Council of Churches has had contact and a supportive relationship with the Aboriginal cause in Australia for many, many years.
“As far back as 1974 the WCC donated the first seeding money for the centre I visited yesterday in Port Augusta.”
Pika Wiya, the Aboriginal health service, was started with $30,000 seed funding from the WCC 30. The State and Federal Governments at that stage were not interested in funding an Aboriginal health service.
Now it is a large, mainly government-funded centre.
“I am not new to the Aboriginal cause here,” Dr Kobia said.
“I am greatly encouraged by the process of healing and reconciliation that has been initiated by the churches in this country, leading to the covenant (between the church and the Indigenous arm of the church).
“This, I think, is the right thing to do. It’s a good example of how to deal with the issues of Indigenous people, even in other parts of the world.
“But, then, listening to the Aboriginal leadership yesterday I got the impression that they are going through a crisis.”
Yesterday Indigenous Affairs Minister Amanda Vanstone said she was at a loss to understand Dr Kobia's criticism.
She says ATSIC was scrapped because the system was not working.
"The changes we are making to Indigenous Affairs will improve the value that Indigenous Australians get," she said.
"No one could say what's happening at the moment is the best we can do. And I for one am determined to do better."
Church leaders have agreed that there have been problems with the way ATSIC has operated.
Rev Professor James Haire, president of the National Council of Churches in Australia, said today: “ATSIC should have been fixed – not scrapped. And the Government should not have taken any action without consulting Indigenous people first.”

Photo: Sam Kobia accepting a painting during his visit to Port Augusta