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The Sisters of St Joseph, since the time of Mary MacKillop have always ministered with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (ATSI) people in Australia. Since the 1960s the Sisters have had a strong commitment in the Kimberley, in major cities and in rural and remote part of Australia. At the last General Chapter of the Congregation in 2007 the Sisters once again affi rmed their ongoing commitment to work in partnership. Since the 1990s the Sisters have had a Congregational committee of ATSI people and Josephite Sisters (Josephite Aboriginal Planning Committee - JAPC) who have developed policy, protocols and procedures for ministry and who have provided advice to the leadership of the Congregation. As the Sisters are in a new stage of planning for a sustainable future for the sake of their part in God’s Mission, they want to ensure their commitment to ATSI peoples remains strong. After consultation with the JAPC and the Sisters currently in the ministry, the Congregation is beginning the process of setting up a more formal structure to ensure this commitment is strengthened and sustainable into the future.

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Anne Porter, Kununurra WA I thought the time was good. Good for us to get together, good for me to meet people in the ministry. Good sitting, working together and working together to form some kind of plan for the future.

Marianne Zeinstra, Amata SA Good to all meet prior to general meeting in a very fruitful sharing. I was impressed that of there was a 100% turn up to the prior gathering showing that we valued the solidarity and support and the need for having that support. It was good to get a broad sense of the common issues in our working and journeying with Aboriginal people as we represented all states and territories across the country except for Tasmania & ACT .One issue that emerged from the sharing we had was the Peoples’ need and desire for healing. I thought there was a good process (in the formal Conversation) – remembering the journey of Mary MacKillop and our own; the giving thanks for past projects and achievements; questions re our onward journey and an appropriate response to the Call of the Chapter;our responses were categorised and then prioritized We voted for developing a Commission as our fi rst priority as it can include so many aspects that we had previously noted. Out of this good work, I’m looking forward to a timeline to carry things forward. THE TRUTH WILL SET YOU FREE

Janice Brown, team member of Aboriginal Catholic Social Services, formerly ACM, Penrith NSW

I believe that God was here in Australia before any white man came. We are the First People of Australia. Mother Earth holds the dust, bones and spirits of our great Ancestors that are scattered across our vast land including Tasmania. Many rock caves across our land have drawings, messages, spirits of the old people still talking today. I think they're saying, “Don't you mob give up, walk towards the light because the truth will set you free. Be proud always of your culture and all your ancestors will guide you from the spirit world of .

The Intervention in the Northern Territory has upset me very much. Some of the faces on the old women as I remember my Mum, God rest her soul, all the troubles and sadness, these are the poor old tribal Elders or tribal owners of our land. They should be left alone in to live a peaceful life in their twilight years. Not pushed from pillar to post and made a mockery of. I'm told they are now getting sick because of the conditions they live in such as failed sewerage running in and across the fl oors of their shacks. They no longer have rights as humans to exist in their own country. The Australian Government should be ashamed of itself. How dare they. This is 2010 not 1918. The Government is taking control of the pensions cards leaving the Elders $200 to live on. These people can't always get someone to drive them all those miles to do their shopping so they are selling their $200 card for $50 to the local shop because they need food to eat...

On the 13th February I was at La Perouse ready to march in support of my brothers and sisters against the Intervention. We marched to the Block at Redfern where there were speakers, plenty of cameras but no coverage except for SBS of the event in any of the papers. If we were all drunk and brawling we would have made the front page.

These are the same people who say they want reconciliation. Well I think that they have a lot of homework to do. The gap between Aboriginal and Non- Aboriginal people can only start to close when all Aboriginal people have their rights protected and when they are genuinely engaged in partnership with the Government to identify the challenge and work co-operatively to develop policies that will directly reduce their disadvantage. So while the rest of us go on working for our rights and justice in our own country, our tribal Elders, our tribal owners are dying.

(reprinted with permission) WWEE SSPEAK OUT PEAK OUT AANDND ADVOCATE ADVOCATE 1. The petition to the United NationsN ti supporting ti g Aboriginal Ab igi l people l in the Northern Territory against the reinstatement of the restricted (weakened) Racial Discrimination Act (RDA) and national expansion of Income Management is on the Josephite website. Please consider adding your supporting signature. Link: http://www.sosj.org.au/ news-events/view_article.cfm?id=89&loadref=7

2. The Leaders of the Australian Congregations and Provinces of the Sisters of St Joseph have asked the Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, Jenny Macklin, to ensure that the legislation currently before parliament reinstating the Racial Discrimination Act in relation to the Northern Territory Intervention does so with more than minimalist compliance. To read this statement go to: Link: http://www.sosj.org.au/news-events/ view_article.cfm?id=100&loadref=7

AAboriginalboriginal SSundayunday NAIDOC Week celebrations are held across bbeginsegins NNAIDOCAIDOC WWeekeek the country each July to celebrate the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and iinn AAustraliaustralia Torres Strait Islander peoples. NAIDOC is celebrated not only in Indigenous communities, but by Australians from all walks of life. The week is a great opportunity to participate in a range of activities and to support your local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community.

The National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Catholic Council (NATSICC) prepare a special kit for schools and parishes for Aboriginal Sunday and this is available online. This kit contains prayers, songs and intentions that can be used to celebrate the gifts that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people bring to the Catholic Church in Australia. Prayers and Liturgies are produced throughout the year so check back regularly.

http://www.natsicc.org.au/resources_liturgy.php ONGOING EDUCATION Protocols to be noted and observed

Capital “A” or small “a” ? The accepted custom in Australia when writing of Australian Aboriginal people is to use the capital A - Aboriginal people. When referring to aboriginal peoples throughout the world, the custom has been to use lower case – aboriginal.

Aboriginal /Torres Strait Islander? versus 'Indigenous'?

Most prefer to be called by their language group name Kaurna, Wiradjuri, Gitja and so on or by their regional language term like Anangu, Koori, Murri but obviously there is a frequent need for the generic term. Tom Calma, the immediate past Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner said last year that the Commission's research among First Nation people around Australia while establishing the Congress, the new advisory body to Government, found that people all over Australia were defi nite in their preference for continuing to be known as' Aboriginal and ' rather than the term 'Indigenous' which Federal Governments, some State governments and public service have favoured for the last decade or so. A relevant article in the latest '' journal expresses the same warning as that often noted by Dr Alitya Rigney, Kaurna SA Elder: that everyone born in an area/place can claim to be indigenous to that place e.g. 'Indigenous Londoners.' Alitya often reminds 'Language is power' urging fellow Aboriginal people 'to keep claiming our identity as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders - and urging us non Aboriginal people also to support this process by the use of these preferred names

IIRMANGKARMANGKA IRMANGAKAIRMANGAKA TTRADITIONALRADITIONAL HANDHAND MADEMADE BBUSHUSH RRUBUB FFOROR SSALEALE AAmatamata CommunityCommunity IIncnc

This bush rub soothes headaches, any aches and pains/ arthritis/rheumatoid arthritis, eczema, cuts, colds (rub over back, chest and neck), rashes, nappy rash, razor burn, cuts. Amata is a remote Aboriginal community situated in the Anangu Pitjatjantjara Yankunyjatjara (APY) Lands in the far north west of South Australia, 120km south of Uluru. Sr Marianne Zeinstra (Vic) is in her third year there, supporting the Amata Family Centre including their Bush Rub project.

Sales through www.bushrub.com. The Victorian story of the Aboriginal people’s early interactions with white settlers is fascinating, heart pilgrimage to wrenching and little known. The Aboriginal Catholic Ministry of and Catholics for Australian Reconciliation undertook to organize a pilgrimage to thethe site of a heroic, successful and ultimately CORANDERRKtragictragic attempt to adadapt.a The pilgrimage was fully booked to 150 pilgrims; a weekweek befbeforeore ththee midmid-maymay dadatete ttherehe was a waiting list.

Six Josephites of the Victorian Province were part of the group gathered at Coranderrk near the present town of Healsville. They walked in the footsteps of the Aboriginal elder Barak, guided by his descendent, the present Elder Aunty Joy Murphy-Wandin. It was poignant to recall that Mary MacKillop, born on the land of the Wurundjeri nation, was a contemporary of Barak.

In 1860 the Wurundjeri Elder, Wonga, petitioned the Victorian Parliament for a piece of land in his people’s own country where he could establish a settlement. The land that later was named Coranderrk was granted. When Wonga died in 1875 his nephew , known by settlers as ‘King William, last chief of the Yarra Yarra tribe’, became the leader, the Ngurungaeta. William Barak believed strongly in justice for his people, and time and again made the arduous walk to to petition to Parliament and to Queen Victoria for his people. ‘Freedom for our lifetime’, he said. The community at Coranderrk welcomed Aboriginal people displaced from other parts of Victoria; they established an economically self-suffi cient settlement by growing and marketing hops. Barak negotiated with the Victorian Government offi cials as they made promises and broke promises. They fi nally promised to export the whole of a hop harvest of one year. The people worked around the clock to fi ll the contract; the Government pocketed the proceeds. The community never recovered. Barak died in 1903 a broken-hearted man.

The pilgrimage honoured Barak. It began around the campfi re on Friday night and fi nished with a Sunday Eucharist rich in Aboriginal symbolism. The pilgrims stayed on the beautiful Wurundjeri land, experienced the ceremonies, and walked to Barak’s grave on a hillside where many of his people were also buried.

Those not able to experience this pilgrimage may taste some of the story by watching the SBS production Freedom for Our Lifetime – The First Australians.

Google Coranderrk or website en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coranderrk for further story and details.

Margaret Blampeid at the campfi re with elders from Gippsland

Aunty Joy Murphy at the Smoking CeremonyMass at Healsville Parish Church