Reparations and Reconciliation - A Perspective from the Churches

Reparations and Reconciliation
- A Perspective from the Churches

Speech delivered by Rev
David Gill

Secretary-General, National Council of Churches in Australia

First, I want to
acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we meet.

Second, I must
acknowledge the hurt and pain of all who bear scars from the tragedy
inflicted on the Stolen Generations.

As a prologue,
let me explain what the National Council of Churches in Australia is,
and is not.

The NCCA comprises
fifteen Protestant, Anglican, Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches.
The Council is not a "superchurch," with authority over its
member churches. I can tell you what I believe the churches are thinking
and doing. I can advise them as to what they ought to be thinking and
doing. But I cannot command them. Each church is autonomous, making
decisions according to its own lights, following its own timetable and
processes, consulting with its own Indigenous members and taking account
of its own inner dynamics.

Of the Council's
fifteen member churches, six were directly involved, one way or another,
in dealing with the consequences of government policies that produced
the Stolen Generations. Most but not all of the churches that were so
involved belong to the NCCA.

But a clear line
between churches that were "involved" and those that weren't
is hard to draw. For we non-Indigenous Australians were all involved,
whether we knew it or not, whether we want to acknowledge it or not.
It was people like my parents, and their parents before them, who elected
our governments that adopted these policies. It was ordinary Australians
- those in the pews as well as those who weren't - who remained silent,
who assumed the governments knew what they were doing, who just didn't
see or, worse, just didn't feel.

The responsibility
rests not just on six churches that found themselves coping with the
consequences of government policies. It rests on the nation as a whole,
and on all the organisations - political, religious, educational, media,
the lot - that so tragically failed many Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander families, and in so doing failed us all.

With the topic of today's panel, I am helped by two things. First, the
NCCA Executive earlier this year adopted a public statement on "The
Bringing Them Home Report and the Churches". That statement
emerged from consultation between national heads of churches and the
NCCA's Indigenous Aboriginal and Islander Commission, and it has been
endorsed by the member churches individually. Second, the NCCA's governing
body, its National Forum, last month received and acted on a major report
prepared by the Aboriginal and Islander Commission. Entitled "Continuing
the Journey …", the report reviews church responses to the
reconciliation process in general and to the Bringing Them Home Report
in particular. The two documents, taken together, articulate the common
mind that has been developing in Australia's churches. I will touch
on the main points.

1. Reconciliation requires that the facts must be faced, not avoided.
To quote from the NCCA statement: "The fundamental truth of the
stories of the Stolen Generations, and their pain, cannot be denied.
As representatives of the churches, we call on our people, and the
nation at large, to acknowledge the validity of the Bringing Them
Home Report and its recommendations."

2. Reconciliation
requires that apologies be made and meant, and accepted. Churches
like many other community organisations have expressed their sorrow.
It remains a matter of regret to us that the federal government cannot
see its way clear to do the same.

3. Reconciliation
requires specific actions by organisations that received the victims
of Indigenous child removal. The churches have committed themselves
to make their records accessible. For example, we now have "A
Piece of the Story," a national directory of records of Catholic
organisations caring for children separated from families, as well
as "A Guide to Records of Indigenous Australians in the Lutheran
Archives" covering records of the Lutheran missions in South
Australia, the Northern Territory and Queensland. Where difficulties
are experienced in knowing who to approach in church structures for
such information, the NCCA's Aboriginal and Islander Commission stands
ready to assist. Where records don't exist churches have been urged
to develop the fullest accounting possible. Allegations of specific
instances of abuse, of course, must be addressed.

4. Reconciliation
requires that culturally appropriate healing and counselling be made
available to people affected by the forcible removals. Beyond the
already significant ministries being undertaken by Indigenous people
for Indigenous people, the NCCA has urged churches to support the
training of more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in counselling
and healing.

5. Reconciliation
requires that the churches determine their responses to any proposed
reparations tribunal. Clearly, we need an effective alternative to
litigation that is suited to the Australian context. Clarification
as to the scope, membership, accountability, resourcing and legal
status of any proposed tribunal is awaited, and with such information
the churches advised by their Indigenous members will determine their
stances.

6. Reconciliation
requires resources. To quote again from the NCCA statement: "The
churches support the establishment by the Council of Australian Governments
of a national fund, as part of the healing process.

We call on all Australian governments, whose predecessors legislated
for laws which gave warrant to practices leading to the Stolen Generations,
to contribute generously to the fund. Because all Australians were
represented by those governments, all Australians and all agencies
- including church agencies - which cooperated with such practices
are urged to contribute to the fund."

7. Perhaps most
difficult of all, reconciliation requires deepened understanding.
Hence the NCCA National Forum urged member churches to take further
their efforts to express the gospel in ways that respect Indigenous
spirituality, to develop cross-cultural and anti-racism programmes
for those being trained for ministry, to teach Stolen Generations
history in their schools, to mine the Roadmap for Reconciliation as
a resource for the future.

8. Reconciliation
requires a shared effort by us all. The various stakeholders must
stop playing off each other: the government versus the churches, Indigenous
versus non-Indigenous, this organisation versus that organisation.
It is time to move beyond the blame game, beyond institutional power
plays. The churches are getting their act together. They stand ready
to be partners in such a joint effort, within whatever mechanisms
may be put in place - if, that is, others are prepared to accept us.

For us, reconciliation
is not, ultimately, about policies and programmes. Some of you will
remember Noel Pearson's comment towards the end of the 1997 Reconciliation
Convention. The Prime Minister had made a rather disappointing speech,
and Noel was urging us not to be weighed down by our disappointment.
"They are only the government of the day," he said. "They
are not God".

But that leaves
us with the key question. Who or what is God? Where can we hang our
hope, place our confidence, find our strength?

As the churches
wrestle afresh with the ancient mysteries of faith, we hope you will
allow us to work with you, and to move forward with you on the long
road towards a new beginning.