Reconciliation Service & Symbols
I had the privilege of taking part in a Eucumenical Reconciliation Service held at Hobart North Uniting Church on Sunday, organised by UAICC Tasmania (Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress). Reconciliation week commenced on the 27th May (which is the Anniversary of the 1967 Referendum that began counting the Aboriginal people in the Australian census and which authorised the Commonwealth Government to make laws about Aboriginal people) and concludes on the 3rd June (the anniversary of the High Court decision in the Mabo case in 1992). “Respect” was the key word that came to me.
Also, I was struck by the significance of Fire to the Indigenous community, also awakened through John Glover’s captivating painting of Mount Wellington and Hobart Town from Kangaroo Point which was shown above the Symbols of Land, Fire and Water, with the Cross and open Bible. Glover depicts the Indigenous community gathering joyfully around the fire:
FIRE is important to our people; our people could not do without it.
Fire means the calling of people together the gathering in a circle around the fire for cooking and eating and for warmth at night; the gathering for ceremonies; the gathering for story telling; the place for being together.
Fire is at the heart of our Indigenous culture.
See, Celebration of Reconciliation and also a moving explanation of our call to reconciliation, The Water Ceremony.
