A while ago I saw a cartoon in the newspaper.  I think it was Insanity Streak.  It showed a boy painting graffiti on a wall and at the end of the same wall a little dog was cocking his leg. The thought bubble for both boy and dog said “Now everyone will know I was here” 

While I don’t advocate we do either of those things, we can look at you lot – look at each other – as individuals and as a community of faith – and see the mark you each alone, and together have left your mark on this place.

As I look at this community. As we remember the people of the past, As we look at the people and the lives that have been impacted by you and the life of this place.
As it’s NAIDOC week and the theme for this year is FOR OUR ELDERS.   As you will all know the term Elders does not signify just old age – the title reflects the honoured place these people have in their culture and community to maintain and hand on culture and the respect. And it has become traditional to call our First Nations Elders by the honourific Aunty and Uncle.  I am personally hopeful that as a nation we will come to a point of embracing our First Nations culture as an integral part of the wider Australian culture that we will begin to honour all our elders by that title.  After all it is also part of the non-indigenous culture that we have lost in the past few generations.  I grew up calling the most important Elders of my – very- non-indigenous church Aunty and Uncle.  

One of the difficult truths of life is that it is often more likely that other marginalised people will take up the cause for the liberation of others.  There is a story – little known from Australia’s history that shows this and offers a wonderful example for us to take our inclusive God and his inclusive kingdom with ultimate seriousness.

On the morning of December 6, 1938 – a year before war broke out with Nazi Germany – the streets of Footscray were unusually windy and cold. Yet outside a cottage on Southampton Street was one of the very few bright moments. Immaculately dressed in suits and hats, a dozen men and women, huddled together, oblivious to the fact they were making history. All they knew was they had to march to 419 Collins Street. And quickly. They were scheduled for an 11.30am meeting with Dr Drechsler, Consul General to the Third Reich.   The marchers had decided on their message. These few resolved to protest “the cruel persecution of the Jewish people by the Nazi Government of Germany and asking that this persecution be brought to an end.”     Stories had filtered through about Kristallnacht – 24 horrifying hours that saw Hitler’s brown shirts rampage through the streets of Germany looting, burning and smashing Jewish stores and synagogues. In just a few hours, nearly 100 Jews had been killed and approx 30,000 incarcerated in concentration camps.

Remarkably, these protesters from Footscray weren’t Jewish. They were Christians. And yet, Yad Vashem, the world’s leading research centre on the Holocaust, says their protest was the only one of its kind. It didn’t happen in France or Britain or even America. It happened right here in Australia. And wasn’t white Australians.  was Aboriginal Australians who weren’t even citizens of their own country. They were led by a 78-year-old man from Bangerang country, named William Cooper.  A great man we should all know about, a strong Christian and a tireless activist for justice for his people and all dispossessed and marginalised people.    I repeat to be clear, this protest made by Aboriginal Australians was the only one of it’s kind – in the whole world.

Not only did these Aborignal people of the past leave their mark, but I know that we can see the Hand of God writing on our continent...”I was here”...
“I came... I touched lives...I prompted people to love each other.

God was there with these First Nations people – not citizens, not allowed to vote, lives controlled by others. God inspired them to use their own experience of marginalisation and ostracism to stand in solidarity with the Jews facing genocide as they themselves had.

God was here encouraging people to work for the good of others

Provoking people to think of the best for their tribe, Clan, nation - village, town, city.    God motivated people to look beyond their own needs to the benefit of society  God tells us -  I was here”...

Aunty Fran Bodkin has a twinkle in her eye. Fran was removed from her family by a government agency when she was three, but she ran away from her new foster home and returned to her parents soon after. She decided she’d had enough of being ‘flogged’ for not pronouncing words correctly when reading the bible. ‘Dad taught me to read and write by the time I was three, and he used to take me down to Central Station and make me memorize all of the train stations in New South Wales. He’d say, “Remember, if ever you get taken away or get lost, find a railway line. Once you find a railway line you’ll find a station, then hop on the train back to Central and walk home”. And so I did’ she says.’

It’s early morning and she and her interviewer were nibbling on finger limes whilst wandering through the Australian Botanic Garden at Mount Annan...
She chuckles as we stop next to a native hibiscus, ‘Oh, I love this one’, she says. ‘Western people put hibiscus flowers in champagne on their wedding day, right? Well, we use it as a contraceptive!’

‘There’s plenty of things we have a good chuckle about,’ says Fran, a D’harawal woman of the Bidiagal clan, from the southern parts of Sydney. Fran was born under a tree in central Sydney. ‘Dad was taking Mum to hospital when the wheel came off the car and hit the tree and that’s where I was born. Given my passion for plants, it must have been meant to be,’ she says.

Fran has dedicated much of her life to sharing stories of indigenous knowledge of the natural environment. A gifted storyteller and communicator, she’s studied a bachelor of arts and sciences at university, has written a plant reference book called Encyclopaedia Botanica and is an Elder on campus at the University of Western Sydney. She works regularly with indigenous school children, encouraging their curiosity about the environment and helping prepare them for university. Fran is a tireless campaigner for the recognition of indigenous knowledge and cultural heritage, and a storehouse of stories passed down through generations of D’harawal people before her.

Just as imortant as God’s blessings in the past...and just as important as God’s provisions in the future... God is here today... The most important thing is what God is doing right now... It’s exciting to be here...

As a nation we are involved in a slow revolution and a process of the restitution of our First Nations people to their rightful place in our society.  We as people of faith can join with our indigenous community, our old migrants, and more recent comers to create a just, inclusive and vibrant society,  We do so knowing that God’s Kingdom is come here.  We do this knowing that while lots of things may change around us, – our God is faithful. 

When we look to the future, we hear God saying, ”I am here”,  ”I will be here”
As the people of Australia, As we continue to impact the lives of people in this country, in whatever form that may take.   We realize that God will be here. Always faithful, Always calling us on, provoking us, challenging us to be the best people we can be.  Always calling our community on, encouraging and inspiring us to be the best Australia we can be so all the members of this nation and all our people may be a powerful force to change their villages and towns and suburbs and cities into places of love and commitment that God wants us to be.

With our most ancient peoples -God is here, encouraging them to know, care for and delight in this extraordinary land.

In our current Australia – God is here, leading us to true reconciliation, truth and respect, to honour, protect and rejoice in this sacred land God gave us.

Rev Anne Ryan