One of my most significant spiritual mentors, theologian Peter Adam, likes to say of my country’s history that “old sins cast long shadows”. (You can read a piece by him on this from The Gospel Coalition here.) The dark history of white settlement in the lands now called Australia, Adam contends, casts long shadows onContinue reading “Long Shadows: A poem for Reconciliation Week”
Tag Archives: first Australians
Ordinary Wednesday: Healing Home
In early primary school I remember composing the beginnings of a poem in my head. It went: I was born in Ballarat, some miles away from Melbourne,People always said to me, “Oh my, you must be well-born.” While I chose to prioritise rhyme and rhythm over truth (no-one has ever called me “well-born”, it showsContinue reading “Ordinary Wednesday: Healing Home”
Change the Heart
When those 12 ships turned up in Sydney, all those years ago, it wasn’t a particularly flash day for the people on those vessels either… Prime Minister Scott Morrison It was not a flash day at Sydney Cove,not a flash day for anyone.Not flash for the sailors, turning aboutfor a week in that blasting SouthernContinue reading “Change the Heart”
Starting in the garden: NAIDOC 2020
As many Australians have come together over the past week to recognise the first Australians for NAIDOC week, I’ve been challenged to think more about how I walk with indigenous Australians day to day. This is a small beginning: a reflection of what it means in my own backyard.
Boab
Upside-down-like, you bulb from earth – your beauty breaks in root-like branches. Spindly fingers reach to sky, gaunt and stretching, delicate, your certain trunk a monument, a stout and stolid testament to passing years, millennia. Shedding pods to paint; a home, yet prison; sacred; den for slaves – drawing, standing, reaching out – a signContinue reading “Boab”
The Consolations of Writing 