The Sisters of Mercy Parramatta held a National Reconciliation Week morning tea and film meeting on Monday 27 May, with the focus on the Uluru Statement from the Heart.
National Reconciliation Week (NRW) in Australia (27 May – 3 June) is held to celebrate Indigenous history and culture and to celebrate and promote respectful relationships between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and other Australians.
It was small but informative and enjoyable event, thanks largely to a delicious morning tea of sandwiches, cakes and fruit from Sr Pat Tully.
By happy coincidence the meeting coincided with the day the Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) opened its first page with a beautiful photo of Uluru and launched a campaign for constitutional recognition for Indigenous Australians. The articles there are well worth reading.
Two of the writers in the SMH, Professor Megan Davis and Mr Dean Parkin featured in the films we watched and their invitation to the people of Australia to walk with them on a path towards a more spiritually generous and inclusive nation at peace with itself touched everyone present.
We pledged ourselves to take up the journey with them and to work for the inclusion of a Voice in our Constitution and a Makarrata commission for Treaty and Truth-telling, so that finally, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples may find their rightful place in our nation. We look forward to joining the campaign.
The Sisters have now made a public declaration on their website of their support for the Uluru Statement From the Heart:
“The Uluru Statement From the Heart invited all Australians to listen and respond to the First Peoples’ call to walk together on a path towards a more spiritually generous and inclusive nation.
“We have heard their heartfelt entreaty and so commit ourselves to take up the journey with them and to work for the inclusion of a Voice in our Constitution and a Makarrata commission for Treaty and Truth-telling, so that finally, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples may find their rightful place in our nation.”
With thanks to Margaret Hinchey rsm and the Sisters of Mercy Parramatta.
