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Geelong Deanery |
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Reflections on the National Sorry Day Ceremonies, GeelongThe Koorie people who prepared kangaroo kebabs and emu rissoles could not have anticipated a crowd of four to five thousand on National Sorry Day, yet their supplies lasted until ‘all had had their fill’. Was this a modern day miracle of the feeding of the five thousand? Whatever about that, it was a potent symbol of unity in the Geelong community. Nature itself, it seemed, wanted to contribute to the Geelong observance of National Sorry Day. The natural amphitheatre of Rippleside Park reached out to the glassy smoothness of Corio Bay evoking thoughts of the calm after the storm on the Sea of Galilee. The events commemorated on shore were the ‘sorry business’ of forcible removals of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families for the purpose of diluting these black races out of existence. Such a storm would take more calming than one National Sorry Day ceremony could provide, but the symbolism of the day, including nature’s contribution, gave powerful impetus to the day’s purpose. There is a perverse but commonplace truism in our culture which says ‘it’s not substance but image which counts’. Unfortunately, the images of indigenous peoples shown so often in the media are of backward peoples, dependent on handouts and riddled with all kinds of social problems. Anybody who takes the trouble to look beyond these images knows that they are stereotypes that distort the facts about the indigenous population by exaggerating the problems and neglecting the positive aspects of their situation. Some of these positive aspects featured at Rippleside Park. Not only did we see samples of Aboriginal art and artefacts which already enjoy international acclaim, but we also witnessed some of these artists at work: fashioners of jewellery, carvers of emu eggs and makers of didgeridoos. We were also treated to displays of ancient dances by the Je Be Weng dance troupe, and to a concert of modern Aboriginal music and song by Andie Albert, Lee Morgan and Glen Romanis. The substance of Aboriginal culture, on this evidence, contrasts markedly with its current image! Anybody who has tried to involve Australian churchgoers in spontaneous liturgical expression will be aware of the difficulty of that task. It was therefore a truly remarkable feature of the National Sorry Day ceremony in Geelong that literally hundreds of people joined hands with strangers and expressed their deepest feelings about the significance of the occasion to them. A smaller number – both indigenous and non-indigenous – spoke to the assembly at large about their thoughts and feelings on the ‘sorry business’. Was it the power of the symbolism of gathering around a ‘fire of unity’ on a clear, cold night that inspired such outpourings of profound human thought and feeling, or was it the enormity of the atrocities themselves being impressed upon participants’ consciousness by the education process which led to this first National Sorry Day? Whatever it was, even the most fervent of habitual worshippers would be hard put to recall a more moving, spontaneous liturgy. |
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