Staff Spirituality Day

Staff from Kildare Catholic College attended a Smoking Ceremony during their recent Staff Spirituality Day. The following article was presented by Jason Jolley, Aboriginal School and Community Worker at Kildare Catholic College and highlights the importance of this ceremony.

Fire has been central to many aspects of traditional Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander life, including cooking, storytelling, providing warmth, as a ceremonial and ritual device, and is also used in medicinal practices.

Aboriginal Peoples on mainland Australia also used fire extensively through land management practices to promote productive ecosystems.

Many ceremonies involving fire have been performed by Aboriginal people for thousands of years, and to this practice the Waagan Waagan People of the mighty Wiradjuri Nation, were no exception.

Smoking Ceremonies are a prime example and have been performed by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people for thousands of years to cleanse people and places of bad spirits, and to treat sickness.

It is not just the smoke that is important in the ceremony but also how the fire is lit and what materials are used to make it. Some Peoples might only use certain type of leaves or bark while others may interchange them depending on what the ceremony is.

There are a few different ways for a Smoking to take place. The ceremony involves the gathering of guests around a smokey fire, who will be invited to walk through the smoke to receive welcome to, and protection while upon the Wiradjuri Country. We will observe this protocol today.

It is my privilege to welcome Knowledge Holder and friend Luke Wighton to conduct our ceremony today. I have introduced Luke to speak with us on his perspectives on the Smoking Ceremony.

Those attending a Smoking Ceremony are usually invited to walk through the smoke, or wave it over themselves, and receive a cleansing. In doing so we cleanse ourselves, as well as our past towards a better future.

We thank all for their engagement during this ancient ceremony.

Our special thanks to Luke for his time and his expertise, and for his gift to us of this cleansing and protective smoke.

May we all leave this place today with a deeper connection to the Country on which we live, love and learn, Wiradjuri Country, and a greater appreciation that we are just one small part of a much larger story.

Jason Jolley | Aboriginal School and Community Worker