Message from the Chaplain

Acknowledgement

Yaama!  Welcome back to Calrossy, as we begin the second half of our Year Of Hope with our School’s celebration of NAIDOC Week.

Many of you would have done some travelling over the past three weeks – such as our Rugby touring group to New Zealand. Any time that you journey to another country – even to another place! – you’re quickly aware that all countries and communities have some form of rules for joining or belonging to that community, even for a matter of days.  And they have to be acknowledged! You may need visas, passports and other documents to be allowed to enter and stay in that country – just saying, ‘Kia Ora!’ wouldn’t have been enough for our Rugby tourists! There may also be rules or accepted customs about what you can wear, or what you can do.  We even have them at Calrossy: visitors to the School get met at Reception, where they’re greeted and signed in for their time here.

And there are protocols for visiting Country that have also been part of our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures for thousands of years. Crossing into another Indigenous group’s Country meant asking permission to enter, which might involve something like the visitors sitting outside the boundary of the group’s land and lighting a fire to signal their request. When that permission was granted – a bit like getting a visa! - the hosting group would light a fire in response, welcoming the visitors and offering them safe passage. Much has changed over time; but the recognition and respecting of those ancient protocols is something we endeavour to do through the Acknowledgement of Country that is used at so many events at Calrossy.

Acknowledging the rules and expectations that go with being part of a particular community is important; ignoring them can get us into trouble that we might not anticipate!  Yet it can be easy for people, in every community and country, to miss out on acknowledging something even more significant: the God who created us and all things, and so knows the best way for us to live in His world.

Rev. Mark Rundle

Calrossy Chaplain