Mission and Identity
- Into the Heart and home again - returning from Africa Part 3
- Myall Creek Massacre - a site for truth-telling and for open hearts and minds
- Youth Mass - Sunday 3 November
Into the Heart and home again - returning from Africa Part 3
Below is the third and final of the three testimonies that we would like to share with you from our Immersion into the Heart. The testimony below is shared from myself:
Amidst the sprawling industrial slums of Mukuru in Nairobi, is an oasis of hope. Its name is the Ruben Centre. Courageously led by Christian Brother, Br Frank Oshea, the Ruben Centre provides a primary school for 4000 students, that provides two meals a day, physiotherapy, counselling, a health clinic, birthing clinic, community radio, innovative urban farming to fight malnutrition, special needs programs, community building programs and the list is genuinely endless.
The ratio of innovation versus resources leaves you speechless. Teachers are teaching classes of 150 students, and stand on a desk in the middle of the room so that all students can see them. Not one student loses focus, as they live the reality that their learning journey will determine whether they are liberated from the slums and the generational poverty that is ever present.
The love of learning makes way for the mass movement of a sea of students as they make their way with bowl in hand, towards the sound of a reversing truck. This is the food truck which is arriving with what will be the only solid meal for the day for most of the 4,000 students. The scale of everything that the Ruben Centre seeks to accomplish is staggering.
While this logistical marvel takes place, parents are filing into the early childhood health clinic. A queue extends out the door and snakes around behind the food truck. Inside on every flat surface available sits a young mother and toddlers and babies from the Mukuru slum. Behind two doors are bright, energetic and hope filled health workers who continue their ministry from dawn until dusk without complaint. Metres from here is the Ruben Centre health clinic and birthing centre. This tiny facility provides the only accessible safe place to give birth in the slums, and delivers more babies each year than the Mater Hospital in Brisbane. Mothers who are prenatal, giving birth and post natal gather in one room as inspiring health workers carry out their vocation. In here, heaven and earth meet and their work is that of the angels. One could not help but feel we were standing on holy ground.
In an adjacent room vials of blood are turning on a rusty rotator as they run tests to discern for tuberculosis, HIV and many diseases that have evaporated from the Australian psyche, but remain very much a reality for the Kenyans. This vital facility is providing front line care and runs on donations.
Every shred of space in the Ruben Centre has been leveraged to provide a service for the local community. Experiments in urban farming lead the way in world innovation as plants rich in iron grow in a roof top garden bed, their green foliage also helps feed the breeding of rabbits. Their droppings then feed the aquaculture tanks below which are further fertilised by the fish. This water is then used to fertilise and water the plants on top to provide a self sustaining farm that occupies the space of an australian TV set.
At the end this garden of miracles is what may be described as a tool shed. However within are trays of decomposing organic matter. These are used to breed black soldier flies which are then caught, ground into a powder and then fed back to the chickens and fish as part of the Ruben Centre’s sustainable farm practice. Black soldier flies are one of the most potent sources of protein on earth.
Amidst the laughter, the sound of 4,000 students in busy classrooms, and the cries of mothers giving birth, is the Ruben Centre Radio station. From here, this radio station that operates 24 hours a day, is perhaps the most powerful tool for social change and empowerment. Each segment is dedicated to the varying needs of the community. Public health strategies, crisis assistance, community building, budgeting, food security and education are all leveraged through this tiny but mighty instrument of change.
Amidst of all of this, one then hears an orchestra of primary students who playing on donated instruments with heart moving passion. Then enters champion gymnastics teams who without nets are performing routines that defy our less than elastic Australian ligaments.
Despite the incomprehensible challenges that face human existence in Mukuru, the vision and determination of Br Frank and his team of saints in our midst, have defied the odds through a simple mantra that they live every day - We are called, we are gifted, we are sent.
Myall Creek Massacre - A site for truth telling and for open hearts and minds
“There are no short cuts to the future. The path to our future as a nation passes through its past, the good and bad.” - Sydney Friends of Myall Creek
The ‘Spirit on Country’ Catholic Schools NSW Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Conference was held this week in Tamworth. As part of our ongoing commitment to reconciliation and keeping the fire burning, I attended to deepen our connections with elders and Aboriginal communities across NSW.
Day 1 offered a profoundly moving experience as we visited and prayed at the Myall Creek Massacre Memorial, at Myall Creek.
On Sunday 10 June 1838, a group of 10 convict stockmen, lead by a squatter, rode onto Myall Creek Station (near what is now Bingara in Northern New South Wales) and brutally massacred about 28 Aboriginals, mostly older men, women and children in an unprovoked and premeditated attempt to remove them from what had become pastoral land. This event has become known as the Myall Creek Massacre and, whilst only one of many such outrages committed across Australia over a 100 year period, is notable now for the fact that it was the first time that the perpetrators of such crimes were brought to justice. Following a second trial, seven men were executed. This did not however herald an end to the massacres which continued for decades and remain as a stain on Australian history.
On the site of the Myall Creek Massacre now stands a simple but poignant granite memorial, acknowledging those who lost their lives, the perpetrators and those who courageously contributed to the pursuit and achievement of justice. Importantly now, it stands as a symbol of the desire for a more equitable Australia and as an emblem for those determined to achieve true and lasting reconciliation between our indigenous and more recent settler populations.
“In memory of the Wirrayaraay people who were murdered on the slopes of this ridge in an unprovoked but premeditated act in the late afternoon of 10 June, 1838.
Erected on 10 June 2000 by a group of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians in an act of reconciliation, and in acknowledgement of the truth of our shared history.”
Ngiyana winangay ganunga - we remember them”
The Myall Creek Massacre Memorial stone
The equally powerful element of our visit to the site was the joy-filled promise of moving forward together as one mob, with a shared vision and deep commitment to reconciliation. This was beautifully expressed by students from across the Diocese of Armidale as they shared culture through dance and language.
For a site that witnessed the massacre of 28 Aboriginal mothers, children and grandfathers on June 10, 1838, the spirit of healing shone through such shadows and pointed to a future that promised open hearts and open minds.
As mentioned previously, while on the Red Dirt Immersion, we were blessed to meet, to listen and learn from Uncle Morris (an elder from Ngemba Country) while visiting St Patrick’s Brewarrina. We are delighted to share that Uncle Morris will be joining us as an elder and artist in residence for Week 6 this term, to create a collaborative mural as a platform for sharing culture as part of our NAIDOC and Reconciliation commitments.
This mural will stand as a beacon to remind us of our ongoing commitment to Reconciliation, and of our yearning to learn from the wisdom of our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island sisters and brothers.
Youth Mass Sunday 3 November
Next Sunday 3 November at 5:30 pm, all are invited to share the celebration of the St Pius X and Mercy Youth Mass at Our Lady of Dolours Catholic Church Chatswood. Pizza will follow Mass to continue the opportunity to share faith, friendship and food. Please take up the opportunity to refill your inner cup!
As we approach Week 3, we wish you a blessed journey and pray that you find moments of peace and joy in the ordinary. God is a God of surprises!
Mr Daniel Petrie - Assistant Principal, Mission and Identity