Catholic Mission is committed to working hand-in-hand with Aboriginal and Torres Straits Islander peoples, by creating pathways of understanding and collaboration. With synodality as a critical principle to our approach, we aim to create a space where we all stand united. You will find on this page some resources including our Reconciliation Action Plan, information on the Uluru Statement from the Heart, and Dean Parkin’s keynote address at our 2023 Mission Conference.
Catholic Mission established its RAP Working Group in July 2020 to come together and begin thinking about the best approach to developing a RAP for the organisation.
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Catholic Mission supports the work of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Catholic Council (NATSICC). NATSICC is the peak advisory body to the Australian Catholic Bishops on issues relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Catholics. NATSICC is represented by a member of the local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Ministry from each state and territory.
Visit the NATSICC websiteCatholic Mission stands in solidarity with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and is always willing to support initiatives that promote their spiritual, material and social well-being. We are proud of our partnership with the National Catholic and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Catholic Council and the current initiative to establish the stable ministry of catechists among local communities.
In 1986, Pope St John Paul II in Alice Springs shared:
"The Church herself in Australia will not be fully the Church that Jesus wants her to be until you have made your contribution to her life and until that contribution has been joyfully received by others."
In 2016 commemorating the 30th anniversary of the visit of Pope St John Paul II to Alice Springs, Pope Francis shared:
"This anniversary affords me the happy opportunity to express my deep esteem for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and for your ancient cultural heritage. Uniting my voice to that of Saint John Paul II, I encourage you in his words: "Your culture, which shows the lasting genius and dignity of your race, must not be allowed to disappear. Do not think that your gifts are worth so little that you should no longer bother to maintain them. Share them with each other and teach them to your children. Your songs, your stories, your paintings, your dances, your languages, must never be lost." For when you share the noble traditions of your community, you also witness to the power of the Gospel to perfect and purify every society, and in this way God's holy will is accomplished."
As the largest consensus of First Nations peoples on a proposal for substantive recognition in Australian history, the road to the Uluru Statement from the Heart is a long one even without mentioning the decades of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander activism that came before it.
Recent research conducted by Professor Heidi Norman and Dr Anne Maree Payne’s, UNSW Indigenous Land and Justice Research Group, shows truth-telling is more vital than ever on the path to recognition and reconciliation. The study finds that while truth-telling is an everyday activity for many First Nations people, non-Indigenous Australians are unsure about what their role in truth-telling might be. There is a gap in existing research about what encourages Australians to engage with truth-telling and our shared history.
The 2022 Australian Reconciliation Barometer identified that only 6% of non-Indigenous respondents had participated in a local truth-telling activity in the previous 12 months, compared to 43% of First Nations respondents.*
This indicates a gap between First Nations peoples’ calls for truth-telling as an essential part of transforming the future relationship between them and non-Indigenous Australians, and non-Indigenous people’s knowledge about and interest in participating in truth-telling. Reconciliation Australia suggests that this might also indicate a lack of opportunity to participate in truth-telling activities.
The Coming to terms with the past? Identifying barriers and enablers to truth-telling and strategies to promote historical acceptance report can be found here.
At Catholic Mission we are committed to working hand in hand with our First Nations partners to reduce this gap. Truth: from the heart, a joint initiative of Catholic Mission and Aboriginal Catholic Ministry, is a response to the Uluru Statement’s invitation to walk together into the future. We invite you to make use of this resource and to get in touch if you’d like support with this at adultformation@catholicmission.org.au.
*At Catholic Mission, since initiation of our RAP in 2020 we have now reached 97% of staff having participated in foundational Aboriginal and Cultural Awareness training and this is now embedded in our onboarding processes. We also provide multiple opportunities annually for staff to participate in local events and truth telling activities as well as supporting ongoing professional development in cultural awareness training.
A joint initiative of Catholic Mission and Aboriginal Catholic Ministry, is a response to the Uluru Statement’s invitation to walk together into the future.
Learn moreListening to Many Voices from the Heart. This video is an excerpt of Dean Parkin’s Keynote Address at the 2023 Mission: one heart many voices conference, which took place in the lead up to the 2023 referendum for a Voice to Parliament.
Dean was Campaign Director for the Yes campaign. He powerfully expresses that the Uluru Statement from the Heart was an invitation to all Australians for a fuller expression of our nationhood.
Dean stands on the shoulders of those before him in calling for recognition of our Aboriginal and Torres-strait Islander peoples. A call that remains post-referendum:
“When we do recognition, when we actually achieve the recognition of Aboriginal and Torres-strait Islander peoples as the first peoples of this country, 234 years into the modern Australian national project, we’re saying something about ourselves, about who we are. Something that may seem obvious but actually has never been done before. That we are not actually 234 years old, parts of us are, some good parts of us are. But the story of what it means to be genuinely and uniquely Australian in this world has it’s roots in 65,000 years of history.”
He reminds us that the Uluru statement from the heart was given to the Australian people. It has not been left on the walls of Parliament house, but with the Australian people. A ‘fuller expression of Australia’s nationhood’ means “we all benefit”. We can all share the story of being the only country on earth that is home to the oldest continuing culture on earth. It is a unique story we are all invited to connect to as Australians.
