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SYNOD
FOR OCEANIA
Intervention by Mrs Elsie Heiss
Aboriginal Catholic Ministry, Archdiocese of Sydney
27th of November 1998
Holy Father, and my Brothers and Sisters in Christ.
Thank you Holy Father for inviting me here to the Synod,
as an Aboriginal representative and a woman.
The responses to the Lineamenta demonstrate that Oceania
is characterized by many people with distinctive cultures.
In some countries the indigenous people have become a minority
group in the national society, like the Aborigines in Australia
and the Maoris in New Zealand. (Instrumentum Laboris 11.)
I would like to pose a question, on why the Indigenous representative
from the Aboriginal Catholics in Australia is so small? We
maybe a minority group, but we are a large Catholic group.
I would like to begin with a quote from our Aboriginal Deacon,
Boniface Perdjert from the Darwin diocese: "Deep down we Aboriginals
are a religious People. We did not have many material goods,
but we were rich with spiritual goods. It was this strong
religious side that made us. It give us our identity, our
dignity, our self assurance. My people existed in Australia
thousands of years before Abraham. In all that time, God was
with my people. He worked through their culture. He was preparing
us for the day when we would see features of Aborigines in
the image of His Son"
 Among
Christians there are those who still regard Aboriginal religion
as a primitive mass of superstition, magic, sorcery and fantasy.
To this I would pose the question, who is fantasizing? Inculturation
is clearly an acceptable term within our Church, we Aborigines
bring to the Church our spiritual and cultural gifts, which
can only enrich the church even more. The Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander People celebrate the Sacraments of the Church
in a way that is culturally appropriate, but we do not change
the Mass, despite the fact that at least some people still
believe that we engage in magic and sorcery. The Sacraments
such as Baptism, Communion, Confirmation, Marriage and Burial
are all celebrated with a celebrant of the Church. We do,
however, add our special Smoking Purification Ceremony, and
carefully selected artifacts and symbols, to strengthen our
culture and identity. In Sydney in 1995 at the Beautification
of Mary MacKillop, the Holy Father himself was part of a Purification
Smoking ceremony.
The Aboriginal Catholic Ministry is an official ministry
of the Archdiocese of Sydney. It is supported financially
by the Archdiocese; it is intended to be staffed by Aborigines
ministering to their own people. We support our own people
in the jails and in hospitals, we help the needy in the community
with our welfare ministry, ( and here I feel I must extend
my gratitude to, the Society of St Vincent de Paul who are
a great support to us in our work. Cur National Council (NATSICC)
meet twice a year at the Bishops Conference. Our State Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander Catholic Council meet to share
our faith in spiritual gatherings. We struggle to overcome
all the barriers that face us. We ask simply for respect of
our culture and acknowledgment of our identify. At the present
time in Sydney we have people working on Aboriginal languages
so that our children may learn what we were forbidden to learn.
To know your ancestors is to know your history, to know your
history is to know where you have come from. We have a strong
link to our ancestors, This is our Dreaming Past and Future.
 In
the words of Mafi Williams "I thank our Elders for their words
of wisdom that have led us through crises of identity, that
their words can be passed on to our Childrens' Children"
Gwandalan, Burragah, Tamba (Peace in our meeting place).
Thank you.
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