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No
Church Without The Dreaming
 A
small Church in a quiet suburban street is home to an effective
Aboriginal Catholic Reconciliation effort. (CHRIS HOOK reports
in the Catholic Weekly).
"You are like a tree in the middle of a bush-fire sweeping
through the timber," Pope John Paul II told Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander people in Alice Springs in 1986. 'The
leaves are scorched and the tough bark is scarred and burned,
but inside the tree the sap is flowing and under the ground
the roots are strong. Like that tree you have endured the
flames and you still have the power to be reborn," he said.
"You are part of Australia, and Australia is a part of you.
And the Church itself in Australia will not be fully the Church
Jesus wants it to be until you have made your contribution
to its life and that contribution has been joyfully received
by others.'
National Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander Catholic Council
representative Elsie Heiss remembers the Pope's words as a
significant change for Aboriginal Catholics. "Aboriginal people
said 'yes, the Holy Father has spoken, he has said we are
a part of the Church. There were a lot of Aboriginal Catholics,
but they were lost:' she recalls. 'I was one of those. And
the Holy Father comes out and talks about our Dreaming, talks
about out spiritual contribution and it all started to change."
A few years later, Elsie joined a small group of people
at St Mary's Church, Erskineville, who, under the guidance
of Fr Frank Fletcher, were working to, establish an Aboriginal
Catholic Ministry. Among them were Aboriginal community leaders,
including a young Aden Ridgeway (now a Democrat Senator).
It was something I had to do for my children, so that they
retained Catholicism in our family life " Elsie says. The
aboriginal side was getting stronger so I had a battle with
my kids and they'd say, "I want to be over here with my Aboriginal
people so I can't be over with them if I'm Catholic, and I
thought to myself I'm betraying my Aboriginality and my ancestors
by this incessant struggle make my children come to Mass".
 For
three days a week, Elsie coordinates the Aboriginal Catholic
Ministry, at La Perouse. Her involvement in the ministry has
helped her resolve the basic tension between Catholic and
Aboriginal spirituality, a tension that has been there all
her life, She grew up in the country more than half a century
ago. Elsie and her family didn't feel part of the Church,
but were committed Catholics; they prayed the rosary together
regularly. We lived in a country town for 12 years and never,
ever went inside the Catholic Church, because we felt the
doors weren't open to us, and they weren't in those days,"
Elsie says.
Aboriginal Catholics were like a secret society, while it
was the other Christian (protestant) missionaries that always
came to the Aboriginal people; they came and gave out lollies
and hymn books, and my father said go up and eat all the lollies
and sandwiches you want to, but don't take their faith, because
you're Catholic!"
And when she moved to Sydney, Elsie felt even more distant
from the Church. When I came to Sydney at the age of 16 I
thought I wanted to be with my own people as an Aboriginal
person; I didn't want to be with the Catholic Church. There
were a lot of Catholics around but we didn't identify as Catholic.
"That was the time for me to find and keep my Aboriginal identity
strong," she says. "Then my Mum came to Sydney and then on
Saturday Mum said, "What Mass are we going to?" and I said
"There's a church on the hill," and Mum said "we'll go to
the vigil and then we'll go to Mass again tomorrow' so I went
with her.There and then I promised her I'd start going to
Mass. So I made that promise and I've kept it right through."
Elsie said.
But even during those tumultuous days, when Aboriginal rights
campaigns formed and grew, Elsie would keep her crucifix beneath
her jumper. Only when she began her work with the Aboriginal
Catholic Ministry committee in 1989, did her two separate
halves begin to become one.
I started to find in myself an identity I didn't know I
had" she says. "We started to share a great beginning like
a door slowly opening, and I thought 'yes, I'll stand up and
say I'm an Aboriginal Catholic', because now I had support.
I had those people at the Catholic Ministry with me. I wasn't
alone trying to fight a battle I didn't know how to start.
It's amazing, the number of people who came along looking
for the same thing. We shared so much; our culture, our identity
and our Catholicism and it made us stronger."
But setting up a genuinely Aboriginal Catholic Ministry
required Elsie to change. ? "I had to make changes within
myself because for so many years I was in denial," she says.
"I was, struggling with my identity, with my cultural heritage
as Aboriginal, with Catholicism.
I was struggling with these things, but I didn't say too
much about these things but in case I'd be told I was wrong,
or be put down and I knew I couldn't deny my heritage because
of the powerful heritage from my ancestors. It was a really
hard struggle to get back on that ground where Aboriginal
identity and culture, and Catholicism, could be as one."
Even with that internal battle, there were other external
obstacles. The ministry began with First Communions, Masses
and Baptisms, all at St Mary's Church, Erskineville, but as
the Church structure became involved, I felt the group's work
was becoming welfare rather than spiritually oriented.
"The parish was very generous, so I could never complain,"
Elsie remembers. "But I felt that we needed to branch out
by ourselves, do our own thing. "We were wandering away from
what I felt the ministry was supposed to be, Welfare was coming
through a lot more, and I thought to myself we're not reaching
the people anymore'.
We had a wonderful bond, we were unified, but where were
we going? We were losing our identity." Luckily, Elsie knew
of an unused church, Our Lady of Good Counsel, in her parish
of St Andrew's Malabar. After a visit to Fr Pat Hurley in
1998, the Aboriginal Catholic Ministry moved to Our Lady of
Good Counsel at La Perouse, which we shared at first with
the Charismatic Renewal Group before they moved out. Much
of the Ministry's work involves helping young Aboriginal Catholics
avoid the conflicts Elsie endured, including helping them
Prepare for their First Communion.
'The two things we don t want them to lose are their Aboriginal
identity and their faithfulness to the Church. So what I do
with them is in an Aboriginal context, so we talk about everything
from the catechism, but in an Aboriginal context to give them
some ancestral background. "It's bringing in a spiritual sense
of their identity; we can't teach our children spirituality,
it has to come from within. But you've got to plant the seed."
Besides regular Masses, baptisms and ministering to those
in need, Elsie and colleague Sue Gibson visit Catholic schools
throughout greater Sydney Area. They also conduct workshops
on Aboriginal spirituality and culture. Cardinal Clancy gave
permission last year for the Church to be called The Reconciliation
Church.
This Church now at tracts people from many parishes who
come to experience its Aboriginal liturgies. And it is not
just Aboriginal people who come. Many of those who attend
are white Catholics wanting to bring reconciliation into their
spiritual lives.
The church is taking shape physically, too. Aboriginal symbols
are becoming more manifest, and the Stations of the Cross
take an Aboriginal form, there are Aboriginal paintings, and
a beautiful Aboriginal painting of the Madonna and Child.
"I think it was the best move we ever made because this
church has blossomed. This is where I want to be. That's why
I wanted to join the Ministry because I wanted to minister,"
Elsie says.
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