SPIRITUALITY OF INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIANS: THE TRUTH OF IT

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The Uluru Statement from the Heart, though successful in uniting Indigenous peoples, should be re-examined. The key document in the voice referendum held last year, it insisted in poetic language that all Indigenous peoples were bonded spiritually to the specific homeland where they were born. Their souls or spirits “must one day return thither to be united with our ancestors”.

A shock to these affirmations of spirituality was delivered by the census held nationwide in 2021. It revealed that the Uluru Statement was preaching a myth. In fact, most Aboriginal Australians today are not worshippers of an Indigenous religion. In the Northern Territory, still viewed as a stronghold of the ancestral religion, 94,000 of its Indigenous peoples are Christian and only 3400 worship an Aboriginal religion. Across the nation as a whole, fewer than 2 percent of the Indigenous people declare that they worship an “Australian Aboriginal traditional religion”.

Australian Aborigines are more Christian than the mainstream Australians who live in the capital cities.

Most of these Aboriginal Christians probably would not conceive of themselves as primarily victims of the so-called Invasion Day. After all, it was this so-called invasion that, year after year, spread the very religion they worship. Indeed, the Torres Strait Islanders were so grateful for the arrival of the London Missionary Society in 1871 that they still designate it not as Invasion Day but as the Coming of the Light.

I am thankful to Geoffrey Blainey and his article in The Australian – Australia Day A Time to Reflect on the Country We Call Home for most of the information in this article.

EASTER CELEBRATION ON MEMORY MOUNTAIN IN OUTBACK AUSTRALIA

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Vision Christian Media will be Broadcasting Live from Memory Mountain (230 km west of Alice Springs) on Easter Sunday

You have the blessed opportunity to take part in a once-in-a-lifetime experience – the launch of the Cross on Memory Mountain.  During Easter 2023, from Good Friday to Easter Sunday, many Indigenous tribes will gather at the foot of the Cross to celebrate their faith and culture, and to thank God for the fulfillment of their long-held vision to erect this Cross. 

This Easter the lights on the Forgiveness Cross will be turned on for the first time! Remarkably, this will be the 100th Anniversary of the first time the gospel came to the area! Four Aboriginal Lutheran evangelists brought hundreds of people to Christ and baptised them here in 1923! Memory Mountain was named in memory of this. This is a ‘thin place’ – a ‘Jacob’s ladder place where earth meets heaven and heaven meets earth. The Ikuntji Community expects miracles, signs & wonders, spontaneous salvations, etc.

The Cross on Memory Mountain will eventually draw visitors from across Australia and around the world who wish to have an authentic encounter with local Indigenous people. This iconic symbol of the faith, culture, and traditions of the Indigenous people of central Australia will become a major new outback tourism icon.  

The plan for an iconic tourism precinct at Memory Mountain is part of a long-term, life-changing strategy to give Indigenous Australians a hand up – not a handout.  Tourism and ancillary businesses will bring employment opportunities, sustainable enterprises, and financial independence to the local communities. The Cross will bring connection, understanding, and true reconciliation.
In case you can’t make it to the launch celebrations in person over the Easter weekend, Vision Christian Media will be broadcasting live from Memory Mountain on Easter Sunday at 8am AEST on their Sunday Morning Together program.
You can enjoy the live broadcast on your computer or mobile device by going to www.vision.org.au and clicking on Live Stream.