Last Friday the Indigenous Church community hosted an evening of celebration to mark the anniversary of Kevin Rudds apology. Welcome to Country then heard stories of several First Nation people – their life experience and where they were when they heard the apology (heard their ‘whole truth’) – stolen generation, called “filthy abbos”, told parents/family were dead, turfed out at 16 with next to nothing… humbling faith in the face of damage done in the name of “mission”.  Representatives of each First Nation family group given a box: tea bags, Tim Tams, bible passage, Whittakers peanut slab (gold, because you are a teasure to us).  Watched a video re-play of the apology, then seed shapes handed out to everyone and we were encouraged to reflect on K Rudds speech and everything else we had heard that night and write a response – mine said things like:

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Some of these were read aloud then we were asked to give these seeds to a First Nations person sitting near us to put in their box.

How humbling! How arrogant are my words! How vulnerable am I made by giving away these innermost thoughts/prayers of confession?   …not as vulnerable as a child – taken from its parents/family, taken from the only home they has ever known, to have language and culture stripped away – made white.