Courtesy of Catholic Mission
Many stories of the past are hidden from public view, obstructing the past and creating a filter on real events, leading many generations of Australians to not know their stories.
To unveil these hidden stories, Catholic Mission, in partnership with the Aboriginal Catholic Ministry in Sydney, has built a program to engage senior students and adults in exploring Australian history through a Church lens. Structured as a workshop, this immersive experience leads participants on a journey through the five eras of government policy in relation to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Going beyond a simple history lesson, participants plunge into an experiential role-play. By embodying historical and current characters, they engage their empathy, imagination, creativity, responsibility and also their hearts and faith.
They are faced with ethical, spiritual and personal challenges, as they have to abide by the reality of their characters and their time-bound context. For example: “How would workshop participants react to the Church running missions during the protection and segregation era?”
The emotionally-charged experience enables the participants to connect with their characters, heighten their curiosity and challenge their vision of history. It also empowers them to be creators of change. Participants are offered a better understanding of today’s community discussions, such as the Uluru Statement, and why they are important for Australian society moving forward. Reconciliation, forgiveness and restorative justice are at the core of this journey.
The church lens of the workshops is critical in helping people of faith reflect on the Church’s impact on Australian society, as well as acknowledging the events of the past. As a major player in the Church’s ‘mission history’, Catholic Mission has a unique responsibility to share these hidden stories and perspectives that have not been widely heard until now. Truth-telling about injustice and oppression is an opportunity for the restoration of justice.
“We need to tell this story, which is not really known by the community,” says Jenny Collins-White, Mission Formation Manager at Catholic Mission. “We need to talk about the role that the Church and mission groups played in this history; the good stories and the negative stories. They are challenging, but they bring us closer to the truth and a picture that is whole.”
