When we spend time reflecting on our lives, we can see that hurts, ill-treatment, and wrongs have been part of our story.
What about the hurts, ill-treatment, and wrongs experienced by our ancestors? In the generations of our grandparents or great-grandparents? When great uncles went to war to kill others, when abuse occurred in our family 150 years ago and was kept silent, when vast amounts of alcohol and drugs were consumed daily to the detriment of those around them.
When we ponder these questions, we find no answers. Our ancestors remain silent. Yet, their effects impact us today. Psychologists recognize that trauma can be passed down from one generation to the next, revealing layers upon layers of hurts, ill-treatment, and wrongs.
For the native peoples of Australia, these wrongs have also existed.
Myall Creek Massacre (1838): In one of the most infamous episodes of violence, at least 28 unarmed Aboriginal people were killed by a group of colonists in New South Wales. This event is notable because it was one of the few where the perpetrators were actually brought to justice, with seven men hanged.
Appin Massacre (1816): Governor Macquarie ordered a punitive expedition resulting in the deaths of at least 14 Aboriginal people in the Appin area of New South Wales.
Waterloo Creek Massacre (1838): Following Aboriginal resistance, a large-scale massacre occurred at Waterloo Creek in remote New South Wales, with estimates of the number of dead varying from 40 to 100.
Gippsland Massacres (1840-1850): In Victoria, a prolonged series of conflicts and killings occurred as settlers encroached on traditional lands. Hundreds of Aboriginal people were killed over this decade.
But the hurts, ill-treatment, and wrongs extended to the forced removal of Aboriginal children from their families between the early 1900s and the 1970s. These children were kept as work slaves, and some as sex slaves, under formal policies of assimilation that tried to destroy Aboriginal culture and spirituality.
Aboriginal people were forcibly removed from their land—the land they called their 'mother,' the source of their life, identity, and belonging.
As we ponder the hurts, ill-treatment, and wrongs of Aboriginal people, we also recognize the hurts, ill-treatment, and wrongs in our own generations and those of our ancestors. Both need deep healing. These sins of the present and past may seem insurmountable and at times overwhelming. They continue to impact us today. Where people do not understand or empathize with these hurts, they can be blinded by their own intergenerational cycles of violence, hurt, and wrongdoing, which some might call sin. These cycles of darkness, like a heavy bag of large stones, can weigh us down and cloud our vision.
We need a force beyond ourselves to seek healing. For Aboriginal people, the Land, the dreaming, and the people need to be healed through ancient smoking ceremonies that heal the land with words, song, story, dance, and ritual. Ancient Spirit Beings need to play a part in the healing.
For Christians, Jesus' and God’s healing presence must enter our lives, not just theoretically, but actually. We need Jesus' and God’s healing touch. We might seek this through the sacrament of reconciliation, discussing these hurts, ill-treatment, and wrongs.
There is no single solution or medicine that will fix this. Reconciliation has no endpoint. But as the hurts, ill-treatment, and wrongs surface, bubble up, when we remember and awaken to their presence, we must not let them guide our directions, but rather we must seek healing. Healing for our ancestors, healing of our past, healing for life today. Our lives are a journey where we begin to discover who we really are: our identity, our sense of belonging, our responsibility to pass on to the next generation the stories of how we lived through these hurts and how we bridge to a deeper sense of healing. This process of healing must spread like a wildfire of the Spirit, renewing us and creating connections in ways we could never imagine.
Let us pray
Great Spirit, We remember the hurts, ill-treatment, and wrongs of our lives…    pause… we seek forgiveness and healing. Great Spirit flow into our lives. We remember the hurts, ill-treatment, and wrongs of our past…    pause… we seek forgiveness and healing. Great Spirit flow into our lives. We remember the hurts, ill-treatment, and wrongs of our ancestors…    pause… we seek forgiveness and healing. Great Spirit flow into our lives. We remember the hurts, ill-treatment, and wrongs of all Aboriginal and native peoples…    pause… we seek forgiveness and healing. Great Spirit flow into our lives.
Renew in us your sacred spirit. Call us to take action, towards reconciliation. Through our remembering, Through our story, Through our sacred ritual.
Call us to create circles of reconciliation, Where our lives are journeys, Where we join our hands together, Where we forgive, where we say sorry, where we seek healing. Not just for ourselves, But for the ancestors and memories Long forgotten. Great Spirit flow into our lives. Amen.
(Audio Available)
