Indigenous Australia and the Unfinished Business of Theology: Cross-Cultural Engagement

230 Pages·2014·1.272 MB·English

by  Jione Havea (eds.)

Indigenous Australia and the

Unfinished Business of Theology
Postcolonialism and Religions
The Postcolonialism and Religions series by its very name bridges the secular
with the sacred through hybrid, interstitial, and contrapuntal inquiries. The
series features the scholarship of indigenous scholars working at the intersec-
tions of postcolonial theories, theologies, and religions. The editors welcome
authors around the world in an effort to move beyond and interrogate a
historical North American and Eurocentric postcolonial studies disciplinary
dominance. The series seeks to foster subaltern voices especially from Africa,
Asia, Central and South America, and the liquid continent.
J. Jayakiran Sebastian is a presbyter of the Church of South India and
H. George Anderson professor of Mission and Cultures at the Lutheran
Theological Seminary at Philadelphia. He has served as professor and chair-
person of the Department of Theology and Ethics at the United Theological
College in Bangalore.
Joseph F. Duggan is a presbyter in the Episcopal Church and an Episcopal
Church Foundation Academic Fellow. He is the founder of Postcolonial
Networks and the Journal of Postcolonial Networks.
Decolonizing the Body of Christ: Theology and Theory after Empire?
Edited by David Joy and Joseph Duggan
A Postcolonial African American Re-reading of Colossians: Identity,
Reception, and Interpretation under the Gaze of Empire
Annie Tinsley
Caste, Gender and Christianity in Colonial India: Telugu Women in Mission
James Elisha Taneti
Indigenous Australia and the Unfinished Business of Theology:
Cross-Cultural Engagement
Edited by Jione Havea
Indigenous Australia and

the Unfinished Business of
Theology
Cross-Cultural Engagement
Edited by
Jione Havea
INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIA AND THE UNFINISHED BUSINESS OF THEOLOGY
Copyright © Jione Havea, 2014.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2014 978-1-137-42666-6
All rights reserved.
First published in 2014 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN®
in the United States— a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world,
this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills,
Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN 978-1-349-49089-9 ISBN 978-1-137-42667-3 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9781137426673
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available from the
Library of Congress.
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
Design by Newgen Knowledge Works (P) Ltd., Chennai, India.
First edition: June 2014
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents

Foreword vii
Preface ix
1 Colonization Has Many Names 1
Neville Naden with Jione Havea
2 Receive, Touch, Feel, and Give Raypirri 9
Maratja Dhamarrandji with Jione Havea
3 Seeing Otherwise: Touching Sacred Things 17
Rod Pattenden
4 Missionary Genocide: Moral Illegitimacy and the
Churches in Australia 31
Sarah Maddison
5 From Little Things Big Things Grow 47
Mandy Tibbey
6 Reconciling a Platypus Nation: Can Churches Help? 63
Margaret Tam
7 Ritual, in the Healing of Memories 81
John Francis Fitz-Herbert
8 Migration and Rudd’s Apology: Whose Voices Are
Heard, and What Do They Mean for the Christian
Community? 97
Chris Budden
9 In Touch Out of Touch: The Church and Reconciliation 113
Gerard Moore
10 National Black Congress: Ambivalence and Ambiguity 129
William W. Emilsen
vi Contents
11 Formation for Ordained Ministry: Out of Touch? 151
Stephen Burns
12 Envisioning an Emerging Asian Australian Christianity 167
Jonathan Y. Tan
13 Place and Displacement: Reading Scriptures with
Indigenous Australians 181
L. Lee Levett-Olson
14 Hope with and Trust in Aboriginal Stories 195
Sang Taek Lee
15 Forgive Us Our Trespasses: Black Australia, Peopled
Wilderness, Eroding Islands 207
Jione Havea
Notes on Contributors 221
Index 227
Foreword

Stories keep us grounded
Telling stories keeps us connected
Engaging with stories keeps us alive.
S
tories have mana (power, magic) to migrate across cultures and
generations, to stir up imaginations and crack mysteries, to embody
hope and revive intimacy, and to survive the flight of memory. Stories
have mana also to disturb and irritate, as well as to disarm and put to
rest. Whatever their plots might be, stories have the gifts of reinven-
tion and reincarnation.
The obsession of restless minds with scientific truths and rational
coherence has prompted distrust toward stories: stories are thought
to be too simple and primitive to be revealers of truths, too uncritical
and unschooled to be vessels for wisdom, too folksy and gullible to
be of any value to the cultured and the academics. Notwithstanding,
stories surround all of us. Lift a theory, and turn an equation, stories
crawl under there. Lift a covering, turn a rock, there you greet sto-
ries. Lift a print, turn a page, stories will grab you there too. Stories
are everywhere, and they keep us grounded. Lift a pattern and turn a
lyric, and stories will entertain you.
The seams of this anthology brim over with stories from different
settings and media—personal, communal, ecclesial, political, transna-
tional, and scriptural stories, painted, versed, and told. It is conse-
quently important to note that the chapters in this anthology first
came together as oral presentations (see Preface), so the mana of sto-
ries and of orality is the Chi behind the invitation issued here: be in
touch, and engage, with Indigenous Australia.
This anthology advocates the telling of stories as a way of staying
connected. The stories told herein are for the sake of drawing atten-
tion to, and gaining solidarity with, the peoples, cultures, and interests
of Indigenous Australia, with the hope that they will encourage the
viii Foreword
telling of stories of other indigenous peoples in and from other cul-
tures. Each of the contributors, in different ways, tells stories across
cultures and in so doing invites cross-cultural engagement. Put sim-
ply, it is crucial for cross-cultural engagement that people tell their
stories.
It is also crucial that we do not romanticize stories and storytell-
ing. To tell stories is one thing; to engage with those stories is some-
thing else. It is crucial for meaningful cross-cultural engagement to
engage stories, as the contributors do in the following pages. In the
end, this anthology is an invitation to engage with the stories that are
shared herein, and to welcome stories that this collection returns to
memory.
The mana of stories that this anthology presents comes in the foot-
steps of the return of interest to stories and narratives in theological
and hermeneutical circles. This is not to say that this anthology is seek-
ing to be up-to-date with recent developments in the fields. Stories
are taken seriously here not because of critical methods, but because
of Indigenous Australia and the unfinished business of theology.
JIONE HAVEA
Walkara (Doonside, NSW)
October 22, 2013
Preface

T
he spark for this anthology was the In touch/Out of touch semi-
nar (Feb 11, 2012) held at United Theological College, North
Parramatta (NSW, Australia), supported with a grant from the Public
and Contextual Theology (PaCT) Research Centre at Charles Sturt
University.
Presenters at the In touch/Out of touch seminar were invited to
reflect on how Christian churches and theologies are out of touch
from, or managed to stay in touch with, the peoples, cultures, and
interests of Indigenous Australia. Does Indigenous Australia matter
to how we (esp. nonindigenous people) interpret scriptural texts and/
or do theology? What are the challenges and opportunities, and how
might we go about engaging those?
Ten of the chapters were presented at the In touch/Out of touch
seminar, then developed and revised for this collection, with the other
five invited afterward. In the end, with Indigenous Australia as the
focus, In touch and Out of touch became the links that hold the 15
chapters together.
This anthology is a step toward being in touch with Indigenous
Australia, but there is still unfinished business for theology. A lot about
Indigenous Australia remains out of touch, even to this anthology.
* * *
On the front cover is “From birth to death,” an Aboriginal bark paint-
ing by Gawirriṉ Gumana that links the birth (at foreground; bottom
of bark) with the crucifixion of an Indigenous Black (black is the color
of life and resilience) Jesus. This work is a reminder of the intercon-
nectedness of life in the worldview of Indigenous Australians.