Indigenous Ministry

A bishop becomes a good neighbour

From the time he placed his feet on Australian soil, Archbishop John Bede Polding made himself a good neighbour to Australia’s Indigenous community.

In 1843 he established a mission for about 300 Indigenous people on Queensland’s Stradbroke Island. Throughout his travels on horseback, he met many Aborigines particularly in the Wollongong area. Polding always engaged with Indigenous Australians in a spirit of mutuality and respect.

Polding advocated passionately for the rights of Indigenous people. In 1845 he appeared before a Parliamentary Select Committee on the Aborigines.

A “burning injustice”

At this hearing, Polding spoke of the “burning injustice” of Indigenous people having their sole means of livelihood (their land) taken from them without any compensation. He said a white man stealing a sheep was let off lightly, while a black man might be shot.

In a joint pastoral letter of 1869, Polding and the Australian Bishops said:

We had dispossessed the aboriginals of the soil… In natural justice, then, we are held to compensation. Alas! It is shocking to think of what has, in fact, been done… The stain of blood is upon us – blood has been shed far otherwise than in self-defence – blood in needless and wanton cruelty. Shall we not protest against this?

Justice and compassion – two neighbourly tools

Today, Good Samaritans continue the Polding tradition of engaging with Indigenous Australians with justice and compassion. Good Samaritan colleges educate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. In Western Australia, Good Sams work in Three Springs, at the Yanayi Centre in Geraldton, and in community outreach in Mount Magnet. They minister to the community at Santa Teresa outside of Alice Springs.