The National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Catholic Commission’s Spirituality and Formation Retreat held recently was not only a valuable time of shared culture, faith and a focus on creation, but also sparked an interest in creating similar experiences back home in local communities.
By Debra Vermeer
The Sisters of the Good Samaritan sponsored two delegates from Queensland’s Cherbourg community to attend the retreat, held in Galong, New South Wales, in September. Accompanying them was Sister Diana Law SGS, who is based in Gympie, near Cherbourg.
Cherbourg is an Aboriginal community town situated 170 kilometres north-west of Brisbane on the Barambah Creek and within Wakka Wakka tribal boundaries, close to Gubbi Gubbi territory.
Diana said Aboriginal people from more than 40 different tribes were brought to Cherbourg from all over Queensland.
“Life under government control was hard and cruel,” she said. “Recovery from such degradation, discrimination and disruption of family life is slow and spasmodic but, periodically, there is a communal quantum leap in healing and hope.”
Diana’s ministry involves outreach to the South Burnett area, which includes the Cherbourg community.
“I’ve been involved with a couple of our Good Samaritan Oblates, Cecily Fry and Fay Wilkes-Johnson, who live nearby and together we have outreached to Cherbourg through the St Vincent de Paul Society,” Diana said.
“We also started to get involved with their liturgies and we have morning tea after Mass on the verandah of the church.”
Together with two former students from Lourdes Hill College, one of whom worked at Big W, Diana was able to have children’s bikes, which had been on display in the discount store, repaired and presented to children at Cherbourg as prizes for improved school attendance.
“They were a huge hit,” she said.
Diana said she was delighted that the Good Sams were able to invite Patti Bond and her 17-year-old granddaughter, Jarvandah, to attend the NATSICC retreat.
“Patti is an elder in the community and very highly respected, so it was wonderful to be able to share this experience of the retreat with her and also wonderful that she was able to share it with her granddaughter,” she said.
“These kinds of opportunities really give flesh to the synodal Church that Pope Francis is calling out for. It highlights how we need to value the latent leadership that is already present and rising up in local communities.”
Among the presenters at the retreat was Good Samaritan Oblate Beth Riolo, who spoke on the interconnectedness between Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si’ and Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander spirituality and cosmology.
Attendees at the retreat included Karan Taylor (left)
and Beth Riolo, both from Catholic Education Diocese
of Wollongong.
Beth is the Professional Officer for Environment and Liturgy in the Catholic Life, Education Mission Team with Catholic Education in the Diocese of Wollongong and, with Diana, a member of the Good Samaritan Ecological Conversion Team. Beth said many of the themes in Laudato Si’ have always been part of Indigenous culture.
“My presentation was about how we’re called to be in relationship with one another and with all creation,” she said.
“Laudato Si’ is not just a new thing that came out in 2015; it builds on the wisdom that people have known for millennia. There is a shared understanding that we all come from the one Source and it is our responsibility to live in right relationship.”
Beth also tapped into her Good Samaritan/Benedictine spirituality by leading an evening session on Lectio Divina.
“I always find it a privileged space to share time with our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander brothers and sisters in a Catholic context,” she said. “I find it a place of learning and respectful sharing.
“The beauty of NATSICC events like this is that people come from all over Australia, and I’m reminded of the diversity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander spirituality, experience and culture.”
Patti said that she was so impressed by the retreat that she is now hoping to organise a similar gathering for her local community in Cherbourg.
“My granddaughter really got a lot out of this opportunity to meet such a variety of people, including some older and more mature people, and to learn what we do on a retreat,” she said.
“It got me thinking it would be great for us to have our own retreat in our area for local parishes, but particularly for the younger ones.
“I used to take the grandchildren to NATSICC conferences in the past, when they were young, but as they get older, they lose contact with the Church and its teachings. If we had a retreat for the younger group of people, it would help to revitalise the teachings we had growing up when the Sisters were here.”
Patti said she also found the retreat spiritually nourishing on a personal level. “It was revitalising for me, too, because I lost my husband in May and it’s been a hard time, so it was great to meet other people and get involved.”
Patti said she particularly enjoyed a prayerful ‘Pilgrimage Walk’ held during the retreat as well as cultural art activities.
“It was a great way to get to know other people and learn about our culture and build relationships.”
Patti said she was grateful to the Sisters of the Good Samaritan for giving her and her granddaughter the opportunity to attend.
Diana said she, too, was pleased to be able to be a part of the retreat. “For me the highlight was just being there with everybody, on all levels – the spiritual level, the psychological level and the relationship level,” she said.
“A lot of those taking part were carrying the pain of their ancestors and family members who had gone before them as well as the story of their own life.
“But there is so much beauty in these people, so much sensitivity to the earth as their mother and so much love and respect for all of the cosmos. And it was really beautiful to be in the presence of people who from generation to generation live in such close relationship with their creator and the earth and one another in community.”
