Articles

Support for the Adani Coal Mine is Scientifically and Morally Unjustifiable

12 May 2017  |  Author: Rt Rev'd Prof Stephen Pickard and Thea Ormerod  | Theme: The Arts, Sciences and Culture; Civil society and politics

Huge marches are happening this last weekend in April in Washington, D.C., and numerous cities across the United States, protesting the Trump administration's climate policies, with significant participation by faith communities. The normally conservative Parliament of World Religions and the U.S. National Council of Churches are denouncing the administration's recent decisions regarding "the biggest challenge facing our planet."
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Back to Country by Rev. Karen Kime and Dr. Angela T. Ragusa

08 Dec 2016  |  Author: Rev. Karen Kime and Dr Angela T. Ragusa  | Theme: Indigenous reconciliation; Civil society and politics

How ‘places’ are constructed, experienced, shaped and perceived is strongly affected by socio-cultural histories and identities. This paper explores human relationships, specifically Australian Aboriginal peoples’ relationships, with ‘land’, or ‘Country’, by conceptualising the role social identity plays in the dynamism between human and non-human expression. Conceived as a dialogue, an interplay, between competing epistemologies of land as nourishing and sustaining but often in competition with notions of ‘progress’ and ‘civilization’, humanity’s relationship with its physical environment is a history bifurcating between struggle and admiration, resistance and co-dependence, yet, all the while, is a story of social change and renewal. Utilising an interdisciplinary lens, we explore rituals and narratives emergent over time to explore how social beliefs about ‘Nature’ confer connection to place, nationhood and, ultimately, identity. This exploration raises critical questions about the State’s historical role and sovereignty in creating, legitimating or de-legitimating connections between land and people and the implications for both.
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Finding our Voice with Indigenous Australia by Karen Kime

08 Dec 2016  |  Author: The Ven Karen Kime The Ven Karen Kime  | Theme: Indigenous reconciliation; Civil society and politics

There are several hundred Aboriginal nations on the Australian continent, all of which are culturally distinct – each with their own history, language, arts, culture and ways of doing things. However while there are significant differences, there are also great similarities. Across Australia, Indigenous communities are actively involved in the care of Country and a heritage that dates back many thousands of years. And while for some of that time, Aboriginal knowledge had gone underground, (because of discrimination) we have seen this knowledge begin to flourish and increasingly passed on to our young people.
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We have a stark choice

20 Jun 2016  |  Author: Rt Rev'd Prof Stephen Pickard and Thea Ormerod  | Theme: Civil society and politics; The Arts, Sciences and Culture

Few papal proclamations have reverberated more strongly throughout the world than Pope Francis’s encyclical on the environment, Laudato Si’. The anniversary of this clarion call to protect the environment comes as Australia’s election is in full swing and, in terms of its message, the contrast could not be greater. Released exactly a year ago, the encyclical was part of a deluge of statements from the major faith traditions in the lead-up to the Paris climate agreement. Today diverse Australian religious leaders note that Australia was a signatory to that historic agreement, but they ask: where are the policies to match?
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Home: between here and there

06 Jun 2016  |  Author: Rt Rev'd Prof Stephen Pickard  | Theme: The Arts, Sciences and Culture; Civil society and politics

For two weeks during the season of Lent this year the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture had the privilege of hosting a remarkable exhibition of art by eight artists seeking asylum in Australia. The exhibition, Home: between here and there, captured the sense of disruption in a transitional space experienced by people seeking asylum in Australia. Some of the art work at first sight looked like a normal scene but as you looked more closely you noticed disruptive elements – a rug not properly laid; an abstract with texts inserted from a far away land. Some works depicted solitary figures in prison, behind bars looking out to a world beyond full of promise. One work depicted the stitched mouths of refugees with bandaged heads. The art spoke of the alienation, despair and yearning that asylum seekers experienced after years of community detention not knowing from day to day what their fate might be.
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