Welcome to Eureka Street
Looking for thought provoking articles?Subscribe to Eureka Street and join the conversation.
Passwords must be at least 8 characters, contain upper and lower case letters, and a numeric value.
Eureka Street uses the Stripe payment gateway to process payments. The terms and conditions upon which Stripe processes payments and their privacy policy are available here.
Please note: The 40-day free-trial subscription is a limited time offer and expires 31/3/24. Subscribers will have 40 days of free access to Eureka Street content from the date they subscribe. You can cancel your subscription within that 40-day period without charge. After the 40-day free trial subscription period is over, you will be debited the $90 annual subscription amount. Our terms and conditions of membership still apply.
Those of us not of Aboriginal ancestry can be tempted to see our origins in foreign lands. Although we may not share the identity of First Australians, we owe the benefits of our lives to the land that was, and continues to be, theirs.
'Nothing beats being there and listening. I wonder who cares enough to live with the communities?' If the logic of last month's Parliamentary Apology to the Stolen Generations is translated into Government policy and action, there is every hope that 'being there and listening' could be adopted as an official strategy.
The missionaries thought the removal of children 'for education' was both the good and only thing to do. Modern attitudes reflect old ones, especially when people enter Aboriginal communities with a set of ready-made answers around employment, health and education.
Too often, generic statements about missionaries colluding with colonialism and destroying indigenous cultures are presumed to say all that needs to be said. Detailed study of mission history is essential if we are to move beyond the clichés.
At a German mission in Victoria's Wimmera, a young Wotjobaluk man converted to Christianity in 1860. After a vision of Jesus sweating blood in Gethsemane, he began evangelising his people in their own language.
We have learned that the damage caused by sexual abuse often continues for decades and into future generations. We can hope that Government interventions will make a long-term difference, but such complex issues cannot be reduced to a simple absolute: ‘the child must come first’.
Migration hurdles #2
Sean McDonagh is a Columban missionary priest who is the author of several books. Originally from North Tipperary, he now resides at Dalgan Park, Navan, Co Meath in Ireland.
This is the full text of a speech given by Richard Leonard SJ in Queensland on spirituality and cinema, on the occasion of the opening of a new spirituality centre.
The respnse to Brian McCoy's latest article Why change Aborigines into images of ourselves? has been vocal. Here are some of the letters...
As the leaders of the world’s richest and most powerful countries gathered in St Petersburg this month, a few hundred activists were meeting in a dusty frontier town 350km beyond Timbuktu, for what they dubbed ‘the Poor People’s Summit’.
Historians are fighting a mini war over frontier history and the number of Aboriginal dead. Tom Griffiths argues for a different approach.
73-84 out of 93 results.