Ep92 (LIVE). Indigenous Sovereignty, Multiculturalism, and the Church, with Anne Pattel-Gray

/
Ep92 (LIVE). Indigenous Sovereignty, Multiculturalism, and the Church, with Anne Pattel-Gray

Dr Anne Pattel-Gray, author of the Great White Flood, joins Rev. Tau’alofa Anga’aelangi, Rev Dr Katalina Tahaafe-Williams, and myself in a discussion on Black Lives Matter, the church's call to confront racist injustice, the relationship between Indigenous sovereignty and multiculturalism, where the UCA has become too timid, the ongoing lack of Indigenous theology and teaching in theological education, how her book was banned from sales in physical bookstores in Australia, the importance of being able to worship in one's own language, NAIDOC, and much more.

This episode is a re-post of most recent of the monthly Black Lives Matter and the Church in Australia panels hosted by the Uniting Church Chaplaincy at Charles Sturt University in Port Macquarie and the Social Justice Pilgrim Presbytery NT.

Read More

Ep87. Reading the Magnificat in Australia, Anne Elvey

/
Ep87. Reading the Magnificat in Australia, Anne Elvey

I spoke with Anne Elvey about her new book, Reading the Magnificat in Australia. We discuss her approach to the project as a poet and biblical scholar who has creatively engaged the Magnificat for many years, and how this combination connects to a hermeneutics of creative imagination and need for creative writing to 'turn the breath' toward empathy and resistance. We talk about keeping an aspect of unknowing central to the book's epistemological frame and the hermeneutic of restraint. I also ask about how the Magnificat offers a call to "reconfigure the learned desire of the will of white possession", and finally the concept of entanglement as a way toward a broader (less anthropocentric) reading and rewriting of Magnificat.

Read More

Ep79. A Bridge Between, Katharine Massam

/
Ep79. A Bridge Between, Katharine Massam

I sat down with Katharine Massam to talk about Spanish Benedictine Missionary Women in New Norcia in Western Australia. We discuss the way this strange, surprising, complex, and sad story helps chart a path for thinking about religious and colonial history in these lands now called Australia. We talk about the way this small mission town both reflected and balked the broader trends in the colonial project of assimilation, changes in C20th Catholicism, and the experience of women in religious orders (with particular attention to the story of Sr Veronica Therese Willaway OSB). We also cover how one writes history that doesn't praise anyone, and holds the complexity of a story that should never have been with the fullness of feeling of those most impacted.

Read More

Ep32. The Bible in Australia, Meredith Lake

/
Ep32. The Bible in Australia, Meredith Lake

“From the outset it has followed a fluctuating path of negotiation and transformation”

I sat down with Meredith Lake to talk about the Bible in Australia. We bust myths about the history of the Bible in this country, talk about where one goes looking to find the cultural history of a book so contested, the way the Bible shows up in almost every major national conversation and debate (often on both sides), the role of the Bible in colonisation, its use by immigrants, and the way Indigenous Christians – from early on through today – have reappropriated the Bible, turning it back on the worst of White Australia. Listen in Apple Podcasts

Read More

Ep24. Gondwana Theology, Garry Worete Deverell

/
Ep24. Gondwana Theology, Garry Worete Deverell

I interviewed Gary Worete Deverell to talk about his book, Gondwana Theology: A Trawloolway man reflects on Christian Faith. We talk about the material, fleshy nature of First People’s Spirituality and the building blocks of country, kin, and Dreaming. We engage the Dreaming and Genesis 1 – the present power of Creation narratives to shape the identity of those colonised; we also cover reconciliation, racism, mischievous spirits, what to preach on Trinity Sunday, and his letter to his First Nations sisters and brothers navigating the white church… plus, a bunch of liturgy talk! Listen in iTunes // Watch on YouTube. Co-Presented with Insights, the magazine of the Uniting Church in Australia Synod of NSW/ACT

“The God made known in the stories of the Jewish and Christian Scriptures is a God who was sojourning with our people, here in this country, long before the calling of Abraham, or Moses, or St Paul. Our dreaming can be ‘read’ as a legitimate witness to that sojourning and should therefore be engaged as an equally rich source of revelation and guidance regarding the living of a human life that is good, beautiful and true” 

Read More

Ep13. Ganggalah, Sandra and William Dumas

/
Ep13. Ganggalah, Sandra and William Dumas

This is a double feature. The first interview is with Pastor Sandra Dumas, the second, her husband, Pastor William Dumas. They are the Senior Pastors of Ganggalah Church and leaders of Ganggalah Training Centre and Ganggalah Aboriginal Arts.

Pastor Sandra is the first Indigenous female pastor ordained in New South Wales through Australian Christian Churches and is carving new ground for Indigenous women within Australia. Pastor William is the chairman of the ACCNI (Australian Christian Churches National Indigenous Initiative). LISTEN IN iTUNES

"God's theology is to set people free" Ps. William Dumas
Read More