Matthew | Called to be custodians

In a world racked by climate change, we need the wisdom of custodians. Read here or listen here.

Matthew | Redeeming Joshua

‘I’m from one of the oldest families,’ he said. ‘We’ve been here since the beginning.’ And with that he effectively erased 60,000 years of continuous living culture, just as his Irish ancestors had tried to erase the people from the land. He’s a lovely guy, straightforward and well-meaning, and totally oblivious to what he had just done ...

Read here, or listen here.

Genesis | Abram: Our ancestor-colonizer

Leave your country, your kin, and your ancestral home, you poverty-stricken Cornishfolk, for a land which I will show you. It’s the colony of South Australia ... the story of Abram points to a more just settlement, paving the way to Voice and Treaty.

Read here or listen here.

Ezekiel | Dem dry colonial bones

It is tempting to reflect on the bones. The massacre site that is now a fast food restaurant just a couple of blocks from Sanctuary. The bones which still wash up from time to time on the beach near Peterborough. The babies’ bones buried six feet under at the missions. The bones which were scattered throughout the landscape, left to rot in every lake, valley and hollow, left lying in the paddocks to dry out in the sun. It’s tempting to focus on the bones: because our history and geography are studded with other people’s bones ...

A reflection for white settlers living on stolen land. Read here or listen here.

Genesis | 'Surely God is in this place!'

Once upon a time, our ancestor Jacob went on a journey. He left the place called Beer-sheba and came to the place called Luz. It had been a long day on the road;  it was now twilight. The first stars were becoming visible in the darkling sky. So he took one of the stones of that place, a flat stone, a smooth stone, and brushed off the dirt; then he used it as a pillow ... Every God-encounter is anchored to place. So what's your place? and what's your story?

Read here, or listen here.

Jeremiah | Suffering from solastalgia? This is what to do

Ten years ago, the scientist Glenn Albrecht coined a new word. He was studying the impact of open-cut coal mining on the people of the Upper Hunter region of NSW. The mines were creating new and horrific scars in the landscape; the power station was polluting water, air and soil; there was persistent drought. As the earth groaned, Albrecht realised that the people who lived there were experiencing a form of chronic distress for which English has no word; he came up with the term 'solastalgia' ...

Read here or listen here.

In a climate emergency, Jeremiah shows us how to lament

According to Jeremiah 12, injustice leads to land degradation and species loss. In an era of anthropogenic climate change, these words have new resonance and show us how to lament. Read here or listen here.

The bitch slaps back

Bitch. It’s a vicious taunt. Every time I hear it, I’m left enraged, gutted, and gasping, which is exactly what the taunter wants. It’s meant to silence: and mostly, it works. It tells me that the speaker doesn’t see me as fully human. There seems no point in continuing the relationship: so I shut my mouth, and move away ...

Read here or listen  here.

Better a dinner of greens ...

I hate lockdown with a passion. And yet, there have been gifts. A reflection on 'steak and trouble' vs gardening, prayer and slow living, digging deep into the book of Proverbs. Read here, or listen here.

Aunty Sandra Onus, Lidia Thorpe, and the pharaoh with no name

On the other side of Gariwerd, along the Western Highway, you’ll find a camp. It’s the Djab Wurrung Heritage Protection Embassy ...

Read here, or listen here.

This 26 January, pray for an invasion of light

Once upon a time, the land was fertile and good. Sparkling rivers threaded through it; lakes teeming with birds dotted it; and on its edge the sea thundered, shimmering with fish. The people of the land tended it for millennia, creating intricate patchworks of forest and field. They enriched the soil and made it friable; they selected plants for abundance and ease. The people caught fish; they hunted and traded; they tended their crops. They built houses and raised children; they passed on law through story and song.

Read here, or listen here.