OFF
THE BACK OF A TRUCK
Helen Borger
The back of a truck at a protest rally is good enough for Sister Susan Connelly to deliver her message.
Armed with speeches from her own pen, this Josephite nun has delivered many unashamedly forthright and compassionate addresses on the plight of refugees and the war on Iraq, to standing ovations from thousands of protesters.
One of her most memorable was on Palm Sunday last year.
‘Let us not be afraid of being "bleeding hearts", if only because bleeding hearts can see the bleedin’ obvious, which is that human beings have hearts of flesh, not stone, and that the only true humanity is that which weeps at cruelty and injustice and puts itself on the line to reverse the inhumanity which constantly dogs us.’
Throngs settle in on hillsides or stand for hours in the baking sun waiting for Susan to take the stage. Murmurs run through crowds ‘when is Susan Connelly coming on?’ Quite frankly, you would hate to share the stage with her. So how did she learn to be such an in-demand and inspiring speaker?
It is very simple, according to Susan. She believes her success lies with a family trait—clarity of speech and the ability to speak loudly.
‘It’s a gift to be used for working with the community’,
she says.
An appreciation of George Orwell’s emphasis on the importance of
clear English, reading his and other books, plus reading poetry has helped
Susan extend this gift into good speech writing. ‘I think about what
I want to write then I write like I am going to speak—very clear
and simple.’
‘It’s like I am speaking into the computer rather than tapping on the keys. It just seems to come out the right way. I don’t need to do a lot of rewriting. I am never at a loss for information and never prepare a long time in advance because with refugee issues things can change within 24 hours.’
Susan happily admits she is more of a speech reader than a speech teller. Talking off the cuff is not one of her strong points—it makes her nervous. But the ability to read well and quickly gets her over this hump, she says.
Listeners would probably concur. Her informative and entertaining style gives the illusion that she’s in forthright conversation rather than reading mode. Interestingly, she prefers to front a rally of 20,000 rather than talk to a small group.
‘There is something about the distance thousands of people create and, of course, there is usually the lectern to stand behind, which make it less imposing than the intimacy of a small group. Besides, big crowds have always been a bit of a buzz.’
Susan readily admits that at refugee rallies she is preaching to the converted, so judging her effect on the broader public is hard to measure. However, she believes that reflecting back to people what they already think serves a powerful purpose, that it keeps the desire to do good alive.
Rally
goers ‘aren’t rent-a-crowd but a finely honed social conscience—many
are churchgoers, many are not,’ she says.
The power of billing herself at rallies as Sister Susan Connelly the Nun is not lost on her.
‘On topics such as these [refugees] the church shouldn’t sit on the fence. People come up to me and other nuns on protest marches and say, if I had known someone in the church like you existed I would never have left.’
It’s obvious that being such a public speaking drawcard carries with it enormous responsibilities.
‘You need to keep your feet on the ground, check out with other people what is going on and stay on top of the facts to make sure you are saying the right things. I have power when speaking, so I don’t want to abuse that by telling everyone I have all the answers’, she says.
Does it ever become too much?
‘I don’t feel like giving up, but sometimes I think it takes too much time and that I have said a lot but it hasn’t been heard.
‘However, I know so many people who help refugees and other communities
in ways other than speaking out. They don’t give up. There are people
who visit Villawood detention centre [Sydney] every week and have done
so for years. They use their gifts in their own way. I get inspiration
from these people to keep going.
‘I need to use my gift of speaking out as part of this whole process.
I can’t let the others down. With all these people working together,
using their own gifts, a community builds up.’
The driving force behind Susan’s public speaking is not the public
speaking itself nor is it courage. Faith is everything, she says, and
it is what pushes that button of desire to get up and tell it as it is.
‘I say yes to speaking out because it’s an opportunity to spread
the gospel—it’s the teaching part of me, the teaching role of
the church, and as the pulpit is denied me the back of a truck will do.’
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