Australian Catholics - Summer 2003



		NOTES FOR TEACHERS - SUMMER 2003 I spy with my little eye… Looking for an alternative fundraiser to the stale ‘casual clothes day’? Why not don your coolest shades or design your own wacky glasses all in the name of a good cause? National ‘Sunnies’ for Sight Day (see p 2) aims to help children in East Timor see. And if February 28 is too soon to get your designs together, contact coordinator Greg Campitelli on 03 9816 1542 to arrange a suitable date for your school to participate. Brave new world Sometimes justice issues seem to fall off the social agenda. Just a little while ago, everyone was talking about reconciliation demonstrations, writing letters to politicians and walking across bridges, hearts filled with hope that at last something would be done about an long-standing injustice we wished to remedy. Then, suddenly the issue disappears from our hearts and our newspapers and we have gone on to something else. The fight for justice for our indigenous people seems to have disappeared from the front page. In political-speak we no longer talk of reconciliation but ‘practical reconciliation’. Land rights have been caught in the legal mire of our courts. Legal rulings suggest that the ‘stolen generation’ never happened, implying as a consequence that children were surrendered voluntarily by their families. So many hopes for a just future for Australia have fallen by the wayside. The danger is that we, the Australian people, will simply shrug our shoulders, give up and move on to something else. It is refreshing then to read about an exchange program adopted by students in Victoria (Genazzano FCJ College and Xavier College, Kew) and Western Australia (St Mary’s College, Broome). Groups of students ‘swap schools’ for a period of time in order to better understand the lives of one another. Invite your students to read Brave new world and answer the following questions, either in writing or as part of a general class discussion. Why does Pat Dodson advocate contact between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people? What are some of the difficulties Dodson anticipates the exchange students will experience in this contact? What strategies does Dodson believe can overcome the problems which Indigenous people experience in the workforce? Why is walking across bridges and signing sorry books not enough? Dodson refers to the millions of dollars spent in court costs defending the Crown’s right to take children away from their parents. What are your thoughts on this? “Reconciliation is a dynamic that has to be worked at.” What does this mean in practical terms? What are the factors endured by Indigenous people which mean that they are likely to die up to twenty years earlier than their non-Indigenous counterparts? Dodson says that Aboriginal culture is on about the same things as Christianity. Can you name some of these similarities? From little things … The social justice group of Sunbury parish worked out how they might respond to the Jubilee call to reconciliation. The parish and school communities decided that they needed to educate themselves and make a formal declaration of their respect for Indigenous culture and an apology to Indigenous people for injustices they have suffered. After reading the article From little things, students might like to plan a similar project for their school or parish community. Many dioceses have Indigenous representative bodies or offices. An Indigenous liaison officer or local Aboriginal elder may help students trace information and resources on the history of Indigenous life in the local area prior to settlement. This could include a listing of sacred sites and other Aboriginal gathering places near your school. A pilgrimage route could be planned. This may involve research, the drawing of a map and the making of a booklet including illustrations and stories relevant to the pilgrims’ path. Finally, the class might organise a pilgrimage for themselves and their year level. This activity might be suitable as an Australian version of the Stations of the Cross to be followed on Holy Thursday. For those schools fortunate enough to have Indigenous students as part of their community, this could prove a particularly rich exercise. Invite students to research changes in the ways customs are followed in the local area. What are the sensitivities that must be observed in coming to understand Indigenous cultural practice? What languages are spoken? What moves toward reconciliation have taken place or are planned for the future? heart of the country How often has our response to the news of a disaster been, ‘Thank God it’s not me.’? Then, just to ease the conscience a little, a sma\ll donation and then a quick dismissal from our mind as we go and watch the tennis, or the even more soothing cricket. Even disasters in our own country like floods, fires and cyclones can meet this indifference not because we are uncompassionate people but because great catastrophes make us feel helpless and unable to make a difference. Recently Australia has been experiencing two such catastrophes: drought and fire, events that affect country people mainly but also some outer suburban residents in the case of fire. Students might like to read the articles Heart of the Country and A Bush Summer that tell us about some of the difficulties country people are experiencing during the present terrible drought and the recent bushfires. The class could then be divided into four groups. Each group could examine and prepare a report for the class taking the point of view of one of people featured in the articles: Paula Boland, who is president of the St Vincent de Paul Society, Pat Gaynor, a rural financial counsellor, Mercy sister Judith Breen, and resident John Coleman. After listening to the group reports the class could discuss whether the welfare agencies and the government response to the plight of those suffering from drought is adequate. Are there any improvements they can suggest? The session could finish with an informal debate of these propositions. Problems of the country are problems of the city. Communities are strengthened in times of calamity. Suffering undermines the pillars of society. News from the street Reading this article can only make us aware of how lucky Australia is to receive such a strong, independent and courageous citizens like Guillermo Rivera. His refusal to speak of the sufferings that caused his flight from El Salvador and his insistence on supporting himself without recourse to the welfare system, arouse admiration and questions about how many more unsung heroes have arrived in Australia due to our ‘once upon a time’ welcoming immigration policy. Students might like to read the article and, with the help of an atlas, make a map of the journey Guillermo and his family took from El Salvador to Mexico, via Guatemala, and the long flight across the ocean to Australia. Read through the article and note the many instances of his engagement with people and his refusal to react with bitterness to the prejudice he encountered during his time in Australia. Guillermo speaks of how he came to understand the message of Archbishop Romero. What do you know about Archbishop Romero and the part he played in the struggles of his people for freedom and justice? Library research and some information from the internet about the situation in El Salvador that caused Guillermo to flee could help students to understand what drives people to leave their own countries and seek refuge in Australia. The article ends with Guillermo saying, ‘It’s been a marvellous experience.’ Does this summing up surprise you? Meeting Mary In her pilgrimage to Lourdes, Monique Preston takes part in a faith journey that has a long tradition. Apparitions of Mary have a long and interesting history. From Lourdes to Fatima, Medjugorje and beyond, Mary is said to appear in order to convey a message. ‘Mary as message-bearer’ is a continuing facet of the Christian tradition. Proclaimed theotokos or God-bearer, she is the one who brings Christ into the world; Christ who came to proclaim God’s love and salvation for all humankind. In seeking to portray Mary’s role in the Christian story, artists have traditionally focussed on Mary’s virginity, passivity and ‘otherness’; that is, she is unlike any woman before or since. More recent images in sculpture and on canvas have portrayed a different image; Mary as an active participant in God’s plan; Mary as a refugee, fleeing her country seeking protection for her child; Mary as a young, poor woman of a people living in oppression. Invite students to search out images of Mary in art. Some starting points might be Rosemary Crumlin’s Beyond belief: Modern art and the religious imagination catalogue from the 1998 exhibition of the same name. Look at works in this catalogue by van Eyck, Denis, Kokoschka, Sherman, Izquierdo and George Mung Mung. Other artists worth tracking down are Raphael, da Vinci, Michelangelo and Rossetti. A good overview of Marian images is on line at www.clipartoday.com/christian/ and follow the links to ‘Mary’. What aspect of Mary’s identity is the artist trying to convey? Where does Mary appear in Scripture? Contrast the descriptions of Mary the mother of Jesus in each of the four Gospel writers? What is each writer telling us of Mary’s identity? As a consequence, what conclusions might we draw about the identity of Jesus? To download a pdf of the Teachers Notes, right click here, and "Download File As ..." or "Save File As ..."

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