In
mid-January, the State Governor of Victoria invited me to attend Government
House as part of the formal State welcome to Prince William of Wales.
The
invitation provided me with the opportunity to introduce two very different
young Australians to Prince William. One has an Irish and Catholic heritage,
the other Sudanese and Muslim. Like many other Australians they found William
warm and friendly. He could balance a serious conversation with humour and
lightness.
What
was particularly special about this encounter was not just that these were
young people meeting the Prince, much younger than most other people at
Government House that day, but how, in many ways, they represented the old and
new of Australia's recent history. They imaged challenges and possibilities for
our future, whatever our cultural and religious differences, and whatever the
future of Australia's connection to the monarchy.
The
formal ceremonies had begun a little earlier when Wurundjeri elder, Joy Murphy
Wandin, welcomed the Prince to her ancestral country. One could not miss the
warmth in her welcome but also the loss and pain. The Prince was graciously
invited to come onto what was a significant meeting place for those who once
gathered on the land above the Yarra River. Government House is built on prime,
elevated land.
Her
welcome offered a further image. We, not just the Prince, find ourselves
welcomed onto this land by a descendant of those who were dispossessed of it.
Her welcome offered further challenges and possibilities for our future.
'Unfinished business', as my Aboriginal friends might say.
These
two images of challenges and possibilities are now linked in my mind. They
suggest that healing is generated when people come together, particularly when
they seek to overcome the legacy of historical differences and separations.
And
it would be difficult to come to Australia Day this year without some awareness
of historical 'separation' within our larger Australian community, particularly
of three groups of people who have recently claimed our attention for
recognition and healing.
They
are often named the Stolen Generations, the Lost Innocents and the Forgotten
Australians. They include, respectively, Aboriginal children removed from their
lands and families, those brought to Australia as child migrants, and those who
grew up in institutional care.
These
three groups of children, now adults, claim an important part of our Australian
story. They each link our history to English cultural and colonising values and
attitudes, and they each hold deep and wounded memories of children who were
separated from their parents, families and land.
Separation
from a parent is something Prince William understands. 'Did your mummy die?' a
six-year old asked him last week. 'Yes', he answered, 'she did; it was pretty
sad.'
That
moment of his separation from Diana is something many of us have not forgotten.
William was only 15 at the time. Since then it has not been possible for him to
grow into leadership without being regularly reminded of his mother, her grace
and warmth. Her passing was, and continues to be, mourned by many. The Prince
is not the only person who has felt the pain and cost of this separation.
Each
Australia Day encourages us to remember our nation's history, particularly in
the light of what we continue to learn. It challenges us to look beyond 222
years and feel connected to a far longer past and ancestral history. As
descendants of earlier or more recent settlers we are invited to listen to the
various voices of our past, to welcome them and allow the hurt of past
separations to be named and healed.
This
offers new possibilities for our identity and cohesion as a nation. At the same
time it challenges behaviours and attitudes that serve to separate people
rather than unite them. It offers faith to a younger generation that a more
inclusive nation is possible.
Hopefully,
the Prince experienced both wisdom and healing in his recent trip. His presence
served to remind me of the multiple stories of separation in our nation's
history and to strengthen my resolve to keep working on the 'business' that
remains unfinished.
As
I stood with these two young Australians last week, and heard Joy Wandin
Murphy's welcome, I experienced a spirit of openness and hope. Here were people
who encourage us to keep listening to our past, rejecting those forces that
threaten to separate us and to keep working together for a new and more
inclusive future for all.
Dr Brian F. McCoy, SJ, is NHMRC Post
Doctoral Fellow for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health at the
Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, La Trobe University. He
is the author of Holding Men: Kanyirninpa and the Health of Aboriginal Men.
This article was first published in Eureka Street.