Having recently attended the SURRENDER conference in Melbourne, NILS VON KALM explains how he came to encounter Christ at a ‘Welcome to Country’…
I recently attended the SURRENDER conference at Belgrave Heights Convention Centre. In its own words, SURRENDER “exists to raise up Christians to live the radical call of Jesus and follow him to the least, the last and the lost”. It is about learning how we can be better disciples who work with Jesus to transform his world.
SURRENDER is not just a conference though; it is a movement. The conference at Belgrave Heights each year is just one part of this movement that is growing every year.
The Welcome to Country at Surrender. PICTURE: Geoff Maddock
“Surrender is the only conference I have been to in which there is a serious engagement with not just indigenous issues, but where indigenous people have an authentic participation in the conference. There are stories, performances, and messages from indigenous brothers and sisters from across Australia. They are not there as a token for white social justice warriors to feel good about themselves; they are there because Surrender has a strong, genuine indigenous connection and flavour.”
There is an air of authenticity about Surrender. These are Christians who know about the struggles of life and the need for God’s justice to be done on Earth as it is in heaven. One of those areas of justice that SURRENDER has a wonderful commitment to is that for our indigenous brothers and sisters.
SURRENDER is the only conference I have been to in which there is a serious engagement with not just indigenous issues, but where indigenous people have an authentic participation in the conference. There are stories, performances, and messages from indigenous brothers and sisters from across Australia. They are not there as a token for white social justice warriors to feel good about themselves; they are there because Surrender has a strong, genuine indigenous connection and flavour.
One of these strong connections is through Aunty Di Kerr, a Wurundjeri Elder. On the Friday evening, Aunty Di gave a Welcome to Country which humbled and broke me like nothing has for a very long time.
The esteem in which Aunty Di is held was evidenced by the fact that there were a few hundred people gathered for an-hour-and-a-half to listen to her and acknowledge the hurt that the white race has inflicted on her people. She began by talking a bit about her history, how, as Europeans settled in Victoria, her people were removed to Coranderrk Mission, a Victorian government reserve set up near Healesville in the 1860s. Indigenous people at Coranderrk were unable to speak their own language or continue any of their traditional cultural practices. Aunty Di said it felt like being a refugee in your own country.
As she spoke, she started a traditional smoking ceremony with gum leaves. As the smoke lifted into the orange sky on this balmy Autumn evening, I looked up into the surrounding gum trees and imagined this land as it might have been over the last 50,000 years before it was stolen from Aunty Di’s people.
As I looked up and listened to her graciousness in welcoming white people like me, I was suddenly overcome with emotion. With tears in my eyes, I was struck with the humbling realisation that I was on someone else’s land. It wasn’t mine; it was hers, and we stole it from her. All I could think of was that I just wanted to say I am so sorry for what we as white people did to her.
Aunty Di at the Welcome to Country. PICTURE: Geoff Maddock
“As I looked up and listened to her graciousness in welcoming white people like me, I was suddenly overcome with emotion. With tears in my eyes, I was struck with the humbling realisation that I was on someone else’s land. It wasn’t mine; it was hers, and we stole it from her. All I could think of was that I just wanted to say I am so sorry for what we as white people did to her.”
What made this whole occasion more poignant was that Aunty Di is one of those people who is like a mother hen. She welcomes anyone. She describes herself as a “mum, a stepmum, a foster mum, an aunty and a grandmother”. She has spent her life working in child care, education, native title, Stolen Generation support, and other community activities. She has been a mentor and foster carer for many indigenous children and young people. Aunty Di reminds me of Jesus’ words in John 6:37: “All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.”
We were all then invited to come up and acknowledge the Welcome to Country and say a few words if we wanted to. For the next half hour, just about everyone gathered there came up, from elderly people, to families, to teenagers, people from all nationalities. We took some gum leaves and put them in the fire to symbolise our thanks. Many people expressed their gratitude and hugged her and apologised to her. This was serious, solemn repentance played out in a space where time didn’t matter.
Amongst all the special conversations, events and sessions that made up the SURRENDER conference, this one has stuck with me and touched me in a very deep place. I was humbled and broken. As a white person, I can empathise all I want, but the fact is that I have no idea of the depths of suffering that indigenous people have endured and continue to endure.
I thank God for the grace shown to me that evening by Aunty Di. Grace is getting what we don’t deserve because of the giver’s generosity. Christ showed up in that Welcome to Country. He showed up in an elderly indigenous woman who has suffered more than anyone ever should but still welcomes anyone with love.
