Participants in the second International Conference on Catholic Indigenous have been struck by the similar experiences and a common resilience across the four participating nations. Source: NZCBC.
The conference, which will conclude in Auckland today, has seen delegations from Australia, the United States and Canada join a New Zealand contingent.
Each country has led one day of the proceedings, outlining significant suffering and traumatic practices and policies, but also sharing stories of resilience, faith and hope.
Graydon Nicholas, a member of the Tobique First Nation in Canada, was at the first gathering in Washington, DC in 2023. He said this second gathering has taken the important conversations to another level.
“This is another stage in the journey that we as Indigenous Catholics are on to become more fully involved with our Catholic faith,” he said, something he has called a “spiritual quest”.
“Even though we’re all Indigenous people from different parts of the world, there are a lot of common experiences, but there is also a lot of common good that is present.”
Mr Nicholas said among his highlights of the Auckland conference have been the Masses that are incorporating components of Indigenous culture and spirituality.
Doreen Flanders, who serves as deputy chair of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Catholic Council in Australia, spoke of the Māori welcoming ceremony (pōwhiri) at Tūtahi Tonu marae on Monday as a high point during the week.
“The welcome to country was absolutely amazing,” Aunty Doreen said. “To be welcomed in the traditional way – I was looking forward to that, because it is such an important part of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture.”
She conceded that the stories of cultures lost, of people dispossessed and displaced, made for difficult listening, but stories of faith also shone through.
“It’s so easy to make the connections about some of the social injustice that has happened to Indigenous people,” she said.
“The thing that’s pricked my ears up, and I have thoroughly enjoyed, is how those communities and individual people, how they have incorporated and embraced Catholic identity, Catholic faith to themselves and their communities.”
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Shared Indigenous experiences punctuate conference in NZ – New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference (NZCBC)
