A Theological Argument for Acknowledgement of Country

Photo by Johan Mouchet on Unsplash

If you fly to Australia, it is very likely that upon landing you will hear the flight service director narrate an acknowledgement of country.

QANTAS Airlines has a reconciliation strategy that involves flights into and around Australia acknowledging the traditional custodians of the land upon which the planes are landing. It normally goes something like:

We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we work, live and fly. We pay respect to Elders past, present and emerging.

In fact, most public events in Australia will involve a similar acknowledgement of country (if delivered by a non-indigenous person) or a welcome to country (if delivered by a local indigenous leader). My own institution, Ridley College, in Melbourne, Australia, has its own acknowledgement of country with a particularly Christian flavor that we use at the start of the semester and at key events during the academic year:

Recognising the sovereignty of the one Creator, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who made all peoples in his own image, we acknowledge the Bonnerwrung and Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nations who are the traditional custodians of this land upon which we meet. We give thanks for the elders of this nation and pray for gospel blessings on their descendants.

In America, some institutions and corporations have started to perform their own acknowledgement of country, an act that has met with cynical criticism such as comedian Bill Maher’s expletive and condescending rejection of public statements recognizing indigenous peoples.

I want to argue that such public acknowledgements are not “woke” performance, not anti-western theatrics, nor a superficial attempt to paper over the injustices of the past. Such statements are important because:

· They are a way of showing respect for the indigenous culture, history, and people of a given location.

· They are a way of acknowledging the historical injustices of dispossession, genocide, violence, violation, and destruction that accompanied European colonization of the Americas and Oceania.

· They are an important step towards reconciliation, recognizing the ongoing impact of colonization, and promoting a more inclusive society.

Attentive readers of the Bible will know that the Hebrews experienced slavery in Egypt, the Israelites were dispossessed of the land when taken into exile by the Assyrians and Babylonians, and the Jews suffered all the inhumane forms of imperial violence as one pagan nation after another ravaged and ransacked the holy land.

In Jesus’ day, many Jews treated the Samaritans and Syro-Phoenicians as their rivals to occupy and dominate the same strip of territory. But Jesus never regarded the Samaritans or Syro-Phoenicians as aggrieved interlopers who needed to build a bridge over the past. Rather, Jesus built a bridge towards them, by treating them as either supplicants of healing or as living parables of the faith that he wished Israel would emulate.

A biblically informed reader understands that God is on the side of peoples who are oppressed and dispossessed by a foreign power.

Attentive readers of history will know too the painful past of colonisation, dispossession, and genocide suffered by indigenous peoples all over the world.

At the same time, while the churches’ role in colonization was less than innocent, there was a concerted effort by many Christians to condemn violence, ameliorate the plight of indigenous peoples, and to advocate on their behalf.

Catholic priests wrote back to Spain about the atrocities committed by the conquistadors. English clergy did the same concerning British military massacres in Africa. In Australia, we have NAIDOC week, National Aborigine and Islander Day of Observance, which was begun by churches in the 1940s as a week of activism on behalf of the indigenous peoples of Australia.

A historically informed opinion will acknowledge the evils perpetrated by colonization and the action of many Christian leaders to report it, stop it, and try to bring healing after it.

Finally, acts such as acknowledgement of country are a key instrument in national reconciliation. They are not the end of reconciliation, they should also be combined with other initiatives and measures designed to give agency and empowerment to indigenous peoples.

Reconciliation is the process that takes place between indigenous peoples, our shared colonial past, our current leaders in government, and the future we make together. We cannot change the past, but we can recognize the price indigenous peoples have paid for it, and work for a better future together. A future where all people, indigenous or immigrant, participate in making their country a place of freedom, flourishing, and felicity.

It should go without saying that reconciliation is something of a Christian speciality.

God has reconciled us to himself (Rom 5:10; 2 Cor 5:18). God has reconciled Jews and Gentiles into the renewed people of God (Eph 2:16). God even reconciles “all things” to himself, whether heavenly or terrestrial (Col 1:20). Christians, equipped with the ministry and message of reconciliation, can be agents of reconciliation in their own communities (2 Cor 5:18-19).

Let us then do all we can to pursue reconciliation with indigenous peoples, whether something as simple as acknowledgment of country, all the way through to education and legislation that brings people of the same country together.