NAIDOC Week is the outcome of a long history. Since 1924 many Aboriginal groups have challenged governments, citizens and churches. They have asked for Aboriginal representation in parliament, a national department of native affairs and state advisory councils of Aboriginal affairs, a Day of Mourning to be held on Australia Day. In 1940, the Sunday preceding Australia Day became the first “Day of Mourning” – Aboriginal Sunday. In 1955 Aborigines Day was transferred to the first Sunday in July and the NADOC (National Aborigines Day of Observance Committee) was formed. In 1991, it was known as NAIDOC to include the Torres Strait Islanders. For 60 years Aboriginal Sunday has been celebrated. It is time for all Australians to recognize the unique position of Indigenous people as the original owners and custodians of this land and pray for them.
Theme for 2005 - celebrated at St Francis’ Church, Melbourne (3 July)
Come – Listen – Live
Share the Bread of Life Together
Aboriginal Flag |
Torres Strait Islander Flag
|
The Soil of our Land
Dedication:
Creator God as we gather here today in this Sacred Place, we bring you this special symbol of your Sacred gift to us, the Soil of Our Land that we call Our Mother. As the late John Paul II said to us in Alice Springs in 1986 … “Through your closeness to the land, you touched the sacredness of mankind’s relationship with God. For the land was proof of the power in life greater than yourselves. You did not spoil the land, exhaust it, and then walk away from it, you realized your land was related to the source of life” (Paragraph 4).
We come now seeking your forgiveness for any wrong things that we have done to your creation and to each other. Restore in us all, a strengthened spirit, to walk new pathways, with a sense of hope and courage, toward a future that unites us all, in the soul of this land and its people.
