#LoveMakesAWay Quotation from Rev. Rronang Garrawurra
Australia (2015)
[Source]
Pretty damn moving. And it checks out!Ā
One of the members of the community that had gathered, was Rev. Rronang Garrawurra, an Indigenous elder from North East Arnhem Land. Rev, Rronang, who was former Chairperson of the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress of the Uniting Church in Australia, sat right up the very front of the gathering, facing the cars passing by on the busy road running along the Federal Parliamentarianās Office.
Meeting him again, removed from the theatre of the service that Sunday morning, and sitting cross legged on the lawn of his front yard, Rev. Rronang felt compelled to narrate to me, a legend that had been passed down to him by his ancestors via the oral tradition of story telling. It was the story of the Macassan boy.
The story goes, that Macassan fishing men would travel from South Sulawesi and the surrounding areas in Asia, across the Arafura Sea, and fish close to the lands of the Indigenous people in the top-end of the land now known as Australia. The two communities would come into contact with one another, some of the experiences positive, while others not so positive.
The story captures one particular engagement, where a group of local people in East Arnhem Land come across fishing men on a couple of boats, killing every one of them, and sparing only one young Macassan boy. As the legend goes, the young boy was raised by the local community, and in time he would become one of their community. Months and years went by, and eventually more Macassan fishermen would arrive.
A conflict would brew once again, but this time, the newest member of the local community, stood between the two tribes. The boy, now a young man, negotiated a peace between the two communities, thus avoiding conflict and bloodshed.
The story bears some significance for Rev. Rronang, as he reflects on the Sunday Church service that had passed not long ago, as well as the questions that I had now put to him about asylum seekers and refugees.
āWe are the first people, and as first people, it upsets me that we havenāt been asked for our input on any of thisā reflects Rev. Rronang.
āShould we be consulted, as we should Ā ā as Indigenous people, the first people of this land, we would think carefully about the problem, and offer our own solutionsā.
Broadly speaking, Rev. Rronang believes that those seeking refuge in Australia, should be given that refuge.
āThey should be given their freedom, they should be welcomed hereā said Rev. Rronang.
In alluding to his story where a young child is spared in the conflict between the local people (his ancestores) and the sea faring people from South Sulawesi, Rev. Rronang in his conversation with me pays particular attention to the question of children in detention.
āThere is no question about it ā children should not be in detention. They are innocent. They followed their parentsā¦they had no choice, and they should not be in detentionā.
More on Macassan-Aboriginal Australian contact here.
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