Creating a Learning Community

In July 2015, despite efforts made to recruit new people, the IHH dropped to only four residents.  We decided therefore not to host hospital guests in Term Three. Instead we used the time to review our community engagement strategies, and put some energy into hosting events and making connections with local mobs and people that would extend our networks and strengthen support for the project and the residents.  

It has a been a rich and nourishing time!

We hosted visitors from several churches and organisations including Whitley College, L’Arche, Urban Seed and the Railway House Reconciliation and Respect group; caught up with IHH alumni; ran a series of conversations on Everyday Spirituality and a Bible study on Lamentations; and held a Cancer Council Pancake Brunch.

We worked on a community engagement plan with Dusk Liney from Inspirit Creative, and got some conflict resolution training from Shawn Whelan.

We represented the IHH at several conferences and gatherings including the TEAR Gathering, the ‘Teach Anything Good’ day at the new Kathleen Syme library in Carlton, and a ‘Forming Disciples in Mission’ colloquium at the Melbourne Korean church.

We walked a prayer labyrinth, sang songs and told stories at the Church of All Nations to celebrate and strengthen our partnership of nearly 15 years!

We attended various cultural activities such as the Ngarrindjeri postcolonial conversation with Ken Sumner (the chair of Congress in Victoria), a Coranderrk mission visit during Wurundjeri week, a workshop on Aboriginal languages run by Mandy Nicholson from VACL, and Yarnin’ films at the Footscray Arts Centre.

This time has been an investment in the second part of IHH’s purpose: to be a place where we can help people explore what it means for their identity and faith in practice to be non-Indigenous people living on Aboriginal land.  This is the gift of being involved at the IHH for residents, but also for visiting volunteers, those on our Business Committee and others who have the opportunity to share the stories and join in the learning journey we are all on.

In 2016, we have new residents coming on board, but we will also be opening up more ways for people to be part of our learning community without having to move in. 

Stay tuned!

Sharing food and stories in Unit Two.

Clare Landy talks about her book Decolonising Solidarity with the Railway House Respect and Reconciliation group at IHH.

Uncle David Wandin at Coranderrk Cemetery during Wurundjeri Week.

Thanksgiving

The IHH community and friends met on Thursday the 26th of November to share a Thanksgiving meal together.

Thanksgiving is a United States national holiday that both sets aside time for thankful reflection and remembers the new beginning for those arriving on the shores of North America from England, many of whom were fleeing oppression. These people survived their entry into America largely because of the kindness and generosity of the Native Americans. The Wampanoag people specifically were involved in ‘the first thanksgiving peace meal’ that was shared between the English settlers and the Native Americans.

As is evidenced by the events that quickly unfolded after this first shared Thanksgiving meal and that are still unfolding in the US (the Native American population suffered invasion of their lands, terrible sickness, war, and death, among other atrocities), Thanksgiving is also a day of mourning.

A Wampanoag man, Wamsutta (Frank B.) James, was asked to deliver a speech in the 1970 anniversary celebration of the first Thanksgiving (300 year anniversary). Unfortunately, he was prohibited from giving the speech that he wrote and he refused to give the speech that was written for him. In his original speech, now published and available on the internet, he outlined the true history between the settlers and the Native American peoples along with his challenges and hopes to both people groups. And towards the end he said this:

'What has happened cannot be changed, but today we must work towards a more humane America, a more Indian America, where men and nature once again are important; where the Indian values of honor, truth, and brotherhood prevail. You the white man are celebrating an anniversary. We the Wampanoags will help you celebrate in the concept of a beginning. It was the beginning of a new life for the Pilgrims. Now, 350 years later it is a beginning of a new determination for the original American: the American Indian.'

At IHH we celebrated and remembered and gave thanks in this way, in hope for new beginnings and reconciliation.

- Sarah

Lamentations Bible Study

In term three the IHH community gathered around the Biblical book of Lamentations and read it in light of our own context at the house and the broader Australian context. We found that the story of the Israelite people and their prolonged suffering at the hands of invaders could be related to the suffering of Indigenous people in our own country. We were also challenged by the idea of needing to sit in the tension of difficult circumstances and become better acquainted with our own pain and the pain of others. The realisation that the book of Lamentations offers no resolve to the circumstances faced by the people of Israel is at once confronting and also honest to our shared human experience.

It was a valuable time of learning together. I'm looking forward to sharing more of these spaces to engage with the Bible and current events in the near future. I would invite all those interested in learning more to keep an eye on our website, Facebook page and emails for the next opportunity to come along and join in!

This is one of the texts that we read alongside the book of Lamentations, Oodgeroo Noonuccal's 'We Are Going':

They came in to the little town
A semi-naked band subdued and silent
All that remained of their tribe. 
They came here to the place of their old bora ground
Where now the many white men hurry about like ants. 
Notice of the estate agent reads: 'Rubbish May Be Tipped Here'. 
Now it half covers the traces of the old bora ring. 
'We are as strangers here now, but the white tribe are the strangers. 
We belong here, we are of the old ways. 
We are the corroboree and the bora ground, 
We are the old ceremonies, the laws of the elders. 
We are the wonder tales of Dream Time, the tribal legends told. 
We are the past, the hunts and the laughing games, the wandering camp fires. 
We are the lightening bolt over Gaphembah Hill
Quick and terrible, 
And the Thunderer after him, that loud fellow. 
We are the quiet daybreak paling the dark lagoon. 
We are the shadow-ghosts creeping back as the camp fires burn low. 
We are nature and the past, all the old ways
Gone now and scattered. 
The scrubs are gone, the hunting and the laughter. 
The eagle is gone, the emu and the kangaroo are gone from this place. 
The bora ring is gone. 
The corroboree is gone. 
And we are going.

Conversations with a Four-year-old

Recently we had some old friends from Dareton come and stay with us. On this trip they brought their spritely four-year-old daughter and niece with them. The first few of days were spent quietly playing with the toys in the toy corner but by day three or four her mum sat down with me at the kitchen table as we had breakfast.

The young girl's mum and I chatted over our cereal while the little one was engrossed in her iPad game. Then across the table she began explaining what she was doing to me. 'See, this is what you do, this is how you play! See, do you like that one? Do you like that one?'

As her mum went to have a shower and I drank my cup of tea the four year old kept talking and talking. Slowly she moved closer to where I was sitting, until she was right next to me. She even let me have a turn playing with her iPad, explaining how to play and encouraging me when I did well 'That's it cuz, you got it!'

As we played she noticed a man climbing a ladder in front of the house next door. 'What's 'e doin'?' she asked. 'I think he might be looking for a bee hive.' I replied, as we had noticed a small swarm of bees had been gathering there over the last few days. 

'They gunna get 'oney?'

'Well, yes, they might get honey, if they keep the bees. They might just need to put them somewhere else.'

'They like 'oney? I like 'oney.'

'I'm not sure, they may like honey, I like honey too.'

Later the next day as I was reading outside the inquisitive four year old came to join me. 

'Whatcha doin'?'

'I'm reading.'

I was by the outside fire pit, trying to keep my distance as I had developed a bad cold. She was not deterred. 

'Can I come over there.'

'Yeah, you can.'

As she looked around the backyard she wondered,

'You got 'ens?'

'No, we don't have hens, but we have thought about getting some.'

''Ens are good for eggs.'

'Yes they are, you're right.'

'I like 'em 'ens.'

'Yeah I like them too.'

Seeing that young girl, talking to her, being welcomed in to her world was a real experience for me. It is one of many precious experiences I have had while living at the IHH. These small, everyday things add up to create a great deal of difference over time. Most especially in me.

- Mehrin

The Intimacy of Cooking

While the IHH was closed this year I spent some time facilitating some workshops at the house, on practises of hospitality. The idea was to make some space to reflect on how some of the ordinary everyday things we all do around the house (like cooking, cleaning, making tea) make space for the other. I also got the opportunity to present the cooking workshop at the Kathleen Syme Library in Carlton, as part of the September TAG ('teach anything good') Day. In the new year I’ll also be facilitating the workshops for some locals in Footscray.

If you think about it, cooking for someone is quite and intimate activity. We’re working with materials, often using our hands, that will enter into a person’s body and become part of them. That’s a very close relationship - especially considering that many people who are employed to cook do not even meet the people they are cooking for. I think this relationship is important at the IHH because we as Settler people are often cooking for Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander guests. We are two groups of people who have been in conflict, but the cooking brings us into close relationship. (Don’t get me wrong, often it is still awkward!) It’s also been particularly significant for us as Settlers when our guests have offered to cook for us, and nourish us.

- Chris

Plenty going on

Take a look at the term 2 newsletter, and you'll see there has been plenty going on!  The trivia night was a hit, we learnt about 'Nature Play Wurundjeri Way' from landscape architect Jeff Nelson who worked on the awesome playground in Royal Park, singing Psalm 100 in Boon Wurrung language and more!

And of course, we are still seeking residents.  Get in touch if you want to know more, or come along on a Thursday night to learn more about what we do and why, and to reflect together on stories of hospitality as well as lamentation.

March 2015 newsletter

'Justice is about a decent, fair and healthy standard of living - with Aboriginal Australians as its guardians and interpreters.' Spoken by Premier Daniel Andrews on Close the Gap Day, some words we want to hold him accountable to.  Read his speech, meet our new resi Louise, check out the wish list and see what the IHH got up to in our Term 1 newsletter.

December 2014 newsletter

New bathroom facilities for our guests - hooray!  Also lots of learning for residents and in our churches and communities, both in the city and out on country.  Read about it all here.