Yarta Wandatha: The land is speaking, the people are speaking (DA8741Z)

Content

In this unit students will critically engage with the impact of Christian mission on Aboriginal lands and communities and then explore the gifts lying within Aboriginal wisdom for a more expansive and generous practice of ethical ministry today in these lands now called Australia. For this we will draw particularly from Ngalakanha Muda – Big Wisdom of the Adnyamathanha peoples of Ikara-Flinders Ranges – which teaches us about our environment, rules for living, and knowledge of the spiritual realm. We will ask ‘Why do I need Jesus?’ and hear how Indigenous Elders answer this question. We will also learn skills of ngakarra nguniangkulu (deep listening and discernment), yanakanai (coming together) and contextualisation (God in my story) to enable collaborations that honour human and non-human, alike.

This unit will be co-taught with Adnyamthanha elders and leaders and includes immersion on Yarta (Country).

Learning outcomes

Unit sequence

A Level 8 unit in undergraduate theology and ministry awards

Pedagogy

This co-taught unit will prioritise the wisdom of Indigenous elders and scholars toward enabling both-ways theological dialogue (respecting Indigenous and Christian knowledge and experience, both/and).

Indicative Bibliography

• Champion, Denise with Rosemary Dewerse. Yarta Wandatha. Salisbury, Denise Champion, 2014.
• Champion, Denise. Rosemary Dewerse (Ed.) Anaditj. Port Augusta: Denise Champion, 2021.
• Champion, Denise with Rosemary Dewerse. “Reimagining God and the Church in Australia Through an Adnyamathanha lens.” In Rosemary Dewerse (Ed.) Location-Shaped Theologies: Traversing Indigenous, Settler, Second Generation Landscapes. Adelaide: ATF Press, publication pending.
• Colvin, Gina and Rosemary Dewerse. “Christian Mission and Indigenous Peoples.” In Kirsteen Kim, Knud Jorgensen, Alison Fitchett-Climenhaga (Eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Mission Studies, 437-455. Oxford: Oxford University.
• Harris, John W. One Blood: Two Hundred Years of Aboriginal Encounter with Christianity. Brentford Square, Victoria: Australians Together, 2018.
• Pattel-Gray, Anne. The Great White Flood: Racism in Australia: Critically Appraised from an Aboriginal Historico-Theological Viewpoint. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1998.
• Pattel-Gray, Anne, John P. Brown, and World Council of Churches. Indigenous Australia: A Dialogue About the Word Becoming Flesh in Aboriginal Churches. Geneva, Switzerland: WCC Publications, 1997.
• Skye, Lee Miena. “Australian Aboriginal Women’s Christologies.” In Johnson, Elizabeth (Ed.) The Strength of Her Witness: Jesus Christ in the Global Voices of Women, 108-113. Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 2016.
• Ungunmerr, Miriam-Rose. "Dadirri: Inner Deep Listening and Quiet Still Awareness," 1988. https://www.miriamrosefoundation.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Dadirri_Handout.pdf
• Twiss, Richard. Rescuing the Gospel from the Cowboys: A Native American Expression of the Jesus Way. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2015.

Assessment