mightychurch.com

Compensate Aborigines or leave, says minister

Barney Zwartz   SMH
August 11, 2009

ALL non-Aboriginal Australians should be prepared to leave the country if the indigenous people want that, making restitution for the vile sin of genocide, an Anglican leader said last night.

If they stayed, they would have to provide whatever recompense indigenous peoples thought appropriate, the Reverend Peter Adam said.

’‘It would in fact be possible, even if very difficult and complicated, for Europeans and others to leave Australia. I am not sure where we would go, but that would be our problem,’’ he said.

Dr Adam, principal of Ridley College, the main Anglican theological college in Victoria, was giving the NSW Baptist Union’s annual lecture at Morling College, at Macquarie Park.

Dr Adam said Christian teaching required either restitution - returning what was stolen, the land - or recompense. If those who arrived after 1788 did not leave, they would need to ask each of the indigenous peoples what kind of recompense would be appropriate. This would be complicated and extensive but must be done or the genocide would be trivialised.

’‘No recompense could ever be satisfactory because what was done was so vile, so immense, so universal, so pervasive, so destructive, so devastating and so irreparable.’’ Dr Adam acknowledged that some people had done their best to remedy wrongs, including some government actions, but something ‘‘more drastic’’ was required.

Dr Adam said churches shared responsibility because the land and wealth of churches came from land stolen from indigenous people. ‘‘The prosperity of our churches has come from the proceeds of crime. Our houses, our churches, our colleges, our shops, our sport grounds, our parks, our courts, our parliaments, our prisons, our hospitals, our roads, our reservoirs are stolen property.’‘

link

Has he got his bags packed - just in case ?

Well here’s the full text http://www.nswchurches.com/Resources/Articles/A09105.pdf I’ll hold off commenting until I’ve read it.

Well I read it but I have no idea what to say. He’s completely serious. He thinks everyone who arrived since 1788 ought to leave the country.

No idea what to say.

Nick Brennan - 11 August 2009 02:09 PM

Well I read it but I have no idea what to say. He’s completely serious. He thinks everyone who arrived since 1788 ought to leave the country.

No idea what to say.

Well, first up, maybe he’s implying that ( to start with ) he wants ALL immigration to stop now - instead of adding to “the problem” ;)

And if he is serious about it - here’s a few more questions that were posted on a news blog :

Could the Reverend tell us where 20 million Australians should be sent? How this would be done? Would part-Aborigines be deported, too? How would Aborigines be left better off with all whites gone?

But the $64 million question is : when will Adam himself leave? If he’s not going, what has he paid to stay, and to whom ?

Another question for the cleric: this means we should end immigration, right? And do we deport on a last-in-first-out principle?

AH academia - what a nice place to visit - so removed from the real world isn’t it ?.

Wasn’t he saying that if all non aboriginals leave then there should be compensation?

He said the opposite :

If they stayed, they would have to provide whatever recompense indigenous peoples thought appropriate, the Reverend Peter Adam said.

Since when have Christians believed in genetically inherited guilt or victimhood?  And what do you do with people of mixed ancestry (the great majority of indigenous people) in whom mingle the genes of both victim and victimiser?

I thought that repentance and forgiveness were the hall-marks of the gospel.

Thanks for the link, Nick.

This is an extraordinary speech.  Dr Adam says:

all lands belongs to God, and he distributed them to many nations, setting the time and places where they would live….  Surely the principle of original gift is now unworkable? In some cases, it is impossible to know the nation to whom God first gave some land, and they may not exist at the present time. That is not the case in Australia. We know those to whom God gave the land, and we know when it was stolen from them.

This obviously has grave implications for the people currently inhabiting a great part of the world’s surface - the Americas and the Holy Land (obviously);  Eastern Europe (the greatest involuntary expulsions of people did not take place in partition-India or Israel but when millions of Germans were evicted from Bohemia and Poland).  If you go back further, then the Franks may have to leave France and return to Germany;  the English might have to quit England;  the Scots should return to their homeland (Ireland), the Turks leave Turkey, (on the plus side, I think we Christians get Egypt back!) - but it is difficult to know where to stop.  It is no excuse to say that the races have mingled irreparably - in Australia, the vast majority of indigenous people have mixed blood and that has not stopped Dr Adam from advocating this solution.

As for the mingling of the races, that must presumably be a sinful thing, as it interferes with God’s plans by confusing owners with usurpers.  I suspect the theologians of apartheid South Africa, while quibbling with him over whether God can approve post-biblical conquests,  would have found more to agree with in these thoughts, than Dr Adam would be comfortable with.  Afrikaners always claimed they settled unoccupied lands, which in many (but not all) cases they did.

On a purely practical level, has Dr Adam considered the damage which “sit down money” has done to Aboriginal pride and self-respect in so many parts of Australia?  A people whose labours were once closely connected to their maintenance and survival have been turned into pensioners.  Dr Adam seems to be advocating the vast expansion of a demonstrably failed policy.

Peter Adam’s admirable aim of pursuing justice is fatally flawed because of a false premise, and his selective approach to the Bible that he uses in taking the moral high-ground and which he supposedly wholly upholds as a principal of a theological college.

He wrongly assumes that the Australian continent wasn’t sparsely inhabited when settled by Europeans, and that it was beyond being shared with the settlers. He also chooses to ignore that the Bible he bases his moral arguments on also says in Genesis for mankind to fill the earth. By any measure, the Australian continent in the 18th century and for a long-time afterwards was far from filled.

In an age when solutions are being sought to the real, practical problems of Aborigines, Peter fails to contribute any. Maybe he believes that living in the stone age is a genuine and humane alternative to moving forward with the rest of civilisation. Being an active part of the advanced civilisation in Australia - a European legacy - should be the aim and is in itself a form of recompense. Just look at the former Soviet Union, China and India, and the Mexicans that flood into the US. For the opposite, just look to Zimbabwe.

If Peter truly believes what he says, why doesn’t he lead the way and hand-over his own house to Aborigines, then leave the country?

Russell Powell has (briefly) defended Dr Adam’s “considered, scholarly lecture” on the SydAng site, agreeing with Barney Zwartz who says that Peter simply “wants to rekindle the debate” and that the (rather vague) point is “it matters what we do”.

Whilst nobody can question the fact that aboriginals were treated poorly by colonial settlers, Dr Adams’ foundational point, on which his whole argument hinges, that “we know those to whom God gave the land” is contestable. It could easily be argued that God gave the land to the indigenous people and Europeans to share, but that Europeans acted shamefully and oppressively, contrary to God’s will. The fact that settlers acted the way they did does not prove that it was not God’s will for them to come and live here alongside aborigines.

As has been said elsewhere, given his comments, it is far from unreasonable to expect Dr Adam to now lead by example. If he truly believes what he has said, he ought to exercise some practical leadership and immediately transfer the ownership of all his possessions to the aboriginal people, after all “our houses…are stolen property” and “if I steal someone’s car, then repent, I must return the car.”

I also wonder what sort of message this sends to aboriginal christians about grace and forgiveness. I wonder if Dr Adams’ argument is helpful to them in light of passages like Matthew 18:21-35:

Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven.

“Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay what you owe.’ So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place. Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”

I think Peter Adam raises a good point. I think if I were to steal your house, you would expect it back or in the case of when government takes land, compensation. I don’t think you’d like it much if I started throwing Bible verses at you about forgiveness of debt.

I’m guessing Peter wouldn’t expect the deportation of all non-aboriginals but I do think we should look at the issue of monetary compensation. In our system, the courts order that people who have been wronged deserve compensation. Why not Aboriginals? What makes them so undeserving?

There is an excellent episode of the West Wing that deals with a similar issue in the American context - reparations to black slaves. The guy advocating reparations says that they could take their money in tax and other concessions. I would say that is the best way forward, by assigning a certain amount of state and federal money as what is compensation (as opposed to government setting aside whatever it likes).

On the issue of inherited guilt (apart from the fact Christians believe in original sin), I think if we are to celebrate the victories of Australian history (ANZAC Day, Federation, etc) and claim them personally then we should claim the shame and disgrace that comes with living in a land taken from the original inhabitants.

I’ve made some further comments on my blog http://evangelicalchristian.blogspot.com/2009/08/peter-adam-on-aborigines-recompense.html. Feedback, positive and/or negative is encouraged.

This is all political point scoring. 

They took Kosovo from the Serbs and gave it to the Albanians.  Ireland is still divided today.  There are so many examples of modern lands in the hands of their invaders today it’s not funny.

Yeah right we are all packing our bags and leaving Australia.

Reverend Adam has re-invigorated the Christian faith in Australia with his heart felt concerns about the injustices Aboriginal people have had to endure for too long. The Reverend is trying to raise te awareness on this issue by being so blunt & not treading lightly. This has obviously attracted attention so his method has worked. But his words are so true. This burden, this injustice Rev Adam has exposed is not his alone. It is the burden the nation must deal with. It is not up to Rev Adam make amends alone it is up to the nation & its people as a collective to recompense those denied natural justice, the Australian Aboriginals. A way to do this would for all income earners to contribute say 1% of their income towards a national compensation fund for aboriginal people. Large corporations could contribute say 3% of income to the fund. All governments should contribute a 5% of income. Aboriginal tribes &  stolen generations could be compensated from this fund - tax free. This would be on top of current government funding program initiatives. Australians wouldn’t even miss these funds considering the rubbish we waste our money on. This would allow aboriginal people to then look forward & begin the healing process with dignity. The nation could then truly say it is making amends to the aboriginal injustice. The greed & hatred towards Aboriginal people must stop if Australia is to be a good progressive nation.