Sunday Resources 2022
The Harvest is Plentiful, but the labourers are few
Get up! Stand up! Show up!
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Sunday Resources
3 July 2022
Every year, on the first Sunday in July, Catholics come together across Australia to acknowledge and celebrate the gifts of Australia’s First Peoples in the Catholic Church.
This year is particularly important because of the need to reconnect due to the COVID 19 Pandemic and its impact on the ways in which we interacted and made contact with one another.
For 2022 NATSICC is asking for everyone to come together, but also consider practical ways in which they can support Australia's First Peoples - not just for this special day, but every day.
Artwork
Mumeri was created by Dr Lisa Buxton in August 2013 to celebrate the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney’s inaugural Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Mass held at St Mary’s Cathedral. The theme for the Mass ‘Holy Spirit in this Land’ was captured in the artwork through the use of Aboriginal and Catholic symbolism.
Letter to Parishes and schools from Bishop Charles Gauci
"I am pleased to recommend to parishes and schools the 2022 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Sunday resources that have been compiled by the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Catholic Council (NATSICC). These resources have helped us to celebrate the gifts of our First Australians in the Church for many years.”
Resource Booklet
The 24 page, full colour booklet for 2023 has been designed to help Schools, Parishes and organisations celebrate the gifts of First Australian Catholics.
The NATSICC Liturgy team has compiled prayers, Liturgy suggestions, homily notes and statistics that will enhance and enrich your celebration.
Additionally, there is a practical activity that calls for Catholics around Australia to knit / crochet blankets for the NATSICC Palliative Care package program.
Booklet download - Web Version | Print Ready
Poster
Click on the image to download a high resolution version of the 2022 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Sunday Poster
Youth Activities
We have developed the 2022 Youth Activities in collaboration with Andrew Kirkpatrick (Edmund Rice Education Australia). The activities provide teachers with projects that will encourage students to research role models, seek the truth of Australia's history with First Nations Peoples and expand their knowledge of the World's oldest continuing culture.
Setting the Space
We encourage educators/schools to create and provide a sacred space as a form of liturgy. This space provides a focal point for learning and visual cues for contextualising concepts of culture and ecology. Look around your local area for inspiration to create your Sacred Space. You could use water, gum leaves, a table runner/cloth with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artwork, battery operated candle, a paperbark coolamon (made with bark from a Paperbark and tied with grass string), a branch or even rocks
Learning Outcomes:
Students are to reflect on the 2022 theme The Harvest is plenty, but the labourers are few. Get up! Stand up! Show up! and contextualise the theme to not only their own lives but to the wider community. A key outcome is the realisation that every individual has a role to play and that we all contribute to greater actions.
Students to gain historical insight into some of the challenges faced by Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander people and identify the many advocates and allies that stood up to fight for better outcomes and more positive future for their people
.Students will understand and consider opportunities they have in 2022 to Get up! Stand up! Show up! in their own community and make a difference.• Students will have the opportunity to learn from each other by working in solidarity with their peers and community groups, learning as a way of moving forward.
Reflect
Students are encouraged to reflect upon the theme of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Sunday:The Harvest is plentiful;, but the labourers are few. Get up! Stand up! Show up!’
Key points for reflection:
What does it mean to:
them,
their family
their school
their local community
the wider Church community
Gospel from which the theme is based: Matthew 9:37
NAIDOC theme (Get up! Stand up! Show up!) - https://www.naidoc.org.au/awards/current-theme
Extended Activities
Multimedia
Virtual Acknowledgment
This Acknowledgment of Country and presentation for use in Parishes and Schools will set the scene for your Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Sunday Celebrations. It is suited for Parishes, Schools and Organisations who have been unable to invite a Traditional Custodian to provide a Welcome to Country.
Music
Homily Notes
Bishop Tim Norton has provided the Homily Notes for this year's celebration:
Luke 10:1-9
The Harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few
Today we celebrate the fact that God has always been present with, and loved, our First Peoples in Australia, a love that God extends to all First Peoples across the world.
I was working in Italy last year when I was appointed auxiliary bishop in Brisbane. When I was asked about any preferences I had for the ordination liturgy, I knew that I wanted truly ‘Australian’ symbols and rituals, but I was relatively powerless to put anything significant in place as I was so far away.
I wanted a Pectoral Cross and Vestments decorated in an Aboriginal design. I knew I wanted to be ‘Smoked’ as a symbol of cleansing at the beginning of my Episcopal Ministry. Various people at the Brisbane end began diligently working on this by contacting First Nations people and others who could help out.
I was deeply touched and strengthened by the results, which included the vestment design being transferred also to the Mitre, two Pectoral Crosses with Sacred Land from Lake Mungo in their centre, and a Smoking Ceremony inside the Cathedral that included me and all the bishops who entered behind me. I believe God was very happy with that!
What amazed me was that so many people were willing to act on my behalf to profile the symbols and rituals of First Nations people in the Ordination Ceremony. There was an enormous amount of good will and creativity that was made immediately available simply because people were asked to help.
In today’s Gospel Jesus tells us to pray to ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest. If we truly want more labourers for the vineyard that produces the Good News of life in abundance for all, the same vineyard that also tells the Jesus story through the eyes and hearts of Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders, then praying is only one way to do this. We also need to make a deeper commitment to our sisters and brothers through being labourers in the vineyard.
NAIDOC has a theme this year of ‘Get up, Stand up, Show up’. Labourers for the harvest of the Lord do exactly that – they labour or work for the Lord, and that can take the form of getting up and being active. There is much we can do as Christian people to address issues that affect our First Nations sisters and brothers.
I have my story of asking others for help to profile Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Culture – the world’s oldest continuing culture - during my Episcopal Ordination. What is your story? When were you active with issues that affect First Nations people? And if you don’t have a story yet of being a labourer in that vineyard, then get up, stand up and show up to places where issues of First Australians are being addressed. People are just waiting to be asked. The harvest is plentiful but the labourers are few.
NATSICC Retreat Videos
One of the ways that you can enhance and enrich your celebration and understanding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Sunday is to watch the presentations from the recent NATSICC Virtual Retreat. You can view them prior to the celebration as a way to prepare either individually, or ideally as a group to facilitate discussion and sharing around the topic covered.
Our voices on...
A page that shares NATSICC's points of view on various important topics, including the Environment, the Indigenous Voice to Parliament and more here