Earth's annual Leadership for Life weekend is an opportunity for 18 - 35 year olds to share in community, be challenged and encouraged to integrate faith with daily life, and be equipped and inspired to be leaders in their own context. This year our guest speakers, Rev Denis Edwards and Rev Felicity Amery, challenged our world view, our perception of others and how we use and respond to other people's stories.

On the Sunday we had practical and inspiring workshops on how and why to advocate, the use of power in leadership, and spirituality for leadership. The weekend also included worship with the theme of journey, small group time and much more. One of the most inspiring and engaging parts of the weekend was the mission immersion. The young adults visited different places in their small groups to learn about some of the disadvantaged and marginalised people in our communities and those in the church working with them. This included visits to Mental Health Hostels, Gambling venues, Domestic Violence Helpline, and B-friend.

My group visited Colebrook Reconciliation site. Mike Leane from the Blackwood Reconciliationgroup shared with us about the history of the site and the Aboriginal people from the Stolen Generation who used to live in the Colebrook home. We took a journey around the Colebrook site,looking at emotive statues carved to reveal mothers and fathers crying for their stolen children, and reading words full of insight into a world we know very little about. Those of us Anglo-Saxon, Australian-born in the group grappled to find words to explain these stories to our Sudanese, Filipino, and Chinese friends who had many questions. I fight back the tears as I remember watching these new Australians with such a positive view of this "lucky" country slowly learning about the tragic and shameful secrets of our past. We sat around the campfire and listened to part of an Interview with Lowitja O'Donohue which gave a more personal account of what life was like for the children growing up in the home without their parents.

It was one thing hearing about the past; it was another having to confront the present. We left Colebrook and headed back for Nunyara where we met with Candace Chapman and Ian Dempster. Candace is an intelligent, friendly, delightful person and perhaps the best example of leadership we saw on the weekend. She is a young adult - just like me - seeking to do her best in life and encourage those around her. But Candace's life is tainted with things I can only try to imagine. She carries the burden of stories of countless injustices committed against her family and her culture.

And she herself experiences racism and segregation, even in Australia today. I watched our Sudanese friends and Candace connect on a level that I cannot - one of understanding of what it is like to come from an oppressed and hurt culture. I was humbled by Candace's generous and open sharing and inspired by her beautiful nature, incredible achievements, and dreams, passion, and energy for the future.

The shame - of my country's past and my own ignorance to the oppression still felt by Indigenous people today - was great. But the hope of continued change and reconciliation was greater. Here we were - young adults from so many cultures - White Australian, Indigenous Australian, Sudanese, Filipino, Chinese - each with our own life story - sharing together. I believe this is where the future begins: With mutual love and respect; where we make the time to sit together and listen to another's story; when we commit to making ourselves aware and involved and to stand up for our brothers and sisters, at every opportunity - until justice and equality is universal.

Deanna Howland
Earth Project Officer
http://www.rosefield.org.au/earth

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