Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation … (2 Corinthians 1:2-3)

Tyrendarra IPA is not a beer. It is an Indigenous Protection Area at Tyrendarra, about two kilometres north of the Princes Highway. As you approach the area, you can see to the west a fold of hills running north-south into the sea. To me this seems to guard the flat fertile plain to the east, with the Fitzroy River running north-south between the fold of hills and the fertile plain. Continue reading “7 | tyrendarra IPA | gunditjmara country #Lent 2023” →

‘I am the Alpha and Omega,’ says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty. (Revelation 1:8)

About a year and a half ago, I was listening to a conversation on Radio National. An Aboriginal woman was explaining the Indigenous preference for the word ‘Everywhen’, in place of the term ‘Dreamtime.’ She explained Everywhen as an Indigenous concept of time where past, present and future are interconnected. It resonated deeply with me and, over the last year and a bit, I’ve enjoyed looking at things through the lens of Everywhen. Continue reading “5 | stingray bay to shelley beach / kuurn naa mullin | peek whurrong country #Lent 2023” →

Now Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth, and spread it on a rock for herself, from the beginning of harvest until rain fell on them from the heavens; she did not allow the birds of the air to come on the bodies by day or the wild animals by night. (2 Samuel 21:10) 

One hundred and forty years ago, not far from where I sit here in the solitude of the cemetery, a man gripped the handle of his shovel as he dug to try to set things right. He could not truly set them right. Not by a long shot. He could and he would do what was within his sphere of control. His shovel unearths the body of his dear friend from the scrubby bog as his tears join the raindrops. He lovingly carries him to the place where I now sit. The second and final grave, now with a towering monument, to guard against the evaporation from collective memory. Continue reading “4 | the second and final grave of wombeetch puyuun | camperdown cemetery | leehura gunditj country #Lent 2023” →

You send the springs into the valleys; they flow between the mountains. All the animals drink from them; the wallabies quench their thirst. Beside them the birds of the air make their nests and sing among the branches. You water the mountains from your dwelling on high; the earth is fully satisfied with the fruit of your works. (Psalm 104:10-12)

Around 37,000 years, or 1,500 generations ago
‘the land and trees were dancing’
as one of their ancestor creators
revealed part of himself in the landscape
as Budj Bim.
Life was given … with laws to follow …
in the Dreaming. Continue reading “1 | budj bim | gunditjmara country #Lent 2023” →

Do I not fill heaven and earth? says the Lord. (Jeremiah 23:24)

Once upon a time, our ancestor Jacob went on a journey. He left the place called Beer-sheba and came to the place called Luz. It had been a long day on the road;  it was now twilight. The first stars were becoming visible in the darkling sky. So he took one of the stones of that place, a flat stone, a smooth stone, and brushed off the dirt; then he used it as a pillow. He wrapped himself tightly in his traveling cloak, and drifted into a deep, God-filled sleep. While he was dreaming, he saw a stairway reaching from that place all the way to heaven, and God’s messengers were travelling between heaven and earth. Continue reading “intro | our spiritual geography #Lent 2023” →