Gender and race relations in Reformed churches in Australia

An Aboriginal perspective

Anne Pattel-Gray

Hidden truths of the land down under

In this country called Australia the relationship between men and women is both multifaceted and multilayered. It is multifaceted because white men and white women assume they have the right to speak on behalf of all non-white peoples. They believe they can determine, structurally, the place, contribution and role that Aboriginal women will play within society and the church. The white feminist movement does not consult Aboriginal women. When it speaks, it assumes that it speaks for all women. The white feminist movement also assumes the authority to determine policies, directions and agendas on behalf of all women-both black and white.

The relationship is multilayered because the particular race of men and women being considered determines where they are placed within the social structure, due to the classism that exists and is founded upon the racism and sexism of this country. As indicated in the following diagram, white men are at the top of the Australian social ladder, followed by white women, then by migrant and refugee men and women, and finally by Aboriginal men and women. Aboriginal women are at the very bottom of the ladder.

Australian social hierarchy

• white men
• white women
• migrant men (European)
• migrant women (European)
• migrant men (of colour)
• migrant women (of colour)
• refugee men (European)
• refugee women (European)
• refugee men (of colour)
• refugee women (of colour)
• Aboriginal men
• Aboriginal women

This diagram¹ illustrates positions in the social hierarchy of the various raceas of women Reflecting on this, we wonder how the dominant feminist movement can consider its ideology as inclusive of all women. The experience of particular groups of women is different because they are placed in different positions in the social hierarchy. The women at the top have greater privileges and rewards given to them as a part of the dominant society. As you go down the scale, both privileges and rewards decline.

White feminists speaks of women's experiences generally as if their own experience was that of all women. This is not the case. Taking just one example, though 'average women's wages are still only 87 percent of those of men',² the fact remains that 'on average, Aboriginal people earn less than half the income of other Australians'.³ The experience of Aboriginal women within Australia differs greatly from that of non-Aboriginal women. The oppression suffered by Aboriginal women came directly at the hands of white men and white women, and still exists today. It is important to review some of this history if we are to understand the contemporary oppression .

A time never mentioned

Since 1788 and the invasion of the white people, Aboriginal people have suffered extraordinary oppression.⁴ The atrocities that have heen committed are not found within any official history books, for history as it is recorded somehow overlooks or omits from its pages the behaviour of the white invaders towards the Aboriginal people.

Invasion

In 1770, then-Lieutenant James Cook disobeyed direct orders from the British Navy to take the land 'with the consent of the natives'.⁵ Despite the armed resistance of the few Aboriginal people he encountered, he still planted a Union Jack and took possession of the entire eastern coast of the Australian continent in the name of the King of England.⁶ In one fell swoop, a single sailor dispossessed hundreds of thousands of Aboriginal people of the land to which they had belonged for eons. A single action founded the legal fiction known as terra nullius ('land belonging to no one'), which was upheld in British and later Australian law until as recently as 1992.⁷ The lie of terra nullius was the official history of Australia for two hundred and twcnty-two years, and still is to be found in most history books.

Brutality

There were no references to the random killings of Aboriginal people;⁸ or how they were shot down in their hundreds and hunted like wild animals for entertainment and sport;⁹ or how the colonizers would poison the waterholes that the Aboriginal people would frequent; or the occasional 'charity' the colonizer would express by giving Aboriginals flour, sugar and tea laced with arsenic-all this so thay could rid themselves of the vermin pest, the Aboriginal people.

Slavery

The Australian ideology of white supremacy was to be maintained for many decades. The brutal force and flexing of white 'superiority' on the backs of Aboriginal women and girls was to be felt for a long time to come. The white people of Australia believed themselves to be civilized-and therefore superior to the Aboriginal race. Yet, when you consider how they dehumanized Aboriginal people through their barbaric trade of buying and selling Aboriginal children, you have to wonder who really was civilized.

'Aboriginal children were kidnapped in all parts of Australia. Boys as young as five and six were taken to be "bred up to stock work"; girls only a little older were abducted to work as servants and to double as sexual partners. The trade in children probably began in the first half of the nineteenth century and developed rapidly during the settlement of north Australia between 1860 and 1920. ...two [white] Europeans had stolen two boys, locked them in a hut and then taken them to the gold diggings to sell. He [a squatter] feared the practice would continue "because it pays so well".'¹⁰

These atrocities were well-known and well-documented, in various forms, in official reports.¹¹ No one could plead ignorance about the goings-on and enslavement and trade of Aboriginal youth. In addition to being pushed into the labour force, they filled a gap in the servant class, which made life easier not only for the white men but also for the white women of this 'new' land. It is no surprise, then, that no actions toward justice were taken as the police were just as guilty.

'...In his annual report for 1871 he [the Police Commissioner] explained that many Aboriginal attacks took place "on account of settlers carrying off gins [young Aboriginal girls] and small boys to be made servants". The police magistrate at Normanton had no hesitation in telling his superiors in Brisbane in 1874 that the stealing of women and children was "a matter of frequent occurrence here". Twenty years later a retired northern JP wrote to The Queenslander arguing that kidnapping was "done every day both in the interior and on the coast, and one of the greatest offenders are the police".'¹²

White women were not excluded from this lucrative industry. They participated in the full knowledge of how these children were obtained-even to the point of inheriting their 'chattel' (slaves). 'A large number of individuals had an idea that they can trade an aboriginal [sic] as they would a horse or bullock. Some of these people are good church-goers. One lady informed me an aboriginal had been left to her by will.'¹³

During this time white people kidnapped Aboriginal children, engaged in the lucrative slave trade, and continued the progression toward the physical and cultural genocide of the Aboriginal people that began with the export industry of Aboriginal skulls at the very foundation of the colony.¹⁴

Church and government collusion

These things are not mentioned in the offical records of Australian history. White Australia failed to mention the official sanction by the colonial government of genocidal policy and practice. When colonizers realized they would not rid themselves of the indigenous people, they then moved towards further destruction of the Aboriginal society by forcing the removal of Aboriginal people off their own lands, and by confining them to fenced compounds called missions and reserves.¹⁵

As if this was not enough, the colonizers moved to take a great number of Aboriginal children away from their mothers, and segregate them from their people.¹⁶ They taught them to be ashamed of their people, culture and traditions, and to replace them with white values, culture, language and thought. The strategy backfired, however. When the Aboriginal children reached adulthood they became even more determined not only to find their families and communities but also to reclaim their Aboriginal heritage.¹⁷ This policy in regard to Aboriginal children ran from the early 1800s to 1967, but the practice continued right up until the 1980s! A few cases still arise today. This policy affected many thousands of Aboriginal people. Those affected by this policy moved to establish a national Aboriginal organization called Link-Up, which enables our people to find their families and communities.¹⁸

Omitted from history

Also omitted from white Australian history are the many contributions made by the indigenous people to building up this country-in such areas as the cattle industry, defence (World Wars I and II, Korea, Vietnam), economic development, the environment, tourism, etc.¹⁹ Australian history is told 'by' white people 'for' white people. They see Aboriginal people as nothing more than a melancholy footnote to this official history.²⁰

Put down and kept down

When reflecting upon the role of women and men in the Churches in Australia today, Aboriginal women cannot help but feel frustrated by their continuing subjugation. For far too long the Aboriginal woman has been put down and kept down, not only by the white dominating society, but also by her own Aboriginal men. For Aboriginal women the struggle againat racism, sexism and classism has been a battle we have endured, carried and passed-on from one generation to another over the last two hundred and seven years.

First and foremost our struggle has been and still is the struggle for full liberation of all Aboriginal people from all white oppression and domination. This has led to the women's movement taking second place-although now Aboriginal women are saying that the time has come for their recognition and participation in the leadership to which they also have contributed. Too often our women have found themselves having to apologize for the strength, leadership and servanthood they have given to our people's struggle. This reflects more on our men and their lack of self-esteem than it does on our women and their tireless giving of themselves to the struggle of our people. The time has come for our men to recognize the subjugation of their own women within the broader Australian aociety and church, and also within their own church and society. It is no longer acceptable for our Aboriginal ministers to preach and call for the liberation of their people, and to continue accepting the subjugated position of their own women.

For two centuries, the Australian churches have helped to fulfil and to enforce government policies of segregation and protection, and forced assimilation of our Aboriginal people. Parcelled within this whole process was the evangelizing of our people. White missionaries were unable to distinguish between the word of God and their own culture. Thus, they proceeded to teach Aboriginals about a Christianity that was clothed in Western images, values, language, culture and ideology. As a direct result of this, our people-especially our men-absorbed a theology that was not only patriachical but also racist and classist. The subjugation of Aboriginal women is a direct result of the unquestioning appropriation hy Aboriginal churches and institutions of the hegemonic patriarchal structure. Culture and misinterpretation of the Bible are used as a justification for the subordinate role of women. This has to be challenged, not only by women but also by men.

White feminism

As a result of this continued oppression Aboriginal women find themselves at odds with the white feminist church movement, especially as this tries to exert and maintain the power. White church feminists find little or no reason to include or communicate with Aboriginal women, as they have failed to address their own racist and classist attitudes.²¹ Drawn out of the broader society that bases its 'inherent rights' upon its own racist ideology of 'superiority' and upon Social Darwinist theory which is both racist and classist, white church feminists come from this society and reflect its values. Thus, Aboriginal women find themselves very much alone, as they are kept at a distance by the white male and female power structures through this imposed framework.

This distance is increased by whites creating the illusion that they are sharing some power with Aboriginal men. What little power is given is not intended to empower Aboriginal people, or to allow us to be self-determining, but rather as a mechanism to control both Aboriginal men and women. They use our Aboriginal men as weapons to subjugate Aboriginal women. The white church can say, 'We are not stopping you Aboriginal women from advancing in the church, because we have a policy that empowers all women.' They give the impression that they have changed their theology to be 'inclusive' of all peoples. In reality, they have not challenged the patriarchy inherent in their theological method or praxis-this inclusiveness appears to include Aboriginal men, but Aboriginal women are kept to the periphery.

Women's ordination

The ordination of women within the Australian churches is a case in point. An amazing 'two-thirds of Australian Protestant churchgoers support the ordination of women to ministry, according to the latest results of the National Church Life Survey'-the largest survey of its kind in the world.²² Despite these numbers some Reformed churches in Australia are firmly opposed to women's ordination. We will focus on just two: the Presbyterian and Uniting churches.

The Presbyterian Church in Australia

In 1974 the Presbyterian Church in Australia (PCA) resolved to ordain women to the ministry of the Word. Betweem 1974 and 1991, five white women were ordained. In 1991, however, the PCA moved to end the ordination of women, and then apologized for having ordained women in the first place! The PCA did state that it would continue to recognize the five women already ordained; but its U-turn wholly undermines their credibility and authority as ministers of the word. This awkward situation has caused great controversy, division and pain in the church. One male cleric, for example, took it upon himself to challenge this injustice from his position as principal of a theological college as well as from the pulpit Some months later, he found himself facing a Presbyterian church court, charged with heresy and threatened with expulsion. While not actually 'defrocked' (because he is a minister of a church of the Reformed tradition based outside Australia), he cannot be called to any Presbyterian church in Australia. When asked how they reacted to being out of step with the culture within which they lived, [a representative of the Presbyterians] dismissed the objections coming from outside the Church as irrelevant to its deliberations'.²³ Around the ame time, the National Church Life Survey documented that 35 per cent of Presbyterians were opposed to women's ordination. If this is the position for white women in this church, we only can imagine the situation for Aboriginal women. Needless to say, then, there are no Aboriginal women ordained to Presbyterian ministry in Australia-nor are there likely to be!

The Uniting Church in Australia

The Uniting Church in Australia (UCA) has been ordaining women for decades. Virtually all ordained women are white. It took until 1991 for the UCA to ordain the first-and to date the only-Aboriginal woman to the ministry of the word. It is not that Aboriginal women are not fulfilling the ordination requirements, but rather that those women candidates for ordination are not 'submissive' to the patriarchal structures imposed upon them. They have found themselves under continual harrassment by the white males in power within the seminaries and other ecclesial structures, who use their influence to prejudice the Aboriginal male against his own females. Even where white males have no direct authority they nevertheless exert significant influence upon those Aboriginal men who do.

The treatment of Aboriginal women within Aboriginal enclaves differs from that of the white women in the dominant white church.²⁴ Where white churches have made moves towards the elimination of patriarchalism within their overall structures, they have failed to address the patriarchal dominance within their Aboriginal enclaves. One has to ask whether the UCA enclave, the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress, is a part of the church and comes under the policy or authority of the church, or whether it is considered to be on the periphery. Often, saying that they cannot infringe upon the authority of the Aboriginal enclave, the authorities of this church use the concept of self-determination as their excuse to do nothing.

Self-determination is a worthy goal, but not when it is used as an excuse to oppress half the membership of an organization. Why set down policies for the whole church, if the Aboriginal enclave is allowed to flout them? Is it because the church is consumed with apathy and paternalism, and this issue is considered to be 'too hard', that no attempt is made to address it? Why do church leaders not challenge Aboriginal male bureaucrats about their sexism? Do they fear being called 'racist'? Are they so intimidated that they become jellyfish floating back and forth in whatever direction the current is flowing?

What does this say about the leadership of the church? Does it mean that Aboriginal women are forever condemned to remain invisible in the church7 Will anyone ever hear our cries, and move to stand in solidarity with us? We hope that we are not destined to be subjugated for the rest of our lives.

Theological education

Within Australia theological education also is a two-tiered institution. The first tier encompasses theological 'education' for whites, which is fully accredited, funded, resourced and staffed. This offers courses that take advantage of the most recent theological thinking and that provide the critical tools necessary for critical thought. In short, it challenges students to excel.

The second tier encompasses theological training' for Aboriginals, which is not accredited and does not enjoy any of the above benefits. It offers courses that use archaic theological thinking, exegesis, hermeneutics, that reinforce eisegesis. It does not offer courses to equip Aboriginal people in such areas as: Biblical languages, cross-cultural exegesis and hermeneutics, homiletics, the theory (as opposed to the practice) of pastoral theology and ministry, polity, ecumenics, womanist/feminist studies, missiology, Two-Thirds World theologies, liberation theologics, philosophy, the relationship between theology and politics and theology and the social sciences. It does not enable Aboriginal people to do academlc research or documentation, or to continue studies to obtain further accredited theological degrees. In short, it confines Aboriginal people to an inferior position.

Many Aboriginal theological institutions publish data highlighting the ratio of Aboriginal to non-Aboriginal staff. This information often refers to the high number of Aboriginal people employed, but fails to indicate that these are in positions subordinate to the whites. Aboriginal people are usually confined to menial tasks and temporary positions-secretaries, gardeners, domestics, occasional short-term lecturers and so on-while whites are accorded positions of authority, rank and tenure, as faculty members, administrators, heads of deparaments, coursework coordinators, etc.

It's not as if there are no Aboriginal people who are academically qualified. The problem is that they are seen by whites as a threat to the status quo, as well as to their own positions. Whites have theological education in a neck-hold, and feel threatened by Aboriginal scholars who could undermine their control and power.²⁵

Will these things ever change? Will our Aboriginal people ever see their academically-accredited brothers and sisters as their allies and not their enemies (as so often portrayed to them by the whites)? When this happens then, possibly, together, we can find a way to liberate all our people.

Christ's transforming power

The promise of God to eternal life and the establishment of the community of God, where all are equal in God's eyes and are our brothers and sisters in the family of God, was given to all Christians through the death and resurrection of his Son, Jesus Christ. Paul writes, 'There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus' (Gal 3.28). Christ himself stated, 'The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour' (Lk 4.18-19; cf. Is 61.1-2).

Yet in building the Australian community, we encounter every imaginable form of discrimination. How can Christ's transforming power be made visible within and throughout our land?

If the white churches in Australia identify themselves as Christian and profess Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, and if Christ's transforming power is visible through the transformation of cultures, is it not reasonable to ask why white culture has not been transformed-as patriarchalism, sexism, racism and classism arc inherent in white Australian culture?

Why do our Aboriginal men continue to speak about liberation for our people but fail to liberate their own women? Why is it that our men will often say that the Aboriginal women are the backbone of our society and struggle, and that without them we would not have achieved what we have --then continue to place them in a role suhordinate to themselves? This is reflected not only within the structures of the Aboriginal Churches, but also within those of the theological seminaries. If the liberation about which our Aboriginal men preach does not include the liberation of thair women from oppressive patriarchal structures, then whose liberation are they addressing?

Aboriginal women only can call for the Holy Spirit to be the Giver of strength and their Companion along the journey towards a greater and fuller liberation. We also pray for the Holy Spirit to be like the wind blowing through our country, transforming and creating anew the hearts of all who oppress. Lord, we ask that you give them a new heart with which to feel, and new eyes with which to see-as God also is visible in the Aboriginal women of Australia.

Anne Pattel-Gray of the Uniting Church in Australia is Executive Secretary of the Aboriginal & Islander Commission of the National Council of Churches in Australia. She is a Ph.D. candidate at the School of Studies in Religion at the University of Sydney.

Notes