We begin this week's updates with messages from our CEO Julie Edwards. Julie wrote to All Staff on Wednesday about NAIDOC Week. In her email, Julie talks about the origins of the celebrations and also provides links to resources, events and two pieces - one by Fr Andy Hamilton and the other by Paulie Stewart. We've included the pieces below and you can read Julie's full email here.

At the beginning of the week, Julie emailed all staff with an invitation to complete a survey relating to staff members' current COVID vaccination status. The survey is voluntary and anonymous. You can read Julie's full email and access the survey here.

In an earlier email, Julie notified staff that, along with all other Jesuit Ministries, Jesuit Social Services is undertaking child safe accreditation through the Australian Childhood Foundation (ACF). All staff and volunteers will be required to take this training. You can find out more details about this upcoming training in Julie's full email here.

The Learning and Practice Development Unit released its training calendar for the second half of the year. Highlights on this new calendar include Challenging Racism: Examining Whiteness and Motivation Interviewing: Working with young people who carry knives. Explore the full calendar here and email staff.training@jss.org.au with your line manager cc-ed in if you would like to enroll in any training sessions.

NAIDOC Week 2021

NAIDOC Week (July 4 – 11) is a time for recognising and celebrating the many ways in which pride has been built in Indigenous communities, and for pressing that in their relationships to people and to the environment governments and other institutions show the respect which opens out to healing, writes ANDY HAMILTON SJ.

This year the theme of the National Aboriginal and Islander Day Observance Committee (NAIDOC) Week is short, sharp and challenging. It is ‘Heal Country!’ It calls on all of us to continue to seek greater protections for our lands, our waters, our sacred sites and our cultural heritage from exploitation, desecration, and destruction.

It is challenging because it comes at a time when the prevailing apathy, carelessness and vandalism about the destruction of sites central to Indigenous culture and history has been challenged. The reaction to the destruction of the Juukan Caves Gorge in Western Australia aroused amazement and outrage outside Australia, and cost Rio Tinto and its investors reputation, money and the service of prominent office holders. Similar threats to heritage on Fortescue claims and on the Burrup Peninsula have also aroused widespread comment and will be difficult to ignore. The protests and publicity given them have shaken the insouciance of Australians to the importance of its history, revealed most strikingly in the blindness to the importance of preserving the national archives. An ancient Roman observer of these things might well suspect that the barbarians had taken over the Empire.

Elijah finds his voice

When young Indigenous guitarist Elijah Augustine first came into Artful Dodgers Studios, you would be lucky to get a word out of him.

Thanks to weekly songwriting sessions, ongoing performances at the studio’s Megaphone events and engagement with other studio participants, Elijah has found his voice.

“I didn’t say much when I first started at The Dodgers. I was the Quiet Man.”

As we celebrate this year’s NAIDOC (National Aboriginal and Islanders Day Committee) week, we highlight the growth of Elijah, who is a Nyul-Nyul, Jabirr-Jabirr and Ngumbarl Saltwater man whose mob hail from Broome in Western Australia.

“Somebody told me the studio run by Jesuit Social Services would be a great fit for me as they would help me with my music. They were right.”

Elijah enjoys writing both political and fun rock and roll songs.

“My Dad was a big land rights activist in the North of Australia and the inspiration behind my song My Land. I have spent time up around Broome visiting my mob there.

“I also enjoy writing simple fun rock and roll songs like Woke Up at Seven and Let’s Dance.”

With his newfound confidence, Elijah has found paid work with the St Kilda Festival, Monash University and at Jesuit Social Services’ ‘Sorry Day’ events.

Bringing community together

"Simple ingredients and fresh produce in an explosion of flavours!” is how Urban Farmer Gregory Lorenzutti described the interactive community lunch workshop he led with our Eco Hub's resident chef Johnny Hassan on a sunny morning last week. 

The event, held at Fawkner Foodbowls' lawn bowls site converted to a community garden is part of a program series developed by the Ecological Justice Hub in collaboration with Moreland City Council. The series offers inclusive and interactive sessions that utilise locally sourced produce in zero-waste cooking. 

After a harvesting tour of the garden, chef extraordinaire Johnny Hasan created a delicious lunch using only produce from the garden. Event participants gathered around a communal table to enjoy the meal together.  The workshop featured an easy, affordable, plant-based halal recipe that used vegetables solely sourced from the garden. It was a great showcase of garden-to-plate cooking with practical tips on how to make the most of local produce.

The event attracted a capacity crowd from a diverse range of communities. Sharing a meal and exploring connections through food turned into quite a celebration. Stay tuned for the next workshop!

Also part of this event series is an upcoming webinar, which will explore issues and opportunities at the intersection of food security and food waste. Find out about the next event in the series (happening on 21 July) by clicking the button below.

Full agenda announced!

We're excited to share the session agenda for our upcoming 5th National Justice Symposium. All staff and volunteers are invited to join - online attendance is available. You can find out the full details here. 

Session 1 – Hearing from young people

We start the day hearing from young people across the Northern Territory – an invitation to ground ourselves in their stories, their hope and dreams, the challenges they face, and their ideas for change, as we move through the day.

Session 2 – Hearing from Elders

In Session 2, Elders from across the Northern Territory and other parts of the country share what they know works in caring for their kids. What keeps young people out of trouble? How should we respond when they do go down the wrong path, and what do they need to thrive?

Session 3 – The possibility and fragility of reform

International guests Clinton Lacey and Candice Jones join our Australian panellists, Cheryl Axleby and Phil Boulten SC to reflect on what it takes to transform a system.

Successes and challenges shared by Clinton and Candice pursing a radical reduction the number of youth incarcerated in the US, provide an opportunity for reflection on the reform journey in Australia – 30 years on from the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody and five years since the announcement of the Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the NT.

Session 4 – Doing justice differently – what’s working and why?

This session takes a look at examples from Australia and New Zealand of better ways of doing justice. From early and holistic engagement with young people and families at the first signs of trouble, applications of restorative justice, respecting culture within the Court system, and empowering communities to determine responses to young people who offend, we unpack common elements of what works and why.

Session 5 – Leading change from the ground up

Our final session offers two inspiring stories of the change that can happen when communities come together to take action. Olabud Doogethu (Kriol for ‘All of us, together’) is WA’s first Justice Reinvestment project – a project that is successfully reducing youth offending, but more importantly, grounded in the cultural leadership of Elders from across the remote Shire of Halls Creek.

Larrakia women Mililma May and Sharna Alley co-founded Uprising of the People, a Darwin based-grassroots organisation building the movement of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people standing together against injustices in the Northern Territory. We conclude the day reflecting on the power of community and importance of solidarity.

Paul Zappa from The Men’s Project spoke to BBC about the importance of primary prevention work to engage with boys and men before anti-social behaviour and violence occurs. “Those men have done something in the community that we don't want. And still we can turn them around after the fact. So surely we can do similar things [with primary prevention]." Read the article here.

A new report by the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission has revealed a string of serious systemic issues within the Victorian prison system and must be the catalyst for reform. “This IBAC report has highlighted the urgent priority we need to place on keeping people out of prison in the first place,” says CEO Julie Edwards. Read our media release here.

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