Reconciliation week Commemoration

We will open our hearts to the cries of the poor using our energies, gifts and resources to address violence and discrimination especially for women and children, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples...
 (Chapter Statement)

 The Sisters of Mercy Parramatta held a Reconciliation Week morning tea and film meeting this week with the focus on the Uluru Statement from the Heart. It was small but informative and enjoyable, thanks largely to a delicious morning tea of sandwiches, cakes and fruit from Sr Pat Tully. By happy coincidence the meeting happened on the day the Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) opened its first page with a beautiful photo of Uluru and launched a campaign for constitutional recognition for Indigenous Australians. The articles there are well worth reading.

Two of the writers in the SMH, Professor Megan Davis and Mr Dean Parkin, featured in the films we watched and their invitation to the people of Australia to walk with them on a path towards a more spiritually generous and inclusive nation at peace with itself touched everyone present. We pledged ourselves to take up the journey with them and to work for the inclusion of a Voice in our Constitution and a Makarrata commission for Treaty and Truth-telling, so that finally, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples may find their rightful place in our nation. We look forward to joining the campaign.

The following is the Sisters’ public declaration of their support for the Uluru Statement From the Heart