Catholic Communications, Sydney Archdiocese REPORT
4 Sep 2012
On his first visit to Australia, Cardinal Rodriguez Maradiaga, President of Caritas Internationalis, the international aid and development arm of the Catholic Church spent three days at Alice Springs meeting with Aboriginal communities and spending time at the Purple House, a unique medical service managed and operated by the Western Desert Nganampa Walytija Palyantijaku Tjutaku Aboriginal Corporation.
The Purple House provides Indigenous people in Alice Springs as well as those in remote communities with a renal facility as well as nutritional and traditional bush medicine programs.
In addition the Aboriginal-run Corporation operates a Wellbeing Project, which is funded and supported by Caritas Australia and builds on the Purple House's dialysis services by offering meaningful employment and income for dialysis patients through the production and sale of traditional bush balms.
"The work provides cultural and healing benefits to patients who greatly value their link to Aboriginal traditional medicine," Jack de Groot, CEO of Caritas Australia explained to Cardinal Maradiaga.
The Honduran-born Cardinal, who is also Archbishop of Tegucigalpa, has been in Australia for just over two weeks, during which time he visited Melbourne, Sydney and Alice Springs.
Fascinated by Australia's first people and their culture, the chief of Caritas Internationalis was keen to learn more and spoke about many of his experiences in Alice Springs the following weekend when he launched Caritas Australia's Walk As One: Connecting with Indigenous Peoples campaign.
In Alice Springs accompanied by Jack de Groot and the Bishop of Darwin, the Most Rev Eugene Hurley, he spent time with staff and patients at the Purple House and inspected the Purple Bus which is used as a mobile renal facility to provide medical care to remote communities. The bus also enables patients undergoing dialysis to have the procedure in their own communities surrounded by family and friends.
The Purple House and Purple Bus are part of a holistic program offering emotional and psychosocial support as well as treating physical conditions. Mr de Groot told the Cardinal that the Aboriginal Corporation's trained staff and volunteers were all from Aboriginal communities in the area.
During his three-day visit to Alice Springs, the Caritas Internationalis chief also had a chance to meet with Andrea Mason, coordinator for the Ngaanyatjarra Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (NPY) Women's Council which Caritas Australia has helped fund and support since 1995. Over many years, NPY has successfully empowered women to turnaround many adverse community issues such as domestic violence, alcoholism and the high rates of male imprisonment.
One of NPY's most successful programs involves the Tjanpi Desert Weavers. Supported by Caritas Australia, the 300 traditional weavers from 28 communities in Central Australia, maintain their ancient art of weaving grasses. Tjanpi staff also travel throughout the region conducting grass weaving workshops to give Indigenous women across the region the skills to collect and dye grasses and to weave them into baskets and sculptures to sell which not only promotes their art but gives them an income.
The group of Tjanpi Desert Weavers were among the more than 200 who attended the launch of Australian Caritas' Walk for One campaign. A two day forum of speakers, panels and workshops held at St Aloysisus College, Milson's Point on the weekend of 25 and 26 August opened the campaign and was designed to showcase the diverse cultures, languages and traditions of many of the world's indigenous peoples.
In his keynote address at the forum, Cardinal Maradiaga spoke of his time in Alice Springs and meeting with Australia's first people and also talked of other indigenous peoples who live in 90 different nations across the world. Among these peoples are Greenland's Inuits, the Hmong of Thailand, Laos and Myanmar, the Ixcatecs of Mexico and Borneo's Dayaks. But while indigenous peoples comprise only 370 million of the world's population of 7 billion, they account for a staggering 15% of its poor.
Not only are indigenous peoples among the world's most disadvantaged and marginalised but the majority of them are right on our doorstep in Asia, Cardinal Maradiaga said describing the recent economic growth in Asia as impressive but uneven.
"Not enough of the economic prosperity is reaching the poorest people," the Cardinal said adding that despite Asia now being home to the world's fastest growing economies it remained home to nearly half the world's poor with half a billion Asians still lacking access to safe drinking water.
"But we are all one human family. All people are created by God. He gave all of them a life with an inalienable dignity and His love is there for all. For us as Christians it goes without saying that we help Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and people of all faiths who are in need."
To find out more about Caritas Australia's Walk as One campaign, sign the petition to call on the Government to prioritise indigenous peoples in its foreign aid program as well as resources including liturgy for parishes and schools, log on to http://www.caritas.org.au/act/walk-as-one-indigenous-peoples-campaign
4 Sep 2012
Cardinal Maradiaga President of Caritas Internationalis at the Sydney launch of Walk as One
The Purple House provides Indigenous people in Alice Springs as well as those in remote communities with a renal facility as well as nutritional and traditional bush medicine programs.
In addition the Aboriginal-run Corporation operates a Wellbeing Project, which is funded and supported by Caritas Australia and builds on the Purple House's dialysis services by offering meaningful employment and income for dialysis patients through the production and sale of traditional bush balms.
"The work provides cultural and healing benefits to patients who greatly value their link to Aboriginal traditional medicine," Jack de Groot, CEO of Caritas Australia explained to Cardinal Maradiaga.
Cardinal Maradiaga meets staff and patients of the Purple House at Alice Springs
Fascinated by Australia's first people and their culture, the chief of Caritas Internationalis was keen to learn more and spoke about many of his experiences in Alice Springs the following weekend when he launched Caritas Australia's Walk As One: Connecting with Indigenous Peoples campaign.
In Alice Springs accompanied by Jack de Groot and the Bishop of Darwin, the Most Rev Eugene Hurley, he spent time with staff and patients at the Purple House and inspected the Purple Bus which is used as a mobile renal facility to provide medical care to remote communities. The bus also enables patients undergoing dialysis to have the procedure in their own communities surrounded by family and friends.
The Purple House and Purple Bus are part of a holistic program offering emotional and psychosocial support as well as treating physical conditions. Mr de Groot told the Cardinal that the Aboriginal Corporation's trained staff and volunteers were all from Aboriginal communities in the area.
During his three-day visit to Alice Springs, the Caritas Internationalis chief also had a chance to meet with Andrea Mason, coordinator for the Ngaanyatjarra Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (NPY) Women's Council which Caritas Australia has helped fund and support since 1995. Over many years, NPY has successfully empowered women to turnaround many adverse community issues such as domestic violence, alcoholism and the high rates of male imprisonment.
Cardinal Maradiaga with the Purple Bus a mobile renal unit that visits remote Indigenous communities
The group of Tjanpi Desert Weavers were among the more than 200 who attended the launch of Australian Caritas' Walk for One campaign. A two day forum of speakers, panels and workshops held at St Aloysisus College, Milson's Point on the weekend of 25 and 26 August opened the campaign and was designed to showcase the diverse cultures, languages and traditions of many of the world's indigenous peoples.
In his keynote address at the forum, Cardinal Maradiaga spoke of his time in Alice Springs and meeting with Australia's first people and also talked of other indigenous peoples who live in 90 different nations across the world. Among these peoples are Greenland's Inuits, the Hmong of Thailand, Laos and Myanmar, the Ixcatecs of Mexico and Borneo's Dayaks. But while indigenous peoples comprise only 370 million of the world's population of 7 billion, they account for a staggering 15% of its poor.
Wellbeing Project trainee Cassandra Stewart shows the Cardinal traditional bush balm medicines
"Not enough of the economic prosperity is reaching the poorest people," the Cardinal said adding that despite Asia now being home to the world's fastest growing economies it remained home to nearly half the world's poor with half a billion Asians still lacking access to safe drinking water.
"But we are all one human family. All people are created by God. He gave all of them a life with an inalienable dignity and His love is there for all. For us as Christians it goes without saying that we help Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and people of all faiths who are in need."
To find out more about Caritas Australia's Walk as One campaign, sign the petition to call on the Government to prioritise indigenous peoples in its foreign aid program as well as resources including liturgy for parishes and schools, log on to http://www.caritas.org.au/act/walk-as-one-indigenous-peoples-campaign
SHARED FROM ARCHDIOCESE OF SYDNEY
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