By Parker McKenzie
The Hills Walk Together Project and Tecoma Uniting Church will host an event to help Dandenong Ranges residents learn and listen to Indigenous experiences.
Creating-Connections – New Ways to Walk Together will feature a presentation by Reverend Canon Glenn Loughrey, a Wiradjuri man and Anglican Priest, and children’s activities led by Gunai Kurnai woman and First Nations Educator Emmy Webbers.
Rev. Canon Loughrey said he became involved when The Hills Walk Together founder Shakti McLaren contacted him to take part.
“The morning will just be an introduction to myself and some questions and answers. People can ask the questions that they really want to get answers to, which I may or may not be able to give them,” he said.
“In the afternoon I’m talking about coloniality and decoloniality, about how do we go about delinking ourselves from an underlying sense of coloniality, colonial thinking, perennial ways of being so that we can allow for other voices, other attitudes and other ideas.
“This particular group has local elders come and speak to it on a regular basis, they have really good connections with local elders, and they do things with them, there will be, as I understand it, elders there on the day.”
The Hills Reconciliation Group created the Hills Walk Together as their first project after forming in 2021. The group hopes to facilitate creative, compassionate activities and experiences to help develop a deeper sensitivity and understanding of First Nations peoples.
Rev. Canon Loughrey said the Dandenong Ranges is no different from anywhere else in Australia in terms of coloniality.
“It’s embedded in the systems that we all live in,” he said.
“We think we have one language, we have one source of education which comes out of Western Europe and the classics, and we have one economic system which comes out of the expansion out of Europe in the 15th century.”
Rev. Canon Loughrey, who was the first Aboriginal canon of St Paul Cathedral in Melbourne, said a common ground between his Indigenous spirituality is an understanding that there is something much bigger at play than our own individual self.
“The easy option would be to leave the church, but somehow I find myself in this place,” he said.
“I try and bridge the gap. It’s not always easy to do that.”
A welcome to Country and Smoking Ceremony by Stacie Nich-Piper will be held after the morning event.
The event will be held at The Tecoma United Church, 1566 Burwood Highway Tecoma on June 26 from 10am to 3pm.
The morning event at 10am is free and booking isn’t required but attendees should RSVP to office@tecomauc.org.au.
Bookings are required for the afternoon event at 12pm, with tickets costing $10. They can be booked online at www.trybooking.com/events/landing?eid=905105&
