Indigenous Spirituality and Christianity

Introduction

In March 2025, St Lucia Spirituality hosted a presentation from Rev Canon Dr Garry Deverell, a trawloolway man from northern lutruwita/Tasmania and Anglican priest. Garry explained that for Indigenous Australians, spirituality is about the most basic building blocks of life: country, kin and the practice of ritual story-telling that weave past, present and the future living together in a web sometimes referred to as the ‘dreaming’. Garry expanded on each of these building blocks:

Country. A fundamental basis is our relationship with the land of our ancestors. The first thing our people ask is ‘Where is your country? Where is your sea? These represent a place of sacred communion with our ancestors in which we learn both who we are and what our unique vocation or responsibility in the world might be.

Kin. The second question we ask is ‘Who are your mob? When I am asked, I say ‘I belong to the trawloolway pairebeenener mob in trouwerner (Tasmania). There is a second meaning of kin which is deeply connected with the spirituality of land. We believe that our country is still filled with the presence of the ancestor-creators who formed it a long time ago. We also regard all that is alive as our kin, our family. For we are descendants of those ancestor-creators. We are their offspring. That is why whenever we approach a new place we talk to the spiritual presences, the ancestor-creators for permission to cross that country and for their protection while we are there.  

The Dreaming. The dreaming is not about the past, it is everywhere and always present, in the living things all around and like the breath in our own nostrils; it is the past rendered meaningful, a future full of promise and a present aflame with life in all its fullness. The dreaming is nothing less in fact than the divine Spirit acting in and through the world as body, materiality, lore, flesh.

Common elements with Christianity

Christianity has traditionally been a colonising religion imposing its beliefs and understanding of the divine on the conquered. The near extermination of the Aboriginals in Tasmania and elsewhere has not demonstrated the love of neighbour preached by Jesus.

Garry elaborated on the practice of welcome to country, commonly badly expressed and inadequately understood. Much can be gained from a respectful exchange of knowledge and views. Then, rather than having one view dominant as colonisation has demanded, an increased appreciation of the underlying elements of Indigenous and Christian spirituality will be mutually beneficial.

During his presentation, Garry addressed the complementarity of Indigenous and Christian spirituality. He discussed the significance of sacred texts and landscapes in Aboriginal and Christian traditions. He proposed an analogy between Christ and country from the Aboriginal perspective, emphasizing that these two traditions can interact and share wisdom. Garry outlined five key ways to think about this connection: Christ as the cosmos, Christ as a seed, Christ as staple food and drink, Christ as ancestral voice, and Christ as teaching custodian. He also suggested implications for Christian liturgy and ethics on country, including for example, naming Creator ancestors in liturgy and animal neighbours in prayers.

In their recent books, Catholic theologians Elizabeth Johnson and Ilia Delio have pointed out that in the expression “love your neighbour as yourself”, neighbour includes all sentient beings and inanimate objects. This builds upon similar theology in Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical ‘Laudato Si’. While Garry stressed that Indigenous spirituality is practical, his presentation indicated an awareness of a higher level of consciousness than that commonly reflected in Christian discourse and practice.

It seems the Church is re-defining the scope of Jesus’ teaching and at the same time catching up with ancient Indigenous wisdom!

The way forward

In 2017, the Uluru Statement from the Heart led to the failed attempt to provide a constitutional Voice for Indigenous Australians in the 2023 referendum. Unfortunately, the debate leading up to the referendum did nothing to help “close the gap” and the result provided an excuse for some governments to scale back previous plans for truth telling and treaty.

Little has been written about why the referendum failed, however, truth telling should have come first to educate the public about the history of colonial conquest and the ongoing discrimination against our Indigenous brothers and sisters.

Indigenous reconciliation is important for Australia. Education and examining the issues from the others’ perspective is critical to success. The descendants of white colonialists need to undergo a metanoia in the interests of building a better Australia. In this context, the lyrics of the Seekers song "I Am Australian" (partially reproduced here) can inspire us:

I came from the Dreamtime,

From the dusty red soil plains.

I am the ancient heart,

The keeper of the flames.

I stood upon the rocky shores,

I watched the tall ships come,

For 40,000 years, I'd been the first Australian.

We are one, but we are many,

And from all the lands on Earth we come,

We share a dream, and sing with one voice,

I am, you are, we are Australian.

Conclusion

From Garry’s presentation, it became clear that Indigenous spirituality operates at a high level of cosmic consciousness, and we found his presentation stimulating. Garry has written three books and participated in two impressive interviews on the Soul Search podcast, links are available on our web site where we also discuss the importance of consciousness in spirituality. We have much to learn from Indigenous spirituality.