INAUGURAL Laurel Blow Speaker Series presenter Aunty Evelyn Parkin said she found her spirituality in moments of silence in churches and in nature.
Aunty Parkin said her mum nurtured her Christianity, saying she was a “woman of action”.
A priest would drive up once a month to offer Mass when she was young, and her mum would take her along, while other days they would go on long bush walks.
“Walking in the bush and taking notes of all the plants and little insects and blossoms… just following mum, she was always up the front and the children would be behind her, taking notice of things,” she said.
“It was in that silence that I learned about the Spirit.”
She said silence and stillness, especially in nature, were essential parts of her journey with Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
Aunty Parkin’s talk weaved stories from her past and from her ancestors to draw out profound, sometimes painful, aspects of the struggle and convergence of Christian and Aboriginal spirituality.
She said there were threads of the Holy Spirit working through ancestral stories and customs.
Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge said listening to Indigenous Australians was essential on the journey of reconciliation.
“Not only to listen, but to listen in a way that believes that we can and must learn something from them,” he said.
“There is no question that Evelyn Parkin and others… can teach us a great deal of what it means to be Australian and indeed what it means to be human.”
The Laurel Blow Speaker Series is a project of Evangelisation Brisbane’s Inclusion team.
You can register your interest for future events at https://evangelisationbrisbane.org.au/inclusion/reconciliation-action-plan/
