Country, Faith & Hope

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The Anglican Parish of Avon gathers for worship, fellowship and service across the communities of Stratford, Munro, Briagolong and Dargo, on the lands and waters of the Gunaikurnai people.

We acknowledge the Gunaikurnai people as the Traditional Owners and Custodians of the lands and waters on which the Parish of Avon gathers.

We honour their Elders past and present, and recognise their continuing connection to Country, culture and community. We honour their children and future generations, in whom their stories, culture and hopes for the future continue.

As people of faith, we commit ourselves to walking together in respect, truth, reconciliation and hope.

For countless generations before the establishment of our churches and communities, the Gunaikurnai people have lived upon, cared for and maintained deep relationships with the lands and waters we now call Gippsland.

The places in which our parish gathers form part of this continuing story of Country. Stratford stands on Brayakaulung Country, while the wider geography of the parish reaches from the Avon River and Gippsland plains towards the foothills and High Country.

We recognise that relationships with Country, including the traditional lands of particular clans, are matters best spoken of by Traditional Owners themselves. We therefore seek to listen and learn rather than presume to tell their story for them.

For us, an Acknowledgement of Country is not simply a civic convention or a set of words to be said at the beginning of an occasion.

It arises from our Christian faith.

Scripture teaches us that:

“The earth is the Lord's and all that is in it.”
Psalm 24.1

We believe creation is God's gift and that human beings are entrusted with its care. We also believe that truth matters, that every person bears the image of God, and that in Christ we are called towards reconciliation, with God and with one another.

Acknowledging Country therefore begins with something quite simple: telling the truth about where we are and honouring those whose relationship with this Country reaches back countless generations.

It does not require us to surrender our Christian understanding of God or to speak on behalf of another people's spirituality. Rather, our Christian faith gives us good reason to listen, to respect, to seek truth and to work towards right relationship with our neighbours.

Our acknowledgement deliberately looks both backwards and forwards.

We honour Elders past, remembering those who have cared for Country and passed culture, knowledge and story from one generation to another.

We honour Elders present, recognising that Gunaikurnai culture and community are living realities today.

And we honour children and future generations, because acknowledgement should not only concern what has been. It should also express hope for what can yet be.

As Christians, hope is central to our understanding of the world. We inherit much from those who have gone before us, but we also carry responsibilities towards those who will come after us.

Our prayer is that today's children, First Nations and non-Indigenous alike, may inherit relationships characterised increasingly by truth, respect, justice, friendship and hope.

Words matter, but words by themselves are not reconciliation.

An Acknowledgement of Country invites us to remain curious: to learn something of the Country on which we live, to hear the voices and stories of its Traditional Owners, to acknowledge painful parts of our shared history, and to recognise the continuing presence, culture and contribution of First Nations people today.

For the Parish of Avon, we hope our acknowledgement encourages relationship rather than ritual, listening rather than assumption, and hope rather than division.

We recognise that our understanding will continue to grow. We may not always find the perfect words, and the words we use today may change as relationships deepen and we learn from one another.

That, too, is part of walking together.