Palm Sunday Walk for Justice for Refugees
We pay our respects to the First Peoples of this nation especially the Wurunjeri People who have cared for this land for so long. And greetings to the rest of us, later arrivals in this great southern land. In many instances we or our forebears came here as refugees, fleeing persecution or starvation or war, seeking a new life and opportunity in this country.
On the original Palm Sunday Walk Jesus came in peace into Jerusalem. The crowd were noisy and his opponents told him to make them be quiet. He replied ‘if my followers were silent the very stones would shout out’. We’re here today to makes some noise for justice for refugees!
We’re here today to acknowledge the current trickle, not a flood, of displaced and desperate people seeking to come here. Most of them are fleeing persecution and danger. They have a right which we as a nation have recognised in international agreements, to seek safety in this land.
We are here too to reclaim our humanity as a nation. To call for a reversal of the current trajectory into selfishness, mean-spiritedness and inhumanity. It’s encouraging to see so many, from such a cross-section of our community, united in humanitarian concern. A dimension of this movement is protest and resistance, but motivating that is a shared vision of what this nation can be.
46 years ago last week MLK took to the streets in the name of justice for the last time. His movement of protest and resistance was fuelled by a vision, a dream of hope and possibility. Just prior to his great ‘I have a dream speech’ in 1960 he said ‘It may well be that the negro is God’s instrument to save the soul of America’. Alongside our response to the First Australians, our response to the international refugee crisis might just be the path by which the soul of this nation might be saved. Today we are at a critical point in our nation’s life and our response to asylum seekers has become a moral litmus test, a heart check, a soul audit. Frankly, the signs aren’t good.
In the current dispensation, shame on the current government and shame on the previous government, policies of deprivation and punishment have taken the place of our obligations, legal and moral, of protection and care. Why is this OK? It’s not OK! Shame on the current government. And shame on the previous government.
How can our leaders claim the high moral ground when they deliberately place people in situations of harm in order to send a message to someone else? Ethics 101 – a clear fail.
I’ve been to Christmas Island twice, it’s bad enough. I felt ashamed. Nauru and Manus take this systematic dehumanising to the next level. They should be closed forthwith and asylum seeker claims be assessed within the community.
Now we are negotiating with Cambodia for crying out loud, as if they don’t have enough challenges of their own. Refugees present a massive international challenge and justice demands that wealthy countries like this do their fair share.
The policy of keeping asylum seekers offshore and remote is about ‘out of sight out of mind’. Well, we’re here to say that are in our sight and minds and so are our political leaders. Our leaders must take note of the growing groundswell represented here and at similar events around the country. Help restore an Australia we can be proud of. Pitch to our best selves rather than to our fearful selves. Close the detention centres, off shore and onshore. Don’t deport people back into danger. Increase the intake of refugees.
Let’s not be silent. To conclude with a word from Martin Luther King:
‘Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter’.
Let’s keep raising our voices in welcome to asylum seekers and in advocacy on their behalf.
Rev Alistair Macrae
Wesley Uniting Church Melbourne