Social Justice Calendar - August 2002

Aug. 6 Hiroshima Day
Each year, the world is reminded of this day when an atomic bomb was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, resulting in great suffering and destruction.

Reflection

Sadako Sasaki was two years old when the atomic bomb fell about two kilometres from her home in the city of Hiroshima. She was neither burned nor injured at the time, but ten years later became ill with leukaemia. When a friend sent a paper crane in the mail, she decided to make a thousand paper cranes. By the time she died, she had folded 644 paper cranes. For Sadako, the simple gesture of folding paper into a bird was symbolic of a prayer for peace.

Action

Create a symbol that reminds you of peace. Place it where you will see it often.

Aug. 9 International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples

Reflection

At the beginning of time, as God’s Spirit moved over the waters, he began to communicate something of his goodness and beauty to all creation...For thousands of years you have lived in this land and fashioned a culture that endures to this day. And during all this time, the Spirit of God has been with you. Your “Dreaming”, which influences your lives so strongly that, no matter what happens, you remain for ever people of your culture, is your own way of touching the mystery of God’s Spirit in you and in creation. For thousands of years this culture of yours was free to grow without interference by people from other places. You lived your lives in spiritual closeness to the land, with its animals, birds, fishes, water-holes, rivers, hills and mountains. Through your closeness to the land you touched the sacredness of man’s relationship with God, for the land was the proof of a power in life greater than yourselves. You did not spoil the land, use it up, exhaust it, and then walk away from it. You realised that your land was related to the source of life. Pope John Paul II Speaking to Aboriginal People, Alice Springs, 29/9/86

Aug. 16 Traditional land returned to Gurindji People
Aboriginal workers on Wave Hill Station which was owned by the British meat company, Vestey, went on strike on August 22, 1966, in protest against the low pay ($6 per week), poor working conditions (12 hour day, 7 days per week) and abusive treatment they were receiving. They moved to their traditional land at Daguragu (Wattie Creek), resisting all attempts to move them, defying white law and following their own. On April 19, 1967, the Gurindji People, led by Vincent Lingiari, presented a petition to the Governor General, Lord Casey, seeking adequate pay and conditions, access to educational and medical facilities and control and ownership of their traditional lands.

The strike turned into a nine year struggle focussed on land rights. On August 16, 1975, Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, handed back to Vincent Lingiari the crown lease to 3000 sq km of Gurindji land at Daguragu. Ten years later, after the passage of the Northern Territory Land Rights Act, the Gurindji people gained full rights to their land.

Aug. 25 Refugee and Migrant Sunday

Prayer

Prayer for Asylum Seekers Lord, No one is a stranger to you and no one is ever far from your loving care. In your kindness watch over refugees and asylum seekers, those separated from their loved ones, those who are lost, and those who have been exiled from their homes. Bring them safely to the place where they long to be, and help us always to show your kindness to strangers and those in need. ACSJC Prayer Card

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