Aboriginal Ministry in South Australia

Aboriginal Ministry South Australia

Aboriginal Ministry South Australia is the Branch for Aboriginal Mission in South Australia. It is involved with Aboriginal people in both rural and urban communities. Ceduna is the base for the Far West Coast Aboriginal Ministry. Pastor Malcolm Pech serves the school and church in Ceduna as well as the congregation at Koonibba (40 km west) and the preaching place at Scottdesco (100km west). A lay worker and an Aboriginal pastor currently serve the communities at Yalata (210 km west of Ceduna) and Oak Valley (100 km north west of Maralinga in the Great Victorian Desert). On Eyre Peninsula there are Lutheran ministries in the regional centres at Port Lincoln, Whyalla, and Port Augusta. Aboriginal Ministry South Australia's focus in the greater Adelaide area is at the western suburb of Ferryden Park.

Support Aboriginal Ministry South Australia

Become a Friend of Aboriginal Ministry South Australia and learn more about the people they support, their special projects and their fund raising activities. An annual Aboriginal Ministry South Australia subscription of $20 includes the receipt of a regular copy of the Wang-ga* newsletter. Concession rate $10.

Consider a Gift Subscription a friend or relative.

Contact: Aboriginal Ministry South Australia, c/- 137 Archer Street, North Adelaide SA 5006 or email administration@sa.lca.org.au

* Wang-ga is the Kaurna word for" talk". Gugatha and Wirangu also have the same word. In Pitjantjatjara the widely used word is wangka, with an almost identical pronunciation.

Snippets from recent issues of Wang-ga

Stories of Early Koonibba by Pearl Coleman and Joyce Binell

'We used to travel to Billama (Davenport Creek) by four big draught horses pulling a big German trolley with timbers and wheat bags and tin to make shelter. We used to sew bags together for tents and wind- breaks. That was during school holidays. When holidays was finished we'd go back to Mission.

There was about 4 or 5 camps made. Girls' tents one side and boys' further away. We used to get up early in the morning to get cockles. One day we never had anything to eat, Unga (uncle) Edmund Bilney and Jim Brown used to go in a boat across to Nadia to get whatever we run out of like jam, sugar: fat. We used to eat 'shag' meat (cormorant). We used to grab minya (little) fishmuga (lots of fish) from the pot holes, big mob of fish, 100 tommies, but there's big sharks now. It was lovely swimming there.

'We used to sit down and wait for the waves to go over us. Good old times we had there, running off over the beach. Pastor used to come and give us church there."

Oak Valley - The Living Desert by Dean Heyne

The Living Desert Lutheran Church in Oak Valley is situated 320km north-west of the Yalata Community. Oak Valley is home to 120 Anangu people who have returned to their homeland, having previously been dispossessed of their land to allow a nuclear bomb testing program to occur at Maralinga in the 1950s.

There are two basic reasons why the name 'Living Desert' was chosen. The desert lies dry and dormant until good rains rejuvenate both the plant and animal life into a profusion of movement, noise and colour - a reminder that God alone in his mercy offers true life. Secondly, having learned about Jesus during their stay at Yalata, this Jesus has returned with them in their hearts to give them new life, both in their desert and their life to come.

Our Identity by Neva Wilson

I began my research for this recently published book [Our Identity is our History and our Future] in 1989 after I had been employed by the South Australian Museum. I had been working with the Norman Tindale and J. B. Birdsesll collections of photographs and genealogies. It was decided to publish a book that would give this information, relating to Aboriginal relationships and identity, back to the Aboriginal people.

My main interest was with the people of the west-coast of South Australia, which included the Aboriginal tribes that lived and associated with each other in that area over many years. They met often at Ooldea Soak, which provided them with water during the dry season.

They were mainly the people then living at Ooldea Soak country from the edge of the Nullarbor Plain. There were various tribes such as, Kokatha (also known as the Gawler Range tribe); Wirangu, Mirning (or Ngandatha), Ngalea, Antakirinja, Pangkala, Nauo, Jangkundjara. This also included several tribes from over the border of Western Australia. These tribes were brought together at Yalata, Colona and then at Koonibba Mission.

I found that many of these people had married into each other’s tribes and therefore many of their descendants were of mixed tribal groupings.

Why I am researching Aboriginal Ministry in the LCA by Rev Peter Pfitzner

The issue of music and Aboriginal spirituality is an intriguing one. When I first arrived at Ceduna and encountered the Aboriginal preference for country music, I was disappointed. 'This isn't Lutheran hymnody!' I told myself, but there was no denying the popularity of Johnny Cash and his ilk at funerals, services on the homelands communities, and fellowship evenings, whether at camps or in homes around Ceduna.
As I was driving people home in the bus after one such evening of singing, one of the women said to me, 'This is Aboriginal way, Pastor. You can feel the Spirit in that music.'

But with people from Central Australia I noticed a commitment to both traditions.
My first experience of this was with a busload of pastors and evangelists from Papunya, Haasts Bluff, Kintore and Mt Liebig in Central Australia. They had organised themselves into a travelling Gospel band, hired themselves a bus and driver, and were doing a southern tour, taking in Ceduna, Koonibba and Yalata. Every night they were playing first class country style backing to their songs in Pintubi/Luritja, with one or two in English or Pitjantjatjara.

Since they were returning to Ceduna for the weekend, I invited them to provide the music for our Sunday morning service, which they agreed to do. But there must have been a misunderstanding, because when they realised this was to be a regular service, to my surprise, they packed their instruments away and filed into the pews!

Through attending FRM's Christian Leaders' training camps I've since learnt that the Central Australian people preserve a sharp distinction between inma and hymn singing. Anything involving hymns is done without instrumental accompaniment, and is kept separate from country style music.

I saw this again when I was at Haasts Bluff for the Christian Leaders' Training in September 2001. Inma, backed by the Gospel band, were held outside the church building every night. They included Scripture readings and sermons.
But each afternoon we sang hymns down on the riverbed unaccompanied, and at the closing service with communion in the church we also sang hymns unaccompanied. I hypothesise that this reflects a feature of Aboriginal culture: ceremonies remain constant because this is how traditions and memories are preserved. Since this style of hymn singing has come down from previous generations, it's not appropriate to change it.