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Over the years MRA - now Initiatives of Change - has developed into an active international network of people from many cultures and creeds, races and nationalities, across the generations. In this Australia-Pacific region many people have participated. Here are just a few...
Forty years ago, Margaret Tucker - described in The Canberra Times as "one of Australia's earliest and most notable Aboriginal activists" - was shaken when a woman at an MRA meeting in Melbourne apologised to her for white domination. Soon after Mrs Tucker went to Atlanta, Georgia to support an MRA action during the early stages of the civil rights movement in America. It was, she said, the turning point of her life. Mrs Tucker's book If Everyone Cared, was the first autobiography by one of the "stolen generations". First published by Ure Smith in 1977 it has been reprinted ten times by Grosvenor Books, IofC's publishing house in Australia.
"A lot of years have been wasted, but with a new spirit, our people who have lost all could learn to live straight and give something to the whole of humanity... I don't forget what has happened since Captain Cook landed in Australia... We may not forget; but we can forgive. Call it what you like, but deep in my heart I do believe in the Holy Spirit - the Good Spirit, that has neither hate, bitterness, class or creed. It is not the colour of one's skin that matters, it is character."
Ramphay Chittasy, a Laotian refugee and mother of three, is committed with her husband Chanthanith to Lao community projects in Sydney:
"I was made homeless in 1975, and felt like a lost soul. Where could I put my roots down to grow deep?.. I looked everywhere. But my home was in my heart... Each of us has a unique inner gift. We need to express our uniqueness in our contribution. I have learnt that through working as a team trust comes.”
Dr Kim E Beazley, AO, pictured here with his wife Betty, was Minister for Education in the Whitlam government. Early in his political career he faced a turning point. At an MRA world assembly in Switzerland, he was challenged to seek God's guidance, having "nothing to prove, nothing to justify and nothing to gain for yourself." It was "a shockingly subversive thing to say to someone in politics," admitted Beazley. But he took it seriously. At the end of his 33 years in Parliament he said:
"I've become convinced that this question of motive is the key to social truth. If your motive is the truth, you will be fit for power... There is sanity from the Holy Spirit beyond human ideas of justice. The thoughts of God, given primacy in the life of a man, bring to the innermost motives the virtue of mercy, and with it the cure for hatred that can turn the tide of history. This is the essence of intelligent statesmanship."
East Timorese Australian David Lih, who works in the telecommunications industry, consciously chose to study Indonesian:
"One thing I have learned is not to judge a whole race by the actions of a few. Once, when I felt hate boiling up inside me I went to some of my Indonesia friends and told them straight. They were very understanding...
To the Indonesian people, I have nothing to forgive. To the military and the militias, to say that I have forgiven completely may not be realistic, but I am working on it."
A Fijian chief, Ratu Meli Vesikula, was a militant leader of the movement which supported the 1987 coup. As he said later, Fiji was filled "with pure unadulterated hatred". A challenge came from an unexpected source. He decided to "put God to the test... to listen seriously". His first step was in his own home, where he "wore the rank of regimental sergeant major". Apologising to his wife and family was hard enough. But then, at an MRA meeting in Fiji, he saw God's call to apologise to his Indian-Fijian compatriots.
"I said, 'My brothers and sisters, this morning I have a task which cannot wait... I want to say sorry for everything I have done on behalf of my people that has brought so much suffering and heartache to you. I hope you will find enough love left in your hearts to forgive me.
"Now, 14 years on, my heart cries out once more to my Indian brothers and sisters: will you please forgive us for the terrible wrongs we have committed against you? We were wrong to use you as scapegoats; yet you did not retaliate. Whilst we don't deserve it, I count on your forgiveness to pave the way to true reconciliation and unity."
Having grown up in war-torn Lebanon Naim Melhem now sees former enemies working together in Greater Dandenong, the most multicultural community in Victoria. At a workshop on "A different dynamic for the working world" convened by MRA in Melbourne, Melhem described how as mayor he had launched a community initiative to save 17,000 jobs in the rolling stock industry in his city and region.
"So how do you build a community? Well, it comes with teamwork, consultation, understanding and caring. We are moving away from the old world idea - that somehow ethnic groups, or disabled people, or people from Aboriginal backgrounds are the ones who are different - to a position which acknowledges that we are all different. Diversity is all about thinking of people as 'us' and not as 'them'."
Malaysian manager of a timber company in eastern Papua New Guinea, Joseph Wong came with a group from the Milne Bay district to an MRA conference in Sydney in 1999. He spoke there of the exploitation of many overseas companies, and how he had divested 65 per cent of the shares in his company to land owners and local people. At that conference he decided to make further radical changes to his business practices. Returning to Australia a year later, he spoke on "Transparency - a key to trust and efficiency," relating how he decided to repay the PNG government more than 1.5 million Kina ($850,000) in unpaid taxes. As a result, a national enquiry was launched into the conduct of PNG's timber industry. More recently he has been running a logging company in the Solomon Islands along principles of transparency, local participation and sustainable development.
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