“Take our country back” is one of the catch cries for tomorrow’s March for Australia. But here’s where the premise of the march fails.
Yes, those that will march tomorrow are a part of our country, and they have the right to peacefully protest. But Australia is no more “their country” than a beautiful Nepali-born family I know serving their community in Hobart, or the Palestinian-born family serving at the canteen of their local Sydney soccer club today, or the lovely African refugee family I met in Wodonga last weekend. While there will always be a minority that keep using immigration as a wedge, the vast majority of good-hearted Australians recognise that our country has been wonderfully enriched by generations of migration.
If anyone could march under the banner of “take our country back” it could be our First Nations people. And yet humble and wise Indigenous leaders I am privileged to know and learn from, would be very uncomfortable with such a message. Their gracious invitation is for all Australians to walk together pursuing a better and just future.
The March for Australia is everything but that. It fosters racism, fear and division. It doesn’t represent the heart of “our country”, which at its best celebrates diversity, acceptance, mutual respect, compassion and opportunity.
And the best thing the vast majority of us can do is get on with living out these values in everyday life in our local communities, breaking down barriers, building bridges and modelling the generous, compassionate and welcoming ways of Jesus. There will always be those that want to build walls and close borders.
Our best response tomorrow, and the next day, and the next …. keep practicing the better way of welcome, hospitality, love, care and justice.
apilgrimpens 