Why should the Orthodox faithful be interested in things Indigenous? Why would Indigenous people be interested in Orthodoxy in the first place? These are fundamental questions – or even objections, one could say – that should be addressed if a dialogue between the two hierophanic lifeworlds is supposed to get somewhere or even start, for that matter. Firstly, they are so different from one another; secondly, they have had no interaction going on between themselves during the last one and a half centuries; and, thirdly, both would most likely have every reason not to bother about one another. Nevertheless, it is this most unlikely of relationships that might prove constructive and promising for both.
The huge Indigenous problem of Australia has a very specific genealogy: it goes back to the invasion and conquest of Indigenous lands by the British. In this regard, the dispossession and displacement of Indigenous peoples is linked to the religion of the invaders, namely, Christianity. The Indigenous trauma – a trans-generational trauma that is still very much active – has a Christian imprint. In other words, the world of Topos has been supplanted by the world of Utopia; Place has been overtaken by History; while the Dreaming has been undermined by an Omnipotent Deity. But if that is the case, then how on earth is Indigeneity supposed to find common ground with the spirit behind all the cruelty that has been perpetrated against it?
It is well known amongst scholars of Indigenous Studies that Christianity did not really appeal to Indigenous Australians and took many decades before recruiting a reasonable number of converts. Again, when this happened it was more a case of gradual inculturation or even coercion taking place on mission stations and other places controlled by the Churches. This observation is not meant as a denial of genuine Indigenous conversions; on the contrary, it is intended as a clear indicator that Indigenous people knew too well that they would eventually face their enemy's Law and religious worldview. Thus, there has always been more or less a tension in the relationship between Indigenous peoples and Christianity– a tension that Orthodoxy will unlikely escape but nonetheless has to deal with it and find way to transcend it.
Why Indigenous People Have Every Reason to Say ‘No’ to Orthodoxy
Orthodoxy and Indigeneity are virtually total strangers. There has been some interaction here and there, at the level of personal relationships, with some cases of intercultural transactions in literature and the arts – especially on the part of the Orthodox, not the Indigenous – but nothing much beyond that. Most likely Indigenous Australians would assume that Orthodoxy is just another version of white man’s religion and by extension they would just ignore or perhaps despise it. Furthermore, one might add that Orthodoxy – as a conspicuous social reality – has come too late into the Australian scene, or that now that it is here it wouldn’t make that much of a difference. Indigenous peoples, unfortunately, have already had bad experiences in relation to Christianity, while Christianity in this meta-Christian time and age of ours doesn’t seem to have much to offer any more…
Given that the cause of the Indigenous problem in Australia is so deep, it makes sense to think that Indigenous peoples wouldn’t find any solace in ‘solutions’ that are not radical; radical enough to challenge the establishment and its vested interests in this country. But does global Orthodoxy show any signs of subverting the powerful and their injustices? Why would we expect to see it acting otherwise in Australia? Or are we indeed witnessing such a challenge on its part? The honest answer is ‘no’, and so it’s like we are putting the words in the mouth of the Indigenous people ourselves: why and how would Orthodoxy possibly rectify the injustices against us, if it does not wish to clash with the powers that have created and maintain the Australian world?
Why Would the Orthodox Faithful Be Indifferent Towards Indigeneity
As a matter of fact, Orthodoxy in Australia has developed along ethnic lines, in the sense that the Church has tended very much to restrict itself to this or that ethnic minority. Apart from a certain fragmentation, this has meant that Orthodoxy has been rather parochial, culturally exclusive and introvert. To put it simply, Orthodoxy has more or less served as a means of preserving cultural and ethnic identity. Having this kind of background as your past doesn’t really open you up to the ‘other’ and the different, and this holds especially true for the Indigenous ‘other’ and the difference involved therein. Indigeneity – notwithstanding some notable exceptions – has been totally invisible, so to say, to the Orthodox and if one was to evaluate the latter’s interest in the religious life of Indigenous peoples, they would probably be disappointed as to both the ignorance and the prevailing assumptions…
Another sort of obstacle for the Orthodox with regards to knowing and understanding the hierophanics of Indigeneity relates, unfortunately, to aspects of the Orthodox self-consciousness itself. More specifically, the Orthodox faithful suffer more often than not from what I would call a superiority complex based on a perverse sense of owning the truth: because truth – and, for that matter, total truth – is on their side, what’s the use of looking for it elsewhere? This seems to be the case all the more, when the ‘elsewhere’ involves lifeworlds that have been designated primitive or uncivilised. So, there is a kind of intellectual or religious chauvinism which is endemic to Orthodox circles and hasn’t helped at all the communication of the Orthodox faith with the Indigenous religious/hierophanic perspective in general.
Why the Future Might Prove Things Otherwise
Notwithstanding the aforementioned objections, we have to acknowledge that we live in times that are both interesting and challenging. Moreover, in Australia Orthodoxy is away from its historical and/or cultural comfort zone, which means that not everything is given and thus some things have to be (re)invented from scratch. For example, Orthodoxy is not a dominant power structure and so it has to learn how to coexist with other belief-systems in a spirit of respect and, most of all, genuine equality. Being in a different spatiotemporal context, Orthodoxy needs to learn new ways of embodying and manifesting the Gospel, and one of them is the power of connection that land and place can instil in an otherwise transcendental and otherworldly hierophanic tradition.
As for Indigeneity, the historical trauma it has sustained can only be dealt with at the historical level. Nevertheless, the latter cannot be the one that caused the problem in the first place; it has to be an alternative one. In this sense, it might prove to be beneficial for Indigeneity to find in the presence of Orthodoxy the exit that will take it out of the historical impasse and nightmare that Christianity, willingly or not, threw it into… Amen!
Feature Image: Richard Campbell Gumbaynggirr/Dunghutti Elder renowned religious artist and artist of the Aboriginal Stations of the Cross.
ABOUT | INSIGHTS INTO GLOBAL ORTHODOXY with Dr Vassilis Adrahtas
"Insights into Global Orthodoxy" is a weekly column that features opinion articles that on the one hand capture the pulse of global Orthodoxy from the perspective of local sensitivities, needs and/or limitations, and on the other hand delve into the local pragmatics and significance of Orthodoxy in light of global trends and prerogatives.
Dr Vassilis Adrahtas holds a PhD in Studies in Religion (USyd) and a PhD in the Sociology of Religion (Panteion). He has taught at several universities in Australia and overseas. Since 2015 he has been teaching ancient Greek Religion and Myth at the University of New South Wales and Islamic Studies at Western Sydney University. He has published ten books. He has extensive experience in the print media as editor-in-chief, and columnist, and for a while he worked as a radio producer. He lives in Sydney, Australia, his birthplace.
