Wantarri-tarri – the gift road

Wantarri-tarri, the milky way. It’s about learning to read the country. It’s about connections between people, right across this land. It’s about the ways we listen to story and to one another.

Bringing together Indigenous leaders and theologians, this symposium will explore the character of theological enquiry, as it emerges through narrative connections between people and country.

A partnership between the University of Divinity and the Indigenous Knowledge Institute, University of Melbourne. We also recognise the valuable support of Nungalinya College.

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Contributors

Wanta Jampijinpa Patrick is a Warlpiri elder and director of the Milpirri Festival, Lajamanu. He has led and collaborated on research projects through the Australian Research Council, which give focus to Warlpiri song, epistemology, education, the repatriation of archival records and youth engagement. He has provided policy advice on Indigenous law, education and youth matters to multiple government and industry bodies, including the Australian Government’s Indigenous Voice National Co-design Group, the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, and the Northern Territory Department of Education.

Rev. Dr Denise Champion is Theologian in Residence at the Adelaide College of Divinity. She is the first South Australian Aboriginal woman to be ordained for ministry in the Uniting Church in Australia. For decades, she has been a key leader in the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress and has exercised pastoral ministries at Port Augusta, Quorn and Salisbury North.

Rev. Glenn Loughrey is a Wiradjuri man from NSW, an Anglican Priest in the Diocese of Melbourne and Canon of St. Paul’s Cathedral, Melbourne. He is also an artist and writer, and a finalist in the Moran Portrait Prize (2018) and the Mandorla, Blake and Paddington Art prizes (2020). He has a deep commitment to exploring spirituality and its relationship to culture and identity.

Ps. Ray Minniecon is a pastor with roots in the Kabikabi and Gurang-Gurang nations of Queensland. He is a community Pastor with St. John’s Anglican Church, Glebe, where he leads the unique Scarred Tree ministry. He is also a Director of Bunji Consultancies, which supports Aboriginal leadership and business initiatives and is dedicated to supporting members of the Stolen Generations.

Rev. Dr Garry Deverell is the inaugural Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow in Indigenous Theologies at the University of Divinity. He has held the Sanderson Fellowship and a lectureship in liturgy and preaching at the Uniting Church Theological College, as well as the Turner Fellowship at Trinity College Theological School, both within the University of Divinity. He is a priest of the Anglican Diocese of Melbourne and member of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Anglican Council.

Prof. Peter Sherlock is the Vice Chancellor of the University of Divinity and an international expert on the cultural history of Renaissance and Reformation Europe, especially the commemoration of the dead and cultures of remembering and forgetting in human societies. He is the Chair of the Council of Deans of Theology (2015-), and Treasurer of the Australian and New Zealand Association for Medieval and Early Modern Studies (2014-).

Dr Samuel Curkpatrick is a Researcher and Adjunct Lecturer at Stirling Theological College, University of Divinity. His research spans issues of music, culture and theology, with specific focus given to Indigenous Australian song and philosophical issues of language and epistemology. He was a co-founding fellow of the Commonwealth Intercultural Arts Network at Cambridge University and his recent book, Singing Bones: Ancestral Creativity and Collaboration is published by Sydney University Press.