Indigenous Canadian Delegation has Shabbat in Newtown during their Whirlwind Tour of Australia
by Ilan Harris
Newtown Synagogue in Sydney’s Inner-West welcomed a delegation of Indigenous Canadian community leaders during their tour of Australia speaking on issues effecting Indigenous people. The shul was honoured to host the only public event of the tour, which featured dialogues with First Nations Australians and non-Indigenous Australians in numerous Australian communities.
Esteemed Biripi elder, Aunty Alice (Ali) Golding was also in attendance, having had participated in the program earlier in the day when the tour group had a meeting with the Women’s Reconciliation Network. Aboriginal leader William Cooper’s great great grandson Michael McDonogh made his third visit to the shul and during the dinner recited a short poem he had written on the treatment of Aboriginal serviceman during and after World War I.
The Canadian delegation came to Australia as part of Initiatives of Change, a movement with participants from forty-four countries aiming to ‘build trust across the world’s divides’. The program started in Melbourne for the National Sustainable Living Festival where the group addressed ‘First Nations Wisdom for Regenerative Future’, then on to rural New South Wales to meet Wiradjuri Elders, then to Sydney for a tour of Botany Bay, a meeting with the Women’s Reconciliation Network and a reception at the Canadian Consulate.
Woodland Cree communicator from northern Alberta and Trustee of The World’s Parliament of Religions, Lewis Cardinal was invited to speak during the service. He speech centred on the importance of family and tradition, both the one he was raised in and that of his wife. His wife’s surname is ‘Rabinowitz’ which as Cardinal reminded the congregation was Shalom Aleichem’s real last name. His children he noted through both of their heritages come from cultures of ‘great story tellers.’
Cardinal mentioned how he himself descends from Jewish migrants to Canada, with the Cardinal surname of his patrilineal ancestry being one that belongs to Sephardim who fled Spain. Lewis Cardinal was not the only Cardinal family member in attendance during the tour, with his sister, Rainbow Cardinal a poet and healer in her own right, having recited a poem she had written on true friendship and its place in the universe. Rainbow Cardinal than gifted the card to Rebbetzin Elka Feldman who moved by the poem, commented on its descriptions of friendship, how the poem seemed deeply personal yet could be true for so many friendships. Cardinal responded that very combination was her intention for the piece. Fans of Canadian comedies may be interested to know their brother Lorne Cardinal (not in attendance) played police Sergeant Davis Quinton on the series Corner Gas.
Chief Lee Crowchild, a respected Tsuut’ina environmentalist and ceremonialist, also spoke during the dinner, explaining his role as war chief. A role, Crowchild stated is not one that is historically very long lived and is fitting only to certain people and mindsets. The war chief must be direct with the goals for their community, and that directness is a skill but not one always well liked.
The meal was host to over eighty congregants and cooked by a team of volunteers from varying generations, from people in their seventies, all the way down to a bar mitzvah student learning as the Rabbi put during the dinner, as he thanked the volunteers, that ‘a bar mitzvah is more than reading from the Torah it is being part of a community’. An idea of community responsibility, the Indigenous Canadian and First Nations Australian leaders in attendance evidently understood from their own lives and cultures.
Newtown Shul will be hosting a Purim party on Tuesday 7th of March, starting at 5:00pm, with a megillah reading and petting zoo. The theme for the party is “Purim on the Farm”. Refer to the website for more information and to book: www.Shul.org.au
Photos of attendees at the Friday night event were taken prior to the commencement of Shabbat
