De-colonising the Biblical Narrative. Volume 3

Book excerpt: De-colonising the Biblical Narrative, Volume Three is dedicated to those First Nations Australia peoples who were encouraged by colonists--especially the early missionaries--to believe in God. Early settlers were unaware that the term 'Lord' is not a title for God in the Bible. It is the name of the colonial God YHWH. The name of God in Christian times, according to the Rainbow Spirit Elders, is Father God, the father of Jesus Christ; it is not the colonial God YHWH who justified the actions of the colonial invaders. According to the Rainbow Spirit Elders, the colonial curse caused the Creator Spirit of the Land to cry in agony because the Lord was being desecrated, dispossessed, and polluted with Aboriginal blood. According to those Elders, the colonial curse traumatised the Land, the peoples of the Land-and the Creator Spirit in the Land. This third volume reflects the de-colonising approach developed by Anne Pattel-Gray, Norm Habel and other First Nations Australia, including Ken Sumner, Denise Champion, Rose Rigney and Sean Weetra.