Reflection - An Ancient Inheritance

By Kym Korbe, Koa Kuku Yalanji woman and Executive Officer UAICC and Covenanting.

Unlike many friends my age, I am yet to experience the joy of holding my grandchild for the first time, or spending time just being in the moment alongside my grandchildren, as they explore all that is new to them and tell me their stories.

Knowing that nobody is promised the gift of enjoying old age, during the Advent holidays, I was moved to write a letter to my unborn grandchildren and share some of the generational knowledge, or ancestral wisdom that I have relied upon during my life. Let me be clear, it is my plan to read it to them.

In this letter I spoke of the values my mother and Aunties shared with me, such as being kind, demonstrating hospitality and patience, and respectfully and capably speaking up against that which is harmful or hurtful to self or community - through faith and forbearance.

Understanding we in Queensland have experienced another start to the year marked by flooding, loss, and holidays brought to an abrupt end, I ask myself how I engage with this big, beautiful church and ask for their reciprocal patience, kindness and understanding and eagerness to engage with the ongoing need for justice in reconciliation.

The reason I prefaced this reflection with my letter to my unborn grandchildren, is that familial unconditional love is a point of agreement, no matter one’s background. We all hold hope that our grandchildren will inherit wisdom and a rich, Godly and flourishing life, filled with the pleasures of family, friendship and community.

And so, as we stand together at the beginning of another year – one marked again by challenge, disruption and reminders of our human vulnerability, I return to the imagined moment with my grandchildren. I picture their small hands, their curious eyes, and I am reminded that everything we do today, becomes the world they will inherit.

The work of reconciliation must be part of our daily rhythms and not just something we do at times of crisis or special days within the calendar.

Just as we nurture our faith and our children, so must we nurture right relationships.

Just as we tell stories so that identity and belonging grow strong, so must we continue to tell the truth of this land and its First Peoples, so that healing may continue to grow over the pain.

What I long for my grandchildren, in safety, dignity, wisdom and a future shaped by friendship and compassion, so too, do I hope this for our church.

Matthew 5:24 NRSVue teaches us “leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift.”

So my prayer as we step into the new year, is that we cultivate the kind of faith that works through kindness, stands firm in truth and holds tight to hope, even when the waters rise. A faith that refuses to give up on one another, works for reconciliation, as Pastor Sono of Zillmere UAICC offers, by letting go and letting God.

A faith that makes room for the whole of each new generation to flourish.