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Book launch: 26th May, 2004

Crossroads’ launch was held at Hobart College on 26th May 2006. Terry Martin MLC launched the book and Terry Sussmilch the Tasmanian convenor for the World Conference on Religion and Peace, was the guest speaker.

Speech

I lived and worked in Central Australia for 8 years. During this time I connected with my Aboriginal heritage and met some of my relations. I spent time with some of the elders while working there. I feel very privileged to have had this experience.

Before going to Central Australia, I lived solely in the white world. Luckily I had the sense to follow my heart and this led me on a journey where I discovered my spirituality.  Eventually it even led me to Central Australia, where I underwent a deep transformation as I integrated my Aboriginality.

It’s not easy to find the words to describe this and how it happened. It was like remembering things from long ago in your past, hazy at first then taking form and substance. It was meeting other people with exactly the same ideas about life and what is important, it was a feeling of being comfortable and at home. It was all of this and much more.

At the same time I had to come to terms with the fact that my white heritage was not going to disappear, and accept it as being just as important as my Aboriginal heritage – because it is to me, it’s my identity. Now I know this puts me at odds with the political landscape, but it is something I cannot deny.

This wasn’t an easy path because I was challenged, not verbally, but in my lifestyle. A lot of the people I was living with during these times were bush mob from the desert communities and were very different to me and my upbringing. But I guess you really do get to know yourself if you have to look hard at what’s important to you and are challenged every step of the way.

So why the book? Well I feel what I went through is something the whole of Australia is going through in terms of recognising and integrating Australia’s Aboriginality. It has been denied for a long time. But it’s an indisputable fact – Australia has a Black history. Real reconciliation can only happen when both cultural identities are given credence.

And like me, there will be a lot of soul-searching and self-examination before this can happen. There also has to be an openness and an honest desire for change before things fall into place.

Someone famous once said – I have a dream… Well I have a vision… It is an Australia that is integrated and balanced, having acknowledged and accepted the wisdoms of the first peoples in this country combining it with the technological wisdom of the West. Where both cultures are appreciated for their contributions, where people respect and rejoice in their differences and similarities. Where people live in harmony and equity.

I feel it’s important to have a vision – if you don’t have a vision you are just operating blind.

Magaer Lennox
May 2006

Terry Susmilch's speech

In my capacity as Convenor of World Congress of Religions for Peace, I’ve been given the honour of introducing Magaer Lennox’ book, Crossroads, which is about the vital importance of spirituality in the reconciliation process.

I approached reading the book with a background in ancient languages, ancient cultures and ancient philosophies. More recently, I’ve been a student of eastern spirituality and philosophies, so it’s been very interesting for me to think about the ideas expressed by Magaer in her book.

From a long-lost mother language (Indo-European?) two words have come down to us – in the western tradition, atom, which means indivisible, from the classical Greek (named well before the atom was split), and in the eastern tradition, through the Sanskrit to the Hindi, atma, which means much the same thing. The first has a physical meaning, the second, a metaphysical meaning.

In the last few hundred years in the west, we have largely discounted the metaphysical. After all, you can’t see it, even with microscopes, and you can’t measure it; so it hasn’t been deemed worthy of serious consideration or investigation. In the last generation, or so, there have been a few physicists who have seen the connection between eastern and western ideas, but generally, metaphysical matters haven’t really been understood. But eastern cultures consider metaphysical principles to underlie physical forces, as do indigenous cultures. The metaphysical is of supreme importance in these cultures. It held this importance, too, to the ancient thinkers who gave the name to the atom. The early Greek philosophers, such as Pythagoras, were vitally interested in the metaphysical.

Magaer’s book is an exploration of the human spirit, and how important it is to approach the process of reconciliation in this light. We are all human spirits, black, white, old, young, male, female. As long as we stumble over skin-deep obstacles, we will never, as individual races, be able to have a relationship of equality, respect, mutual appreciation, and understanding. Success will continue to elude us, if it is not based on this basic premise. Magaer’s book touches wisdom both ancient and modern. However, for the races to meet in harmony, work is needed both at the personal and communal levels. Magaer’s way is not a way for wusses. Only the bravest of the brave can go there. However, go there, we must, if we are to succeed in this process of reconciliation of our races. Magaer’s book has been a labour of love. To succeed, the reconciliation process must be a labour of love, too.

Terry Sussmilch
May 2006

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