Former Abbot of New Norcia, Bernard Rooney OSB, was inspired by the methods of New Norcia’s founder in his ministry to indigenous people.
The inspiration for the work of the retired Abbot of New Norcia, Bernard Rooney, was the forward-looking methods of Bishop Salvado working with the local people in the 1840s. Salvado’s missionary methods were “born of a determination to respect and understand the culture of the Aboriginal people” Abbot Rooney said.
“Bishop Salvado believed the Catholic faith should be built on the cultural conditions and understandings of the indigenous people themselves. As history has shown, Salvado’s ideas were to bear fruit.”
Abbott Bernard began by reflecting on the influence of Darwinian evolutionary theory on missionary perspectives and policies with the Catholic Church. This perspective underpinned the words addressed by Pope Gregory XVI to Doms Salvado and Serra on the eve of their embarkation for Western Australia on 5 June, 1845.
‘Civilise and Christianise’ was the directive issued by His Holiness. But, Abbot Bernard asked, how was this to be interpreted? Should Indigenous cultures be set aside and replaced by the Christian cultures of England and Europe? In many missions such policies had proven disastrous.
The mission to be established in Western Australia by the banks of the Moore River in 1846 was to prove Rosendo Salvado to be a man well ahead of his time. Salvado believed that conversion of his people to the Christian faith, as indeed their so-called ‘civilisation’, should begin within their cultural community, not simply as a system of belief and practice imposed from the outside.
Abbot Bernard explained how Salvado’s missionary method was born of a determination to respect and understand the culture of Aboriginal people.
He believed the Catholic faith should be built on the cultural conditions and understandings of the Indigenous people themselves. As history has shown, Salvado’s ideas were to bear fruit.
Abbot Bernard was inspired by Salvado’s methods. After his appointment as parish priest of Moora, he began working with the local Aboriginal community.
He instituted a monthly outdoor ‘Campfire Mass’ (Mass with barbeque), in an area of bush on parish grounds, with a view to helping the people of Moora renew connection with the Catholic faith.
He initiated programmes of cultural awareness with the assistance of local elders in several schools.
To provide regular employment for the adults, he obtained government funding for establishing an ongoing artefacts manufacturing project (Yuat Artefacts) in the church hall. He also began research into local culture and language, which eventually led him to the preparation of two books on these subjects. Returning to New Norcia in 1988, he spent five years with Moora TAFE, teaching Indigenous Art, Yuat language and culture.
He also organised regular monthly beach excursions for the benefit of disadvantaged local Aboriginal children and conducted safaris for them to remote missions.
While completing a PhD at Curtin University, he established at New Norcia a permanent exhibition devoted to Aboriginal culture and the history of the mission.
He pointed out that even now in the 21st century, New Norcia can continue to fulfil the commission entrusted by Pope Gregory XVI to its Benedictine founders.
Terry Quinn is the chairman of the WA Catholic Social Justice Council.