Readings: 1 Corinthians 12:12-27; Luke 4:14-21 `I`m not in despair, because I know that there is a moral order. I haven`t lost faith, because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice` . These words of Martin Luther King give me hope when I reflect on the indigenous situation in Australia, where on any one night 70% of youth detained in Western Australia are Aboriginal. King was not talking about Law and Order that most associate with the word Justice, he was referring to distributive justice. Jesus identified with those to whom love needs to be distributed as... the poor, the captives, the blind and the oppressed. Jesus gave his life to save these people from the imbalance between retributive and distributive justice all too often used by the powerful use to suppress the weak. But who are these people in our nation?

I have just returned from the Mowanjum Community near Derby, where I increasingly recognise the victims of this imbalance in the Aboriginal children. Through no choice of their own, they are born into a community with inadequate facilities, encased in barbed wire, barred with locks and into many families disabled by passive welfare, alcohol, violence and humbugging. This lack of basic facilities and family instability too often drives the children`s creativity into vandalism and stealing until they graduate into the Criminal Justice system and eventually the new $200 million West Kimberley Regional Prison . Why? Compare this situation to that of little Jack in this Wednesday`s West, who had 4 years preparation before kindergarten. Mowanjum has been denied repeated requests by Government for funding to provide the same for their children. Read the childhood history in the same paper of the mass murderer Eric Edgar Cook and you will understand the cost of this neglect of children on their subsequent behaviour when they reach adulthood. Here I am talking of a generational solution - that is a solution that will take a generation to achieve.

This misapplication of justice is not dissimilar to the background of our Corinthians reading. In 146 BC Rome destroyed the Greek City of Corinth in the ultimate act of retribution, rebuilding it 100 years later in 44 BC to expand the wealth of its Empire. A hierarchy of elite Roman families were then given all the political and economic power to ensure the wealth funnelled back to Rome. 100 years later Paul seeded an alternative culture in Corinth known as Christianity; destined to challenge the dominant use of retributive justice with its violence against the weak and vulnerable. Paul stated that we all belong to one family and are therefore obligated to treat each other justly. The Corinthian Church also reversed the flow of taxation to Rome, by taking a collection and sending it to their brothers and sisters in Jerusalem (1 Cor 16: 1-4). Jesus spoke of this alternative culture as the `Kingdom of God` where distributive justice by balancing retributive justice brings about peace without violence. Peace with violence tends to be the normalcy of civilisation.

Mowanjum evolved from a Presbyterian Mission which ceased in the 1970s but a small Uniting Church remains with a Congregation of about 3 adults and 10 children. When a spate of youth suicides had once again traumatised the Community and overwhelmed the attending Minister, Floreat All Saints was invited. Much that had been gained by the Mission Era has been lost in the ensuing 40 years of self-determination, through the early death of elders and systemic Government neglect with its bias towards retributive justice. A few outstanding leaders remain, such as Christians, Eddie Bear and Heather and Leah Umbagai, but often they are overwhelmed by the immensity of the dysfunction, lack of Government support and shear complexity of Government bureaucracy.

Floreat`s outreach group called the `Boab Network` began as a Summer School holiday program. Due to the intense heat our first foray was to hire a bus to take the kids swimming in the Derby Pool 10 km away; five years into the program this is still the daily highlight. As the bus comes into sight, children emerge from the shadows to clamber aboard. The cool clear water and friendship of the Boab volunteers heals their sores and troubled souls and bananas are a clear winner after the event. A disco in the evenings, a sausage sizzle, sporting activities, craft or a water slide add to the fun and healing. Volunteers beyond the Church have joined us, motivated by compassion and bringing new strengths and vitality.

To build capacity within the Community, the Community allocated us an iron shed where a Community Resource Centre from Royalties for Regions funding has been created. The Centre is a magnet for the children. Here 27 Laptops and 5 donated iPads, all with internet access full of games (many educational), music and movies. The delightful overworked Manager Lorel Holmes runs the Centre on the basis of strict reciprocity, where in return for access the children have to attend school, learn to respect others and the complex equipment. This discipline is helping them to develop a set of values essential for their cultural evolution into a sustainable community. Signs of social transformation are emerging. Over the last 5 years, the number of students attending Perth private schools has risen from zero to 11. Lorel regularly reports the behaviour of children within Community Resource Centre changing in so many positive ways, some even declaring their love for her. We have also assisted the Community to develop Mowanjum`s Pastoral Lease which has stood idle for 40 years. This is providing work and TAFE training in pastoral management.

We are in continuity with the tradition of the Church`s Mission but in a radically new context with a radically new theology. In the history of Mowanjum we particularly honour John Robert Beattie Love born 1889 in Ireland. Bob Love befriended the Aboriginal people who camped at the end of his family`s garden in Adelaide. Later in `Stone Age Bushmen of Today` he wrote: `The history of the Australian aboriginal since the coming of the white man had been a sad tale of the usurpation of the tribal territories, the breaking down of the tribal organisations and the speedy extinction of the tribes in all the settled parts of the continent. Numbers of efforts have been made to secure justice for the aboriginal and to help him to meet the inevitable contact with the white man`. Note that the imperative of the last sentence remains current.

Bob Love devoted his life to securing justice for the Aborigines in practical ways when one hundred years ago the first Mission was founded against the backdrop of fierce100m high cliffs. There Bob Love went in 1914 becoming a noted bushman, explorer, scholar, linguist, anthropologist, soldier, naturalist, minister and long remembered friend of the Worrorra people. He translated St Mark and St Luke`s Gospel into the Worrorra language and left an indelible imprint on future Missionary work. From the harsh conditions of his service Love died comparatively young aged 57. The Mission had four further disruptive moves until re-located to its present site near Derby in 1976. Work to secure justice for the Indigenous people and help them in their inevitable contact with white people is unfinished business.

As we celebrate the success of European settlement this Australia day weekend, we must also face the adverse impact of this settlement on the Aboriginal people and their land and the ongoing disadvantage they suffer, particularly each new generation of Aboriginal children that our Creator bequeaths us. The Jesuits long ago concluded `Give us the child for the first seven years and I will give you the man`. This confirms what all teachers are taught and we all intuitively know, that the first seven years of a child`s life are vital for how they fare in the remainder of their life. Development psychologists and Neurologists tell us that the first three years, when critical neuronal pathways are being laid down are particularly critical.

But over the last forty years application of these principles to the first three years of life at Mowanjum have been inadequately addressed by Institutions, Government and Non-Government. Thus Government has given priority to prisons and extending the criminal justice system over Community Development biased towards the early years of life. In the wake of the Banksia Hill riots in an article in Tuesday`s West, Melissa Perry, WA Director of Mission Australia eloquently presents the case of the failure of the Criminal Justice approach.

Therefore I believe our longer term objective must be to work with the Mowanjum Community to intercede with Government to create positive, life changing opportunities for future generations. Last week I put this case to Brendon Grylls, Minister for Regional Development when he visited the Community Resource Centre. He said he `got a lump in his throat` when he saw the kids positively and constructively engaged. The cost of such a policy would be about $20,000 per child for their first 7 years compared with the $230,000 per year for each one who earns a place in the West Kimberley Regional Prison. A benefit cost ratio of 10:1, a clear winner, plus the benefit of a productive non-welfare dependant citizen. The Government and public still needs to be persuaded of these benefits and to change its policy settings and thinking in regard to the indigenous problem. Then and only then, will Aboriginal people receive the distributive justice that Jesus died for - the Good News of God`s creative spirit at work in each child and in each of us for the fullness of life on this earth. We live in a land shaped for over 40,000 years by the Aboriginal people, inspired by the Creator Spirit so that it might sustain life in all its abundance.

An abundance we celebrate on this Australia Day weekend.

References Bill Gammage, 2012, The Biggest Estate on Earth: How the Aborigines made Australia JRB Love, 1936, Stone Age Bushmen of Today. In `Kimberley People` Australian Aboriginal Culture Series No. 6 Stephen L. Harris, 1999, The New Testament: A Student Introduction. Warren Carter, 2006, The Roman Empire and the New Testament: An Essential Guide. Stephen McIntosh, 2012, An Integral Interpretation of the Scientific Story of our Origins. Helen Empacher, 2012, The First Seven Years of a Child`s life. http://www.yummybubby.com/2009/10/the-first-seven-years-of-a-childs-life/ Melissa Perry, 2013, Locking up juveniles isn`t the right approach. Western Australian Jan 22nd 2013 p 18.