Crosslight - Edition April 2020

Bushland, Cape Conran, 10 March.
Image: Rev Ian Ferguson
By the numbers
186,000
Number of
SQUARE KILOMETRES
BURNT
of Emergency Management Victoria.
To join as a volunteer, you need to be
a recognised member of your faith
community and do the training. Just
because you can, doesn’t mean you
should. Social media was flaming when
a volunteer from another agency caused
great distress to an Aboriginal Elder, his
people and the community.
It’s a hot and blustery day and the
wind is whipping up fires and playing
havoc with evacuee’s tents on the oval at
the Relief Centre.
There’s a heightened sense of danger
and distress. I’ve been out helping a
colleague re-pitch the flattened tents,
being quizzed by him on Bible verses
until I needed a break. Did you know that
Abraham was called a tent peg? Sitting
inside with a glass of water, a man beside
me comments softly in my direction, “I
think I’ve done the wrong thing today”.
The story unfolds about hours of giving
out petrol vouchers and inadvertently
insulting the Elder who came later in the
afternoon as the value of the voucher
offered was greatly reduced from that
given to others in his family earlier in the
day.
Underneath the story I hear a deeper
one of lack of cultural awareness and
training, lack of cultural safety around
these vulnerable people seeking
assistance – lack of character, someone
said.
Volunteers can spend hours doing
good and undo it all in one single action
and the damage is often irreparable.
Racism runs deep and can take so many
forms. Unless we know ourselves well
enough to understand how we respond
under stress, how our actions impact
those around us, how our desire to
help can sometimes do great harm, we
shouldn’t be out there where it matters.
Every conversation we have is sacred.
Every person encountered, agency and
evacuee alike deserve our pastoral best.
I sat with him and heard his story and
went away with a deep sadness.
Mallacoota,
four weeks on
The biggest curly blindside for VCCEM
was when we were asked to airlift teams
into Mallacoota with the RAAF. There’s
a massive vote of confidence in what
we do right there. Imagine this; as a
volunteer you’re asked to consider being
deployed for five days into a dangerous
area that’s cut off. You’ll need a day
either side for travel and you’ll probably
not know your teammates. You’ll stay
together in a stranger’s house where
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