Crosslight - Edition April 2020

Great Alpine Rd,
near Bruthen, 14 February.
Image: Rev Ian Ferguson
made himself available and his presence
is respected.
There’s a calm quiet when he speaks.
His message is recovery takes time,
shouldn’t be hurried and that individuals
and communities who recover well have
good social capital; connections and
care for each other and a commonality
of purpose. He tells the gathering to
be kind to each other. He tells the local
government and agency staff to commit
to following up quickly on questions and
comments that arise. He tells individuals
to get as much as they can of pleasure
and leisure and to look out for their
neighbours.
In the dusky light of a smoky evening,
out at Genoa’s first community meeting
since the fires, after a sausage in bread
with sauce, the community gathers in
the hall. You can sense the collective
strength in these people even though
they are so weary. I speak to a young
couple who have been living here for
two years. They’ve been told that now
they are locals; they’ve lived through
the inferno together, bonded by tragedy.
Alongside the devastation to bush and
wildlife, there was a loss of human life in
this community and the pain is palpable.
Two of our VCCEM chaplains have been
invited and we bring bags of chocolates
from Mallacoota, one for each seat.
People are angry with the way the
forests have been managed. A local
group made recommendations that
were ignored. Communication wasn’t
great and the tiny community at
Gypsy Point continues to live without
adequate mobile or internet connection,
constantly cut off from warnings and
information.
Rob is spreading his message of
calmness and kindness again and they
listen, leaning into each other, and
you can sense them let go a little and
breathe. There’s talk of cool burning and
learning from Indigenous land practices
and the conversation is deftly dismissed
with hard words from a local that no one
wants to challenge. Then it’s supper time
and one man makes his way past the
cakes and out into the night. Standing at
the door I catch the eye of Bruce Pascoe,
writer and wise Elder. We exchange
Continued P28
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