Aboriginal Reconciliation as a Spiritual Experience

Abstract

There is a missing side to much of our public discussions about Aboriginal reconciliation, and this side involves spirituality and religion. In some ways, the spiritual dimension is far more complex than even the economic and political issues, which is why it is neglected or repressed. Perhaps Australian public life places the spiritual element of Aboriginal reconciliation in the proverbial too hard basket, hoping for some future light on this difficult problem, or perhaps hoping it will go away altogether. One way of avoiding the deeper moral and spiritual dimensions of reconciliation is by losing our focus in the bog of legalistic minutiae and in the quicksand of technical jargon.