A Report on the Mission of the NCR of the Order of Malta to the First Nations Communities in Daly River and Emu Point the Northern Territory

Report: Cons Maria Randazzo

In the quiet before dawn on Sunday, 16 August, members and volunteers of the NCR set out alongside those of the NT St Vincent de Paul Society (“the Society”) toward two remote First Nations communities of the Northern Territory. Two members’ vehicles and the Vinnies mini-bus carried us, packed to the roof with all that fraternal love had gathered: tinned and dried food, warm coats for those who sleep in the cold, reading glasses, sporting equipment, clothing, blankets, towels and hygiene items.

Since last year, the Society has walked this mission alongside the NCR, a partnership that has made our service stronger, swifter and richer in its reach, a unity in diversity of charisms, two hands of the one body of Christ stretching further together than either could alone.

We left at six, and almost at once the country gave us its first grace. The sun rose slowly along the road, spilling gold across the land. Our first stop, some 220 kilometres south of Darwin, was Daly River, known to its people by its Aboriginal name, Nauiyu, where Father Rodrigo and Father Jonathan were waiting to join us. From there the road narrowed and roughened: another ninety kilometres or so, an hour and a half on scarcely paved track, carrying us deeper into the vastness of the outback. At half past one we reached Emu Point, a remote homeland on the traditional lands of the Ngan’gikurunggurr people.

There is no church at Emu Point. Mass is celebrated in a shed. And yet that shed is holy ground, a sacred space made luminous by the faith of those who gather there. We sat together on the floor and the celebration of the Eucharist became a moment of pure grace. In our First Nations brothers and sisters there was such dignity, such unassuming beauty, that we felt we had been given far more than we could ever have brought.

During the offertory procession we carried forward the rosaries, crucifixes, holy cards, medals and scapulars of Our Lady to be blessed, so that they might later be placed into the hands of the community as tokens of the Love that keeps them closely in His Divine Heart.

After Mass we shared morning tea together. Margaret, an elder of the community, welcomed us with open warmth. When the gifts were distributed, no one hurried and no one wished to leave. We stayed on in a fraternal communion that words can only reach for. We sat. We listened. And at two o’clock, gently, we took our leave.

We paused once more at Daly River, entrusting the remaining gifts to Father Rodrigo and Father Jonathan for later, for many of the community are not able to be home just now. The extraordinary monsoon of last year brought flooding that left many houses uninhabitable; the church and part of the parish were inundated, and the slow, patient work of repair continues still.

We set out for Darwin at four and as we journeyed home the sun sank low, laying its last light across the plains and settling a deep peace upon our hearts. Since this mission began years ago, we have nourished and cherished the bond placed in our care, bending closer to listen, heart to heart, to our First Nations brothers and sisters and carrying their needs as our own. For this, in the end, is the core of our mission and its deepest grace, a tangible expression of the charism of the Order of Malta: that we are for one another Christ passing by. We come longing to be Christ passing by to them and we discover that they are no less Christ passing by to us. Christ is there in the bread Father Rodrigo and Father Johnatan break and the rosaries they bless; there, in our First Nations brothers and sisters’ welcome and quiet dignity, in the story they entrust to us and the peace they hold out to us freely.  The Lord draws near to us, as we seek to draw near them, and so the gift of His passing by flows both ways at once. Wherever Christ passes by, no heart is left as it was found and renewed Faith, Hope and Charity lighten the path ever more.

We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But if the drop was not in the ocean, I think the ocean would be less because of the missing drop

Mother Teresa, in Reaching Out In Love. Stories told by Mother Teresa, edited by Edward Le Joly and Jaya Chaliha (Barnes & Noble, 2002), p. 122.