About IHH 
| About the Indigenous Hospitality House | | Print | |
| Written by Indigenous Hospitality House | |
| Thursday, 17 April 2008 | |
Can non-indigenous people be hospitable to Indigenous people on stolen land?For over 200 years relationships between Indigenous and non-indigenous people in Australia have been based on the dominance and racism of the invaders. For over 200 years dispossession, misunderstanding, prejudice and oppression have divided our peoples. While there have been many occasions where Indigenous people have provided hospitality to non-indigenous people to help in the process of mutual understanding and respect, non-indigenous attempts have often been based on dominance, welfarism and paternalism. The Indigenous Hospitality House is a Christian community house in Melbourne that offers rooms for Indigenous families who have come from out of town to support a family member in hospital. It is attempt to live out God’s radical solidarity with the marginalised. It is an attempt to take reconciliation personally. Our intentional community acts as hosts, volunteers and supporters for the project but the project itself is accountable to the Indigenous community through the Congress in Victoria. For us it is a question of creating a space for mutual contact, awareness and sharing – not welfare. The house has been operating for five years. In that time, more than 450 Indigenous people have stayed at the house, coming from places like Arnhem Land, Mildura, Townsville, Perth, Warrnambool, Echuca. The length of stay varies: from 1 night to the recent record-breaking stay of 32 nights. Some of our community live in the house, so the place operates as our home rather than a hostel. Guests are invited to join the evening meal, and to relax and feel at home. A few families have returned to stay with us several times, and they talk about the house as a haven which gives them support whilst they deal with the complexities of hospitals and doctors, alongside their concerns about their sick relatives. We are far from perfect, but we try and make the house a safe place for our guests in a country which is not safe place for Indigenous people – just look at the health statistics. The challenge for the church in Australia is to practice hospitality and recognise that its remembrance of the Gospel and Christ’s ministry binds it to the struggle of Indigenous people for liberation from the ongoing effects of the colonial myth of terra nullius. By participating in this struggle for justice we non-indigenous folk will also find liberation and the church may find a new resolve for witness and mission. It’s not hard to do – just show a bit of hospitality. Peter Lewis
HistoryThe Indigenous Hospitality House began with a group of people meeting on a regular basis to study the bible and discuss how to become more involved in social justice issues (Allison Francis Cracknell, Peter Cracknell, Jane Hope (nee Dyson), Cath Robson, Peter Lewis, and Steph Tashkoff). Several members of the group had previously been involved in a community in Kew called Anathoth. The group looked at radical discipleship and the Catholic worker movement. They studied Ched Myers’ work and a study of Revelation by Wes Howard-Brook and Anthony Gwyther. In discussions about power and Empire, heaven and God’s reality, in Revelation, the group took a parallel look at those issues in contemporary Australia. They started searching for ways in which God’s reality (the kingdom/realm of God) could be experienced here and now. Peter Lewis read a report written by Indigenous workers at the Royal Children’s Hospital, “Lookin’ After Our Own” . The report spoke of the scarcity of appropriate accommodation for Indigenous people visiting relations in hospital in Melbourne. The group decided to respond to this particular issue. They discussed ways to give back some of the hospitality they had all received at different times from Indigenous people through programs like About FACE and Interns in Mission. As an Intern in Mission in Brazil, Jane Hope (nee Dyson) had worked with an Ecumenical Agency (GTME) that worked alongside the Indigenous people of Brazil. There she had been a part of a hospitality house where Indigenous people could stay when they needed to use the services in the city or were passing through while travelling. From her experience in Brazil Jane and the others in the group were keen to find a way to create a similar place here in Australia, and the idea of the Indigenous Hospitality House emerged. Learning from their experiences with Anathoth, this group wanted a strong sense of what this Hospitality House would be about and to establish a community with a clear focus for existence – in this case, offering hospitality to Indigenous people. A long process of research and meeting with members of the Indigenous community followed. They talked to Vince Ross and Norm Baxter of the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress, Vicki Walker form Aboriginal Catholic Ministries and various Koori health and accommodation agencies who encouraged the development of the project. Norm and Vince helped them gain the trust of a lot of the Indigenous community. After looking at several potential properties, the Church of All Nations in Carlton was approached in regard to using one of their properties for a base to provide hospitality from. The idea was enthusiastically received and the Indigenous Hospitality House was established. Jane, Steph, and Norm Baxter moved into the property in early 2001. The IHH received its first guests in June 2001. Since then more than 800 guests have come to stay. Changes have taken place within the House – residents have moved in and out, the number of units used has changed, and some aspects of how the house operates have also changed over time. But the central goal and purpose of the IHH community has remained constant: to offer a place of peace and hospitality to Indigenous people coming to Melbourne as a response to Christ.
Philosophy and valuesOriginally, the participants in the project were motivated by, and acting in response to, their faith in Christ. Today, the project includes participants from different faiths, working together with a mutual philosophy and spiritual guidelines. The IHH seeks to:
A task-based communityThe IHH is a community that exists not for its own sake, but for a common task: offering hospitality to guests. This is the primary purpose of the IHH, and forms the basis for all decisions made in the house: will this affect our ability to offer hospitality? Peace of the houseMaintaining the ‘peace of the house’ is a key philosophy in determining how the house operates on a day-to-day basis. People at the house focus on maintaining a commitment to offering hospitality and creating a peaceful atmosphere in communal areas and working out issues of tension and conflict through respectful negotiation. Sustainability and consistencyThe IHH has recognised the need to ensure its sustainability into the future and this often influences the policies adopted by the house (for example, not having guests in school holiday periods). It has also been recognised that in order to maintain the unity and peace of the house, it is essential that residents act as a team and with consistency to ensure that residents and guests alike are clear about what the IHH offers.
How We Do Things
The running of the Indigenous Hospitality House is mainly carried out by two overlapping groups of people, the Residents and the Business Committee. A third group is the Visiting Volunteers and the fourth is the individuals and churches who donate money and goods. Also involved in the project are the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress (UAICC) and the Indigenous Liaison Workers, social workers and health workers from hospitals and health services who are registered with the IHH.
|
