By Soraya Kassim, Executive Director of Palms
This month we are launching one of our most ambitious projects – Simplicity September. It is ambitious because it is a nationwide campaign seeking to reach Catholics wherever they are – at home, at school, at work, or in church. It is ambitious because it purports to distil the vast array of learnings from hundreds of placements, into a rubric of Simplicity. And it is ambitious because it seeks to reclaim Simplicity in a personal, spiritual and relational sense, at a time when simplicity is being highjacked for political ends.
A Knee-jerk Reaction
Our lives are becoming increasingly complex and fast paced – with galloping AI, social media demands, the impact of the ‘manosphere’, rising living costs, climate change, international wars with repercussions in Australia.…all contributing to long term power shifts, growing economic inequality, and real threats to environmental sustainability and to social cohesion.
Unfortunately, at the political level, it seems that a sizable proportion of Australia’s population is dealing with these challenges by declaring a pox on all houses, and choosing – at least for the moment – deceptively simple solutions which seek to blame ‘the Other’ for the changes in our lives.
This is clearly a dangerous turn of events for our community, which has been built on the foundation of a strong social safety net, equality of access, respect for all, reward for merit innovation and hard work, support for cultural integrity and human rights, and generosity and curiosity about difference. In a word, Multiculturalism.
Lessons from Lived Experience
Palms placements have been a perfect avenue for participants to enhance their lived experience of this vision for Australia. Participants consciously put aside assumptions about the superiority of the culture they bring with them from Australia, and open themselves to witnessing a well of communality, a bedrock loyalty to family, a closeness to land and sea, and the personal and spiritual resilience that this nurtures. Some see the impact of colonization on the destruction of highly functional ways of living. Others witness a dynamic cultural resilience which incorporates elements of traditional and layered colonial influences. All return to Australia with a strong sense of richness of cultures and their importance in sustaining us as humans.
This type of lived learning is often hard to articulate. And yet at this time, we are called to witness to defend principles we hold dear.
Re-knitting the Fabric of Our Communities
As the Senate Inquiry into Racism, Hate and Violence directed at Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people draws to a close, we are reminded that there is so much work still to be done to address deep-seated racisms. And as the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion continues, we are challenged to ask : What more can we do in our daily lives to re-knit the fabric of our communities ?
I would love to hear your ideas, and commit that – if you share them with us – we will surely include them in our next Palms Post. (Send contributions with the heading ‘Re-knitting community here’ to palms@palms.org.au). These are some discussion prompts.
- What civic society organisations do you belong to now? How might you interest them in engaging beyond their usual remit, to directly interact with people ‘from the other side of the tracks’ ?
- What actions are already being taken in your parish to make itself a greater haven for new migrants and refugees, including those of other faiths? What else might be done?
- How are you engaging with friends and family who – in frustration with what they experience as inaction or lack of care from traditional political parties – are choosing to blame, or opting out of choosing at all? How do you keep lines of communication open? What have you learnt from these honest conversations?
- What tips do you have to integrate opportunities to meet neighbours in new medium density ‘pop up towns’? In our social media saturated worlds, what little windows do you see for personal contact with those who are living alone, or new to the neighbourhood? And how can we ensure that the community building activities we are involved in now, do truly include the ‘stranger’?
Whether small or large, practical responses to these questions are what Australia – and indeed the world – needs at this time. So if you have ideas, please share them. And if you want to amplify your own commitment to them, feel free to re-commit to action this Simplicity September, and spread the word with your accountability group as part of our campaign (www.simplicityseptember.org.au). I look forward to hearing your stories and ideas.