Churches, Prayer, Multimedia
Grant Paulson is an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leader and Birri-Gubba/ Bundjalung man of Scottish and Ni-Vanuatu heritage. He is a former member of TEAR’s Dhumba (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Support Program) Committee, and has worked with Reconciliation Australia. Grant is now a Faith and Development Advisor at World Vision Australia.
In this short video, Grant talks about how his faith is deeply connected to his culture.
Our culture reminds us to be connected to our Creator, to our kinship and our mob, and to our country and to know where we fit individually – that call to be connected and created. We’re part of a bigger story.
The stories of God and creation and Genesis are strong images that are life-giving for me as an Aboriginal Christian. It’s about making the world in a way that we have right connections, with (God) and right connections with each other and right connections with ourselves because we know our space in creation and we know how to connect with the land and country.
Where you get the brokenness that comes in, by the time you get to Genesis 3, when we turn our backs on God, (these) are some of the realities that we still deal with today.
The message of Christ comes to pull all things back into right relationships.
It’s not just about my personal relationship with Jesus but the way that Jesus comes to put all stuff right. Right relationship with God, right relationship with each other. Right relationships with myself and right relationships with land and country and creation. It’s got to have a bigger message – Christ reconciling all things.”
Grant refers to this bible passage in Colossians: 1:19-20
For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.
Reflect on this verse and what it means for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people today. What does it mean for you as you seek out God’s vision of reconciliation in the world today? How are you part of a bigger story of what God is doing in the world? What’s your vision of “Shalom” or, the world as God created it to be?
