Exclusion and Embrace 2016: Disability, Justice and Spirituality - understanding sacred texts, and the experiences of people with disabilities and carers within the context of faith

Exclusion and Embrace 2016: Disability, Justice and Spirituality

From August 21, 2016 03:04 until August 23, 2016 05:04

•  At Jasper Hotel, 489 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne, Australia

The Australian Catholic University, The Uniting Church Synod of Victoria and Tasmania, The Progressive Christian Network of Victoria Inc., would like to invite you to:

2016 Exclusion and Embrace Conference

Date: 21-23 August 2016

Venue: Jasper Hotel, 489 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne, Australia.

This Conference is a rare opportunity to bring together people interested in understandings of sacred texts, and the experiences of people with disabilities and carers within the context of faith. This  multi-faith Australasian Conference  has the support of a wide number of organisations including the Jewish Christian Muslim Association (JCMA) and the Faith Communities Council of Victoria (FCCV). The Uniting Church Synod of Victoria and Tasmania is providing the Conference Secretariat.

The Conference will draw on the wisdom of all faiths, and will deepen our understanding of the many aspects of disability and spirituality. We are interested in your experience, research, practice, and ideas and knowledge.

Among the themes explored will be ethics, care, inclusion in faith communities, friendship, discrimination, love, justice, liberation.

In Australia, and abroad, an increasing number of people are actively exploring the intersection of disability and spirituality. An excellent Conference program will present perspectives across the faith spectrum, with opportunities for dialogue and formation of new networks. It will have appeal to people who live with disability, families and carers, academics and practitioners (volunteers and staff).

Two esteemed speakers will be keynoters at our Conference: Prof Hans Reinders is Chair of Ethics at VU University, Holland, and editor of the journal Religion and Disability. Rev Bill Gaventa is Director of the Summer Institute of Theology and Disability and President-elect of the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AAIDD). We are also delighted that an Australian cast of presenters is increasingly coming on board: Prof David Tacey an interdisciplinary scholar who is widely published for his knowledge of Australian spirituality. Other presenters include Lorna Hallahan, Sheik Isse Musse, Melinda Jones and Diana Cousens (see website Speakers tab for details).

There will also be an exhibition of artworks that reflect people’s experience of disability and spirituality, as it relates to the conference theme.

View and download the brochure (note: when printing remember to tick print on both sides and flip on short edge)

The Conference is also seeking Abstracts within these three streams, as they relate to disability and spirituality.

(i)         Supports in faith communities/service providers

(ii)        Sa­cred texts/theological understandings of disability

(iii)       Theological Educa­tion/Research.

Please go to Call for Presentations for details of Abstract Details and Guidelines. Abstracts need to be submitted by 10 April, 2016. Presentations may include formal papers, posters, personal stories, poetry, or other approaches.

We invite presentations which address aspects and experiences as they relate to spirituality and disability. Themes include liberation, education, bioethics, reconciliation, sexuality, pastoral care, inclusion, love, theological interpretations. All presenters must be registered for the event by 15 July, 2016.

Other sponsors and endorsers include Spiritual Health Victoria, Spiritual Care Australia, Christian Blind Mission, Victorian Council of Churches, Progressive Christian Network Victoria, Australian Catholic University and the University of Divinity.

As part of the Conference, we are also launching and displaying an  Art Exhibition, depicting the conference themes. Andy Calder, Conference Convenor

Further Information:  Ann Byrne  The Uniting Church Synod of Victoria and Tasmania  Email: ann.byrne@victas.uca.org.au

Phone: (03) 9251 5404

Endorsed by: Faith Communities Council of Victoria, Jewish Christian Muslim Association of Australia, Victorian Council of Churches, Spiritual Care Australia, Spiritual Health Victoria and University of Divinity.

Showing the face of bigotry in Australia. A report on Australia's Islamophobia and statistics on bigotry among religions.

This report will provide interesting reading for Australia's inhabitants. It pinpoints how they feel about their Muslim neighbours.

For people of faith, or those interested in religion,  the statistics on attitudes among faith communities is enlightening but not surprising.

Modern ministers for health in the Liberal Party are no friends of families or of Medicare.

Couldn't be at yesterday's

Save Medicare Rally in Melbourne ?

Get a cuppa, sit back, put your feet up ...

and Miss Eagle will make you feel as if you were there.

The ABC News has a done a quite reasonable story

on the rally and the issue.

Then there is this YouTube item

There's a Flickr photostream here

Miss Eagle's rally photos are here

Ian Hall's photo of the march are here.

The march went from the State Library

to the premises of the Business Council of Australia.

The Abbott Government's Commission of Audit

and other elements of the Medicare proposal

have involvement from members of the BCA. 

The research - which is recommending co-payments

for GP visits now fully funded by Medicare - 

has been done by Terry Barnes, an adviser to Tony Abbott,

when he was Health Minister in the Howard Government.

The research was commissioned and funded by the 

Australian Centre for Health Research.

When you visit the last link,

click on the 'About Us' tab on the silver ribbon at the top.

Then go to the side-bar and click on 'Board of Directors'.

Please note who these directors are.

Not one of them could remotely be considered as

a consumer advocate or representative.

ACHR has tried to make itself look as if it is

broad-based or non-political

with the inclusion of 'Labor man' Neil Batt. 

A look at Batt's background should make clear

that he is hardly and working-class man.

An this is certainly the case for the others.

You also might note that the name

Australian Unity has more than a mention.

Australian Unity is a major health insurance fund.

Their self-interest is self-evident.

Should, dear reader, you have health insurance

with Australian Unity you must think upon the 

fact that in giving AU your business, you

are contributing to the downfall of Medicare.

So let's look at the pedigree of this proposal.

There is a Commission of Audit established by Tony Abbott.

It is comprised of members of the Business Council of Australia

(who, it can be assumed, either have the top rank of health insurance

or can afford to pay for their own health services)

and, almost certainly, each are paid up members of the Liberal Party of Australia.

If for some sort of reason, such as a career which requires them to parade

as impartial, I feel confident in guessing that

 they frequent Liberal Party events and people.

The research has been done by a former Liberal Party policy adviser,

Terry Barnes.

Abbott was not the first Liberal Health Minister that Terry Barnes served.

He also worked for Michael Wooldridge.

I don't want to query Barnes's ethics but many have questioned those

of Michael Wooldridge.

Added to the Wikipedia entry, you can read about the MRI scandal

here, here, and here.

All this sort of muck did eventually mean that Wooldridge 

wore out his welcome.

One is left to wonder where Barnes was in all this?

Did he prove to be a gun for hire way back then,

as he clearly is now?

So the background for the Medicare co-payment is indeed circular.

It is an expose, as well, of how some people build their careers

and establish their finances.

It is well to always take heed of Adam Smith.

As he said in his seminal work -

An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations - 

People of the same trade seldom meet together, 

even for merriment and diversion, 

but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, 

or in some contrivance to raise prices.

I would also add 

"or in some way to influence and collude with government".

From Wooldridge to Abbott to Dutton
there is no reason to feel comforted
that Liberal Party Ministers of Health
will act in the best interests of Australian families.

A call for humanism instead of philanthropic colonialism and conscience laundering

Picture at left from here

Peter Buffett, son of wealth-making Warren,  has an article in The New York Times critical of the clustering of philanthropy and what it can mean - what he calls philanthropic colonialism.  He tells the tale well.

Philanthropy is great but I really don't understand what we see in Australia with all these personal foundations.  Yet another nail in the coffin provided by the Americanization of Australia ... another form of the colonialism that Peter Buffet critiques?

We have some marvellous, knowledgeable, well-established not-for-profits in this country.  Why can't they be funded by the rich?  If the rich think they have financial skills to offer, suggestions to make, I am sure they would be welcomed.  Or would the n-f-ps say, from their knowledge base, well that's not exactly where the need lies or, perhaps, we have tried what you suggest but found from experience that this is not the way to go.  And then the rich might not like to be told that they're new found ideas are wrong, up the creek.  Buffett discusses this in a way when he describes people wanting to transplant templates as if time, place and culture were identical or didn't matter.  There are none so ignorant as those who think they know it all.

I do hope Buffet and his article get good coverage.  It is worthy of consideration.  You might also hop on the link to his name at the beginning of the article and 'like' his Facebook page.  Most of all, please consider.

What Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda Gates are doing is marvellous.  I suspect that they are self-aware individuals in the philanthropic stakes.  I particularly love the fact that the Gates Foundation has funded mosquito nets - Made in Africa mosquito nets.  This is not a big scientific and medical triumphant style of philanthropy.  This is taking the simple and necessary and making it work - even to the point of providing employment.

The Gates Foundation appears to have a focus on practicality.  This is also evidenced in their relationship with the University of Queensland in relation to a $4 million international collaboration to improve sorghum productivity under drought conditions.  So let's hear it for philanthropy - but not the sort that is filled with self-aggrandizement.  Let's see a philanthropy that is developed on the basis of thoughtfulness as well as human connection with country, environment, and people.  I hope that what we see with thoughtful investment is a burgeoning of ideas, applications, solutions which are so successful that the ideas and the impacts take off to the extent that the name/s of the donor/s become/s are but by-lines in small font.  This then is the sort of stuff that heaven is made of.

Don't be an ignorant by-stander. Challenge racism wherever you see it - and contact the University of Western Sydney

The University of Western Sydney is researching Bystander Anti-Racism.  For more on this important project please go here.  

What is bystander anti-racism?

Bystander anti-racism can be defined as:

Action taken by a person or persons (not directly involved as a target or perpetrator) to speak out about or to seek to engage others in responding (either directly or indirectly, immediately or at a later time) against interpersonal or systemic racism.

Bystander anti-racism is not necessarily about directly confronting a perpetrator. A range of actions are considered bystander anti-racism (see ‘What types of action can be taken?’).  For more go to the link above.

Gender Matters - a new development from the International Women's Development Agency (IWDA)

International Women's Development Agency - Gender Matters Issue #1 Research for change Welcome to IWDA's newest publication—Gender Matters. Gender Matters is a mechanism for IWDA to share emerging ideas and new research. It will come out twice a year and provide insights into gender and development issues from both a theoretical and a practical perspective. IWDA has created a separate email list for Gender Matters and other research news. If you would like to receive future editions of Gender Matters, please subscribe to IWDA's Gender Matters email list. Gender Matters Issue #1: Gender Synchronisation This inaugural issue of Gender Matters addresses "gender synchronisation", or working with both men and women in an intentionally coordinated way to address gender inequalities. Case studies of IWDA's work with partners explore gender synchronisation in practice in Cambodia and Melanesia. Written by Isadora Quay and Joanne Crawford, with contributions from Dr Michael Flood and Dr Patrick Kilby. • Read the inaugural issue of Gender Matters at the IWDA website • Subscribe to the IWDA Gender Matters email list INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DEVELOPMENT AGENCY (IWDA) IWDA is the only Australian development organisation entirely focused on women's rights and gender equality. IWDA's vision is for a just, equitable and sustainable world where women have a powerful voice in economic, cultural, civil and political life. IWDA is secular, not-for-profit and works in partnership to create positive change across Asia and the Pacific. Read more on our website.

Related articles

• AWID Resource-Net Jobs: Monday 2 July 2012

A Labor Govt belittles Aboriginal Australians. The NT Intervention, now AIATSIS. What next?

From renowned NT journalist, Bob Gosford

The slow death of Aboriginal Research?

AIATSIS suspends research grants

The Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) website says that it is:

…the world’s premier institution for information and research about the cultures and lifestyles of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, past and present.

The Institute undertakes and encourages scholarly, ethical community-based research, holds a priceless collection of films, photographs, video and audio recordings and the world’s largest collections of printed and other resource materials for Indigenous Studies, and has its own publishing house.

Its activities affirm and raise awareness among all Australians, and people of other nations, of the richness and diversity of Australian Indigenous cultures and histories.

Fine words and noble ambitions that AIATSIS has strived to fulfill over the past 50 or so years. From my own research on Aboriginal bird knowledge I found the resources in the AIATSIS library and archives an great source of information and inspiration.

But more than a few in the fields of research – anthropology, linguistics, law and archaeology – central to the very fine work that AIATSIS has sponsored over the years are dismayed at this recent announcement in the AIATSIS Grants page:

With the greatest reluctance, the AIATSIS Council has decided that applications for research grants will not be invited for the 2012 year. Although an important discretionary program, this will be the first time in over 20 years that grants will not be available.

AIATSIS funding from Government has fallen steadily over the past decade, in inflation-adjusted terms. Submissions to Government for increased base funding, or exemption from the efficiency dividend, have been unsuccessful. We have now passed the point where all legislated functions can be delivered, and in this context Council took the view that decisive action was called for.

Whilst Council noted, and appreciates, the Government’s decision to exempt AIATSIS from the additional 2.5% efficiency dividend in 2012-13, this will have no positive impact on ongoing funding.

An internal review of the grants program found that it isn’t meeting the intended purposes.

It has been substantially unchanged for over a decade, and would need to be redesigned to meet current expectations from Indigenous communities, researchers and AIATSIS priorities. In addition, the grants program is no longer eligible for inclusion in the Australian Competitive Grants Register, due to a Government policy decision in 2010.

For these reasons, Council reluctantly decided that the grants program could not be funded next year. Instead, the funds will be used to bolster research in priority areas which are critically short of resources.

In the overall scheme of research in Australia the AIATSIS small grants certainly provided bang for the public’s buck. A quick look at the grants over the past few years reveals the depth and breadth of the research funded by these grants – which at about $680,000 per year are pretty modest. Follow the highlighted links for the 2011, 2010 and 2009 research projects and see the breadth, depth and quality of the research for yourself.

Does any of this matter?

For mine it does. Very much.

I agree with the commentator who noted that:

…for very little money AIATSIS was able to tap into some of the latest research and then ensure that outcomes were returned to the institution: manuscripts / audio / visual etc.

This wonderful repository will no longer be fed by this emerging research. While the networks and loyalties of researchers who are funded (such as myself for my PhD field research in the mid 1990′s) will no longer be developed.

The fact that AIATSIS has to manage with dwindling government funding cannot alone explain this action. It is extremely disappointing.

Your thoughts are welcome.

Australia - the need to take greater care of our groundwater : Water for a healthy country

Material for this post has come via Maria Reidl.
 Thanks Maria - you are a great water campaigner.

On the web, see also
Groundwater hydrology: ensuring sustainable groundwater resources
Surface water - groundwater interactions