On Thursday the 29th of July, Boori Monty a famous aboriginal visited the Year 10 Killester girls to talk about his past life and famous Aboriginal Stories of the Dream Time. He showed us many of his belongings including the famous books he had written about the Aboriginal stories. The man informed the students a series of fascinating stories; this elaborated on what the Aboriginals believed in and lived by. As well as the stories, Boori also brought his didgeridoo that he had played for Michael Jackson previously and by the end of the day for us as well.
For the majority of the incursion I had felt a joy to listen to Boori speak as he informed us of various important things, for example how the Aboriginals did not get paid for their efforts until decades later and were only given about a thousand dollars. He had done all this not only in an educational way but also interacted with the students in an enjoyable manner. At other times I felt sorrowful and angry that the British treated them so awfully, and even though Australia did pay the Aboriginals for their efforts it was no where near enough.
There were many things which I had learnt about the Traditional Aboriginal culture this includes the knowledge about more dream time stories, for example the creek created by the boy in the tree which is known today as the fresh water creek. Also in today’s society the effects on the Aboriginals by the European contact is significant. They had made some feel ashamed of being Aboriginal and their culture in the early days, however they have in some way helped the Aboriginal people to become educated. The ways of living for these Indigenous people have changed incredibly as they no longer live in the bushes but in houses like the Europeans.
Boori taught me that being human everyone makes mistakes and everyone is equal. We should treat everyone as we would like to be treated because no matter what nationality they are, no matter how they live they’re just like me.
Story telling is an important factor in life, if it wasn’t for the stories created through the generations we may not learn from our mistakes. For the Aboriginal people, instead of having textbooks of information to learn about from the past they have stories of generations. For them story telling is their form of learning to ensure that history does not repeat itself.
Jesus and Dialogue in the Gospels
Matthew 15: 21-28 The Canaanite Woman’s faith 21 Jesus left that place and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon. 22Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, ‘Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.’ 23But he did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, ‘Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us.’ 24He answered, ‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.’ 25But she came and knelt before him, saying, ‘Lord, help me.’ 26He answered, ‘It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.’ 27She said, ‘Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’ table.’ 28Then Jesus answered her, ‘Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.’ And her daughter was healed instantly.
This is a story of a time when Jesus was approached by a Canaanite woman whilst in the district of Tyre and Sidon. The woman pleads Jesus to heal her daughter whom is tormented by a demon however at first Jesus does not answer her. In time her persistency gave way and he told her “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,” as she was not a lost sheep of Israel Jesus chose to not help her. However the woman proved her loyalty to God; Jesus said to her “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs” and she replied “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” Jesus then realising her belief healed her daughter.
This is an example of Jesus in dialogue with another as it shows when Jesus did not give the woman a chance to voice her faith, he did not realise her loyalty hence decided to not help her. Through dialogue with the Canaanite woman he saw that “great is [her] faith!” This shows that dialogue is essential for people to understand one another including Jesus. In all it was because of dialoguing with the woman that the daughter of the Canaanite Woman was healed.
When considering humanity, the story “The Canaanite Woman’s faith” shows that everyone is equal. Jesus should not only consider what he thinks is the lost sheep of the house of Israel but the lost sheep of all houses. There are many who are not under the house of Israel but do still have a strong faith in God, these people should not be excluded unless proven to.
The movement towards peace and goodwill in this story is at the end, where Jesus realises the woman’s faith and heals her daughter. As of this, Jesus now realises he must not underestimate the faith of followers even if they are not in the house of Israel, they can still be a loyal believer. The Canaanite woman is given the chance to inhabit a stronger belief as her daughter is now healed by Jesus, although the figure of the disciples are not dominant in this passage they have surely also realised like Jesus that they must dialogue with God’s people before judging their faith or loyalty.
Within several episodes of my life, an interaction with someone else has taught me something new and changed my attitude towards someone or something. An example of this includes a time when I had thought that a friend had done something very selfish as she made no communication (dialogue) to me to explain, this made me very agitated. However when I dialogued with her I understood her reasons and saw that it was not her fault.
Reflection: Study of this Religion Unit
This unit seemed to have taken aboard a different aspect in learning and there were many challenges involved throughout the unit, although through them I have managed to achieve many learning opportunities. Most importantly it has also deepened my understanding of faith tradition.
In respect to the symbol of a draw of many files containing information, this unit has increased the knowledge of other religions including Islam, Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism, and especially Buddhism. The learning was lengthy but through it my knowledge and understanding of the community in which I live in is now extended. The excursion to many religious placements earlier on in the year has contributed to this learning as well the wikispace my group and I have been assigned to create about Buddhism. The group effort of placing various bits of information together formed a magnificent information site; in the making of this we have come to many realisations about Buddhism of why they pray, their practice of humanity, faith expressions and several other bits of information.
The learning could not have been so significant without the challenges to achieve the learning, being the leader of the group especially put me into tricky situations of keeping my group organised and encourage the members to keep working. One major aspect of the challenges assigned to students were interviewing a Buddhism expert, to get into touch with one of these people are tough. After constant attempts to problem solve a member of the group was able to connect a monk, in all was successful. The fact that the task was set online on the wikispaces had brought its own set of challenges to the surface, which include being able to access the computer and setting out information on a website with limited editing techniques. At one stage information on the humanity page seemed to have disappeared and it seemed that all our effort had been taken away from us; having done the task on a website causes unexplainable problems. In the end we realised that there was a history page that recorded all the updates placed on each page, and saved us the trouble of redoing the tasks.
In regards to all this, achievements were attained after straining our brains. Through group work, I was able to learn how to lead a group and fairly distribute tasks to each member of the group. With all the members doing their part, the work was able to be done more efficiently, thus cooperation is essential in a group task. The key symbol shows that through these struggles I have opened a door to widen the knowledge and understanding I have of others. In all I have achieved a deeper understanding of faith tradition, now understanding the reasons behind the doings of Buddhists, not only did I extend my understanding but those who have visited the site in our community.
On Thursday the 29th of July, Boori Monty a famous aboriginal visited the Year 10 Killester girls to talk about his past life and famous Aboriginal Stories of the Dream Time. He showed us many of his belongings including the famous books he had written about the Aboriginal stories. The man informed the students a series of fascinating stories; this elaborated on what the Aboriginals believed in and lived by. As well as the stories, Boori also brought his didgeridoo that he had played for Michael Jackson previously and by the end of the day for us as well.
For the majority of the incursion I had felt a joy to listen to Boori speak as he informed us of various important things, for example how the Aboriginals did not get paid for their efforts until decades later and were only given about a thousand dollars. He had done all this not only in an educational way but also interacted with the students in an enjoyable manner. At other times I felt sorrowful and angry that the British treated them so awfully, and even though Australia did pay the Aboriginals for their efforts it was no where near enough.
There were many things which I had learnt about the Traditional Aboriginal culture this includes the knowledge about more dream time stories, for example the creek created by the boy in the tree which is known today as the fresh water creek. Also in today’s society the effects on the Aboriginals by the European contact is significant. They had made some feel ashamed of being Aboriginal and their culture in the early days, however they have in some way helped the Aboriginal people to become educated. The ways of living for these Indigenous people have changed incredibly as they no longer live in the bushes but in houses like the Europeans.
Boori taught me that being human everyone makes mistakes and everyone is equal. We should treat everyone as we would like to be treated because no matter what nationality they are, no matter how they live they’re just like me.
Story telling is an important factor in life, if it wasn’t for the stories created through the generations we may not learn from our mistakes. For the Aboriginal people, instead of having textbooks of information to learn about from the past they have stories of generations. For them story telling is their form of learning to ensure that history does not repeat itself.
Jesus and Dialogue in the Gospels
Matthew 15: 21-28 The Canaanite Woman’s faith
21 Jesus left that place and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon. 22Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, ‘Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.’ 23But he did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, ‘Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us.’ 24He answered, ‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.’ 25But she came and knelt before him, saying, ‘Lord, help me.’ 26He answered, ‘It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.’ 27She said, ‘Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’ table.’ 28Then Jesus answered her, ‘Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.’ And her daughter was healed instantly.
This is a story of a time when Jesus was approached by a Canaanite woman whilst in the district of Tyre and Sidon. The woman pleads Jesus to heal her daughter whom is tormented by a demon however at first Jesus does not answer her. In time her persistency gave way and he told her “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,” as she was not a lost sheep of Israel Jesus chose to not help her. However the woman proved her loyalty to God; Jesus said to her “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs” and she replied “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” Jesus then realising her belief healed her daughter.
This is an example of Jesus in dialogue with another as it shows when Jesus did not give the woman a chance to voice her faith, he did not realise her loyalty hence decided to not help her. Through dialogue with the Canaanite woman he saw that “great is [her] faith!” This shows that dialogue is essential for people to understand one another including Jesus. In all it was because of dialoguing with the woman that the daughter of the Canaanite Woman was healed.
When considering humanity, the story “The Canaanite Woman’s faith” shows that everyone is equal. Jesus should not only consider what he thinks is the lost sheep of the house of Israel but the lost sheep of all houses. There are many who are not under the house of Israel but do still have a strong faith in God, these people should not be excluded unless proven to.
The movement towards peace and goodwill in this story is at the end, where Jesus realises the woman’s faith and heals her daughter. As of this, Jesus now realises he must not underestimate the faith of followers even if they are not in the house of Israel, they can still be a loyal believer. The Canaanite woman is given the chance to inhabit a stronger belief as her daughter is now healed by Jesus, although the figure of the disciples are not dominant in this passage they have surely also realised like Jesus that they must dialogue with God’s people before judging their faith or loyalty.
Within several episodes of my life, an interaction with someone else has taught me something new and changed my attitude towards someone or something. An example of this includes a time when I had thought that a friend had done something very selfish as she made no communication (dialogue) to me to explain, this made me very agitated. However when I dialogued with her I understood her reasons and saw that it was not her fault.
Reflection: Study of this Religion Unit
This unit seemed to have taken aboard a different aspect in learning and there were many challenges involved throughout the unit, although through them I have managed to achieve many learning opportunities. Most importantly it has also deepened my understanding of faith tradition.
In respect to the symbol of a draw of many files containing information, this unit has increased the knowledge of other religions including Islam, Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism, and especially Buddhism. The learning was lengthy but through it my knowledge and understanding of the community in which I live in is now extended. The excursion to many religious placements earlier on in the year has contributed to this learning as well the wikispace my group and I have been assigned to create about Buddhism. The group effort of placing various bits of information together formed a magnificent information site; in the making of this we have come to many realisations about Buddhism of why they pray, their practice of humanity, faith expressions and several other bits of information.
The learning could not have been so significant without the challenges to achieve the learning, being the leader of the group especially put me into tricky situations of keeping my group organised and encourage the members to keep working. One major aspect of the challenges assigned to students were interviewing a Buddhism expert, to get into touch with one of these people are tough. After constant attempts to problem solve a member of the group was able to connect a monk, in all was successful. The fact that the task was set online on the wikispaces had brought its own set of challenges to the surface, which include being able to access the computer and setting out information on a website with limited editing techniques. At one stage information on the humanity page seemed to have disappeared and it seemed that all our effort had been taken away from us; having done the task on a website causes unexplainable problems. In the end we realised that there was a history page that recorded all the updates placed on each page, and saved us the trouble of redoing the tasks.
In regards to all this, achievements were attained after straining our brains. Through group work, I was able to learn how to lead a group and fairly distribute tasks to each member of the group. With all the members doing their part, the work was able to be done more efficiently, thus cooperation is essential in a group task. The key symbol shows that through these struggles I have opened a door to widen the knowledge and understanding I have of others. In all I have achieved a deeper understanding of faith tradition, now understanding the reasons behind the doings of Buddhists, not only did I extend my understanding but those who have visited the site in our community.