Catherine Kelly
Born County Clare,
Ireland, 1826
Married William Smith
in Sydney, 26/4/1847. Married the second time to Joseph Skinner at St Mary’s
Cathedral, 17/10/1856.
Died, 3/5/1909 and
was buried in the Roman Catholic cemetery in Lismore, NSW.
That, basically, is
all I know of my great-great grandmother. Who was she? Why did she come to
Australia? Was she a convict or a free immigrant? Was she, as my grandfather
always maintained, related to Ned Kelly? When did she arrive? 1847 is the
earliest date I have for any of my ancestors being in Australia. Catherine
possibly arrived before that year. And what of Joseph Skinner, occupation
gardener, my great-great grandfather, born in Lincolnshire? Did he come here of
his own free will or, like many others, was he hand-picked by one of England’s
finest judges? From the scant detail I have of my family history, it seems my
forebears began arriving in Australia during the 1840s and all had arrived well
before 1900. Some were free settlers. Others? I don’t know. I know nothing of
their lives in England, Scotland, Ireland and Germany. Neither do I know the
circumstances or reasons that caused them to leave homes and families to come
to a new and strange country – a country that to the early European arrivals
was harsh and often inhospitable. I sometimes wonder at the determination and
ingenuity of those who pioneered new crops and farming methods and who learned
by trial and error the skills needed to survive. John Marsh, who with his wife
Mary Anne, arrived in Sydney in 1861, built one of the early sugar mills on the
Lower Clarence River. When I was last in Maclean I visited the local museum. My
great grandfather Albert, John’s son, was featured. He was one of those who pioneered
the growing of broom millet in the Clarence district. I remember my grandfather
making brooms. Many believed Joe Marsh made the best brooms in the district.
Joe learnt from his father. Until I visited the museum I thought this must have
been a skill the family brought with them from England. It seems otherwise.
Albert taught himself. You may think broom making a simple task. One of Dad’s
cousins told me recently that there were three or four different grades of
millet in a good broom. The millet had to be harvested at the correct time,
allowed to dry, and the appropriate grade chosen for the right place in the
broom. Although the machinery used was primitive by today’s standards, it was
designed and built by the pioneers.
This year we
celebrate 100 years of Australian Federation. At the recent commemorative event
in Centennial Park the Prime Minister, John Howard, spoke of the nation we have
become – a nation without the class structures so prevalent in Europe, one
marked by egalitarian ideals. As Australians we take pride in this egalitarian
ideal. This is the land of the “battler”, the little bloke who has fought
against the odds to make a go of it, the land of the “fair go”. These ideals
are challenged by different international surveys showing we are rapidly
becoming one of the most economically divided nations in the developed world.
Regularly we hear of the alienation felt by so many rural people as they feel
abandoned by governments and institutions. In this centenary year it will do us
well to reflect on our past, to recall those facts of history that have helped
shape us. As we reflect on the past we must also ponder the future. How can we
ensure that our children and grandchildren, as they celebrate another century
of Federation, share a society that guarantees every one of its citizens a fair
go?
The Land of Origin
It is right and
proper that we remember the injustices suffered by indigenous Australians
following white settlement. It also does us well to ponder the world those
early settlers left behind. The way for the industrial revolution was paved,
among other things, by enclosure acts. Land that for generations had been
worked as communal land was enclosed by acts of parliament. Many of the
peasants were forced from their family lands to become the workforce for the
mines and factories that marked the rise of the capitalist society. Laws of the
time favored the rich. Employers and landholders had almost total control over
the lives of their employees. Workers had little, if any, rights. Disease,
deformity and disfigurement were common place as the emerging capitalist class
sought to maximize profit regardless of the extent of human suffering. Young
children were forced to work long hours in cramped, dangerous and unhygienic
conditions. The Irish had long suffered at the hands of the English. For
something like 400 years Irish Catholics could not own land.
It was this cruel and
oppressive society, where little value was placed on the lives of ordinary men
and women, that the first white settlers came from. The journey was long and
dangerous. Many free settlers traveled on ships that were unseaworthy. The
merchants who owned these ships did not care if they were lost. They were well
insured. From the earliest days of white settlement until the present day men
and women have continued to come to our shores, seeking a new and better life
free of oppression, tyranny and injustice.
The Selectors and Ned
Kelly
The ideals we value
did not come easily. The attempt to establish a “Bunyip Aristocracy” was
resisted by ordinary people. It was not until the 1850s that the children of
the convicts and the poor immigrants won the right to own their own land. The
attempts of these selector farmers were bitterly opposed by the squatters who
were forced to give up some of their land. The squatters used every legal
avenue they could to force the selector farmers off their land so that
ownership could return to the squatters. Ned Kelly’s father was an emancipated
Irish convict trying to make a new life as a farmer on rented land. His
presence was resented by his rich neighbor who finally had him arrested for
possession of a calf hide that had had the brand cut out. His prison term left
him a sick and dispirited man. He died soon after being released. Ned, at the age
of 10, became the man of the household. He grew to manhood sensitive to “the
great division separating the bush worker and the selector from the squatter
and the legal system which seemed to protect the wealthy”. Ned Kelly, taught
from birth there was no justice in an English court, his family continually
harassed by an incompetent and poorly led police force, considered a criminal
and murderer by the social elite, was idolized as a hero by many of the poorer
classes. A royal commission following his execution resulted in reforms to the
Victorian police force.
Eureka Stockade
The Eureka Stockade
of 1854 is a significant event in our history. The Australian born miners
regarded the presence of the police on the gold fields as unnecessary
intervention. While they were unable to keep the roads safe from bush rangers
or effectively supervise the diggings, the police harassed the miners for their
mining licenses. Many of the miners from overseas had known oppression and
injustice in their homelands. More than gold they came seeking freedom. There
was resentment that the license fee was worth more than a squatter paid for
twenty square miles of land. Things came to a head when a publican, his wife
and another tried for the brutal murder of a miner were acquitted. The miners
believed the acquittal resulted from bribery and corruption in high places.
Although the rebellion was quickly put down it sent shock waves throughout the
colonies. Concerned that such an event could occur in an outpost of the Empire,
the authorities recognized a new spirit had emerged – that of the ordinary
bloke being determined to stand up for his rights. “Fearing an Australian
version of the American War of Independence the government quickly gave in to
the demands of ... [the miners] and granted the ordinary man a vote”.
The Shearers’ Strikes
Australia came close
to civil war in the 1890s. Although unionism had flourished in good economic
times depression strengthened the employers resolve to break union power. The
Masters and Servants Act gave employers absolute control over their laborers.
Squatters determined shearers pay and conditions – and these were not favorable
to the shearers. At issue was collective bargaining verses individual contracts
– sound familiar? Shearing sheds that employed “scab” labor were torched. The
shearers were skilled bushmen – good horsemen, crack shots, and well-armed. The
police were described by the Sydney Morning Herald as “with few exceptions
unfit for police duties. Some were very bad riders with a mixture of plain
clothes and uniforms”. On the whole the police were no match for the shearers.
Some consider that if the shearers had been provoked a little more they could
have taken the country with very little bloodshed. High unemployment, which
provided a pool of “scab” labor, plus a government and a judiciary that sided
strongly with the squatters, led to the defeat of the unions. It was this
experience that led the labor movement to form a political arm – the Australian
Labor Party. Fortunately for our country, the labor movement decided to fight
for better working conditions through the political process rather than follow
the path of armed revolution.
Waltzing Matilda
It was against the
background of the shearers strike that Banjo Patterson wrote the words to
Waltzing Matilda. This most Australian of icons was written on a station in
outback Queensland that had been caught up in the violence of the strikes.
While a guest of the squatter, Patterson’s sympathies lay with the strikers.
The central character of the poem may have been a shearer who shot himself
after torching a shearing shed housing several sheep. While shearing sheds were
fair targets the shearers would not torch a shed that housed sheep. Whether or
not this version is true, Waltzing Matilda captures the elements of the
struggle that went on for much of the 19th century. The wealthy
squatter on his thoroughbred and the troopers who did his bidding. The
swaggy, typical of the poor bush laborer of his day. In the eyes of his peers,
taking a sheep from a squatter was not a crime. And so, in that swaggy we can
see represented the spirit of those who choose to die free rather than
surrender to an unjust and oppressive system. Waltzing Matilda first gained popularity
among the bush laborers of outback Queensland. These same Queensland bushmen
introduced it to the Australian soldiers during WW1. Ever since then it has
been our best known song. We do well to remember the struggle it symbolizes.
The Hebrew Nation
The Hebrew people had
been in Egypt for approximately 400 years. They had become slaves to the
Egyptians who treated them cruelly. In fear of their increasing numbers the
Pharaoh decreed that if a Hebrew woman gave birth to a male child the child was
to be thrown into the Nile river (Ex. 1:22). God took this oppressed people out
of Egypt and gave them their own land. He made a covenant, or agreement, with
them. They would prosper as a nation so long as they kept this agreement.
Many Christians
mistakenly ignore the Sinaitic covenant. While the mechanics of it may have had
application to a different time and culture the underlying principles are as
relevant today as they have ever been. In fact, we cannot fully understand what
it means to live in a redemptive relationship with God unless we understand the
Old Testament. I believe the Old Testament provides the basis for a strong
appeal to secular people as well as those searching for meaning in the New Age
and other spiritualties. It is the foundation on which the New Testament
is built. The Church will remain weak and enfeebled, unable to respond
adequately to the challenges of contemporary western culture until we
rediscover the holistic spirituality of the Old Testament. Here is the ethic of
God. Here we see the human connection with God, community and environment.
The Social Imperative
The Sinaitic covenant
provided protection for the little people – the widows, orphans, poor and the
aliens. They could not be charged interest, basic rights were protected, they
had access to the gleanings from the fields – the grain and fruit that was
missed by the harvesters as they went through the fields the first time. At all
times they were to be treated humanely. Exploitation of any kind was forbidden.
Every seven years all debts were cancelled. Bonded servants – those who had
become so indebted they were required to work off their debts – were to receive
a generous payment on release. Every 50 years all land was returned to the
families it had been originally given to. This was not a free market, free
trade economy. The rich had an obligation to care for and protect the poor.
The Redemptive Relationship
As part of the covenant the people were required to observe various
feasts or religious days. Three feasts were celebrated consecutively in the
first month of the year – Passover, Unleavened Bread and First Fruits.
Pentecost was celebrated in the third month, and Trumpets, Day of Atonement and
Tabernacles in the seventh. No explanation is given in the Bible for keeping
the Feast of Trumpets. The Day of Atonement was a day of national cleansing
from sin. The other feasts were linked to the agricultural cycle. The first
fruits of the barley and wheat harvests were presented to the Lord at First Fruits
and Pentecost respectively. The last festival of the year, Tabernacles, was a
weeklong harvest celebration.
Among other things, the annual ritual was designed to commemorate God’s
mighty redemptive act. Passover, Unleavened Bread and Tabernacles all
commemorated the deliverance from Egypt. In Deuteronomy 26 the people are
instructed to present the first fruits of the harvest to God. As part of the
ceremony the priest was affirm the Lord’s goodness in delivering them from
oppression and bringing them to a land ‘flowing with milk and honey.’ The
Exodus experience was to live on in the minds and hearts of Israel from
generation to generation. They existed as a free and independent nation only
because God had set His love on them and because of His promise to Abraham, Isaac
and Jacob. A nation of redeemed slaves was to treat the poor and aliens with
compassion. The land they lived in was not theirs, it was God’s (Lev. 25:23).
Therefore the wealth it produced was also God’s. They were not to hoard
it to themselves but to be generous in their dealings with the poor and
indebted. God had poured out His generous love on them. They were to be
generous in their dealings with each other. The example of Israel is that grace
is not only about acceptance before God and forgiveness of sin. Those who
receive grace become channels of grace to the world around them. Through
generosity of spirit, through commitment to the poor and social justice, in
seeking to build a society in which all people equally share earth’s bounty, we
live out a life of grace.
Trust in God
Three times each year all the men were to appear before the Lord –
Unleavened Bread, Pentecost and Ingathering (Ex. 23: 14-17; 34:18). Jerusalem
became the centre in which these feasts were celebrated. As the men travelled
to Jerusalem their borders would be unprotected from their surrounding enemies.
As they had taken possession of the land God had driven their enemies out
before them. They were stronger militarily than Israel. It was only by His
strength that the land had been won. God promised the land would be safe during
these annual pilgrimages (Ex.34:24). Every seventh year the land was to rest.
In this year the Israelites could neither plant nor reap. God promised He would
provide abundantly for them during this time (Lev. 25:20-22).
Living by Grace
In God’s plan, the nation of Israel was to show the world what it meant
to live in a relationship of grace. It was grace that had redeemed Israel from
slavery to become a free and independent nation. As people of grace they were
to recount regularly God’s mighty acts of forgiveness, healing and deliverance.
As God had been generous to them, they were to be generous to each other. This
was to be the ultimate counter culture – one marked by forgiveness, compassion,
and care for the weak and the vulnerable. Israel was not to be an economically
divided nation marked by haves and have-nots. By traveling to Jerusalem three
times each year and leaving their borders unprotected and by resting the land
every seventh year they were to demonstrate trust in the continuing promise of
God to protect and provide.
The gulf between the rich and poor in our world and our nation is
increasing. A small, wealthy minority spends millions on sports, luxury cars, world
travel and the like while millions live in abject poverty and starvation.
Twenty percent of earth’s inhabitants consume eighty percent of its resources.
Over consumption by those of us living in the developed nations is destroying
life as we know it. If the living standards of the poor were improved to the
level that they could consume as much as we do, the life of our planet would
decrease more rapidly than it is already. Much of the ecological destruction
occurring in the developing world results from the demands of western money
lenders for the repayment of debt and the desire of those nations to emulate
our living standards. Greed and exploitation is destroying our world.
Grace provides the only solution to problems of inequality and over consumption.
In the beginning God created the world. Into this world He placed Adam and Eve,
made in His image and likeness to rule over and care for it. Grace for the
human race began here. Humanity had no part in the creation of the world; they
had not earned the right to live in it. God placed them there as His
representatives, to reflect in their rule His love for all He has made (Ps.
145:13,17). While they lived in right relationship with Him He would provide
all that they needed for life and much more. This promise was repeated to
Israel. The land God gave them was not theirs by right. It was a gift of love.
So long as they lived in right relationship with Him, reflecting His love in
their relationships with each other, He would continue to provide for them. As
they walked away from this relationship so they and their land suffered.
I work. My income is my reward. I use it to buy consumer goods, to
invest for the future, to provide for my family. If I purchase property don’t I
have the right to develop it as I choose? Can’t I provide employment for
others, regardless of the ecological impact of my actions or the wishes of
others in the community? Hasn’t God promised to bless the faithful and pour out
riches upon them? (Mal. 3:10,11) Isn’t my material wealth evidence of God’s
blessings? This is the message from some pulpits and some ‘Christian’
publications?
We do have a responsibility to provide for our families (1 Tim 5:8; Tit.
3:14). It is reasonable that we provide for our future by careful investment.
The level of income we need and the things we provide will be influenced by our
cultural context. We remain created beings. The earth, and everything in it,
still belong to God (Ps. 24:1). God is still concerned for the poor. In
Genesis 1 God speaks 11 times to command the conditions necessary for life. His
expressed will that life exists on earth in all its myriad forms has not
changed. Jesus warned of the dangers of storing up earthly treasures. He told
us not to worry about tomorrow but rather to seek first the things of God for
God is still able to supply our needs (Mat. 6:19-34). That which God has
entrusted to us must be used to extend the Kingdom of Grace, to alleviate
suffering and, to the best of our ability, to maintain life for future generations.
The generosity of grace is best demonstrated in our generosity to others. To
hoard wealth, to gather to ourselves an abundance of consumer items in a world
of poverty, is a denial of grace.
Modern economics and the free market society operate from a profit
motive. Although there are some restrictions, the investor largely has the
right to seek maximum return on the investment. Investors take shares in
companies, either through direct shares or unit trusts, which may profit from
exploitation of third world labor, business arrangements with corrupt,
dictatorial governments or environmentally destructive practices. Western
individualism places great emphasis on individual freedom – but not communal
responsibility. Individuals have worth so long as they can contribute
meaningfully to the cycle of supply and demand – the more they contribute the
greater their value. The executive who increases economic efficiency, often
through downsizing the workforce, is rewarded with increased income and
prestige. This increased wealth is offered to the consumer god by way of luxury
houses, cars, overseas holidays and other things that affirm the success and
worth of the individual. Meanwhile, those workers who are laid off and unable
to find other employment are relegated to the status of ‘dole bludger’,
dependent on the public purse. While they may be given sufficient for the
basics of life they find themselves excluded from the mainstream of society as
they cannot afford to participate in those activities the rest of us take for
granted. Compare the practices of modern business with the following injunction
given to ancient Israel:
When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not
go back to get it. Leave it for the alien, the fatherless and the widow, so
that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. When you
beat the olives from your trees, do not go over the branches a second time.
Leave what remains for the alien, the fatherless and the widow. When you
harvest the grapes in your vineyard, do not go over the vines again. Leave what
remains for the alien, the fatherless and the widow. Remember that you were
slaves in Egypt. That is why I command you to do this (Deut. 24:19-22).
God places human need
before economic efficiency. The economy is the servant of the people. Too often
modern economics seems to reverse this, making people the servants of the
economy. We see again in the above quotation the injunction to ‘Remember that
you were slaves in Egypt.’ In Deuteronomy 8 God warns the people that when they
get to Promised Land and acquire wealth to remember that it is He who gives the
ability to produce wealth (Deut. 8:18). Some are born into families that value
education, model lifestyles of thrift and economy and provide a supportive,
nurturing home life. They are born with the ability to excel academically. The
vast majority of the world’s population are denied these privileges, born into
poverty and denied the basics of adequate nutrition, health care and education.
What a difference it would make to the world if those born with the privileges
so many of us take for granted saw these privileges as gifts from God to be
used for the betterment of humankind. Rather than showing off our success as we
climb the corporate ladder with a lifestyle cluttered with all that the
consumer society has to offer, we would seek to simplify our lifestyle so that
we could support organizations working to improve the welfare of the world’s
poor.
The Future
The Hebrew nation was
founded on grace. All human relationships with God are based on that same
grace. We cannot and we do not gain any merit with God by the way we live.
However, grace demands a response. We show by the way we live whether or not we
accept God’s grace. While individuals accepted the gift of grace, the Hebrew
nation as a whole rejected God. A nation that could have shown the world a
truly egalitarian society, where everyone had a “fair go”, was destroyed by
selfishness, greed and corruption. Modern Australia was born in harshness and
injustice. While we inherited the doctrine of the rule of law from England, the
law of the day was often anything but just. This nation, born without grace,
has been described as one of the most successful social experiments in history.
A nation peopled initially by convicts, considered the dregs of England, grew
into a society that rejected the class structures of the old world and prided
itself that it gave all of its citizens – so long as they were of Anglo-Gaelic
stock – a “fair go”. Today the pressures of increasing globalization and the
need to be competitive in a word market coupled with the prevailing influence
of economic rationalism is tearing at the heart of the Aussie ideal. We are in
danger of replicating the world our forebears rejected. If Australia is to
continue as a fair and decent society we must allow grace to undermine the
national character. And the only way the average Aussie will understand grace
is if they see it lived out in your life and mine. As we celebrate our
centenary as a nation, let us as Christians also celebrate the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ.
January 2001
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