Charles Harris – A struggle for justice

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In 2015 the Uniting Church in Australia committed itself to work with the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress (UAICC) “to establish a memorial for the Rev. Charles Harris.” It is not clear what Charles would have thought of having a memorial in his name because the one memorial that he most cherished was a thriving Congress committed to serving the Indigenous people of Australia. However, whatever form remembrance may take, it is important that the life of Charles Harris be remembered, understood and celebrated. This not least, because biography has the power to instruct and inspire the present and, as well, refashion the future. As the Danish philosopher Kierkegaard said “Life must be lived forward, but can only be understood backward.” It is my hope that this biography of Charles Harris will signpost, for some decades to come, the possibilities and potential of courageous Indigenous leadership and also shed light on Charles’ hard struggle for justice in Australian race relations.
Charles Harris had not long died when I first read his stirring address to the 1988 Assembly of the Uniting Church. In his capacity as president of the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress, he began with words of enthusiasm for the growth and achievements of the Congress. These achievements were worthwhile, he told the Assembly, and he thanked God and the Uniting Church for making them possible. Yet, Charles admitted, the past three years had been “strange ones” for members of Congress, years when word and action seemed to have been dislocated, the end result being a frustrated sense of powerlessness. Aboriginal people, he said, felt this sharply as politicians began to recoil in the face of attacks against land rights from mining and right-wing lobby groups. Aboriginal members of the Uniting Church, he further reminded those present, also felt this sense of powerlessness within the congregations and councils of the Uniting Church.
Later in the speech Charles reflected on the debate surrounding the 1988 Bicentenary. “In Adelaide in 1982,” he began, “Aboriginal members of the Uniting Church from various parts of Australia felt immensely affirmed and supported.” “In the decision on the Bicentennial,” he told the Assembly, the Uniting Church committed itself to take part in these celebrations “only if sufficient progress has been made towards the just claims of Aboriginal people for land rights, freedom to rebuild their society and financial compensation.” Charles then emphasised what that decision had meant to Aboriginal people:
Here was the Uniting Church at its highest level saying that it would not join in the party if this small part of our membership still suffers. The church promised our experience would determine its action. The church placed our needs above its desires and proper expectation of joyful celebration. The church had given us hope, not by promising us money, but by saying the church’s task was to act by standing alongside the poor, in this case Aboriginal people.