The Story

For as long as humans have walked the planet is the story. We each have our own story, yet we share the story. It is passed down from generation to generation, forever changing yet remaining constant. It presents us with our highest ideals and confronts us with the dark side of our being.

The story has always entertained us. Throughout our history it has defined us, helped us understand who we are in relation to others, and passed on values and the knowledge we have needed to survive.

It is ours to decide what we do with the story we inherit. The story we receive is the amalgamation of many stories, that of our parents and their parents, our community, our nation and more. We can accept it as read, or take from it that which is good and discard the bad. We can also add to it by taking from the stories of others. If we are wise we will recognise the good in their stories and understand how we can weave that into the story we leave our children.

Our land has an ancient story, the story of the Dreamtime. It has been passed on in dance and painting and narrated around the campfire from ancient time. Most of us know little if anything of this story, for we have a different one. The majority story is still one of Anglo Celtic origin. Informed by our Christian heritage it has shaped our laws, values and attitudes. We have made it uniquely ours with tales of convicts, squatters, bushrangers, suicidal swaggies, miners and soldiers. Since the end of World War Two especially people have come to our shores from other places. Europe, Asia, Africa – indeed, in the words of the song ‘from all the lands we’ve come.’ Their story is not of depression – at least in this land – squatters, ANZAC, Eureka, shearers’ strikes and bushrangers. They are Hindu, Moslem, Buddhist and Orthodox. They bring different values, attitudes, and ways of understanding. The story is fragmenting, changing.

Today the story is all around us. It is on our plasma screens, IPhones, tablets and movie screens. It beckons to us from the book shops and newsagents. We can fill our minds with the latest gossip about our celebrities of choice or the latest conquests of our sporting heroes. Never before has the human race had such an abundance of story. But do we ever stop to reflect on, discuss, analyse and understand it. Is it simply entertainment, or does it still shape who we are, how we think, and what is important to us? Does it still help us to survive?

If we lose the story we lose who we are. We have no meaningful legacy to leave our children and their children. We leave them wandering confused, without meaning, and devoid of lasting values.

The future of our nation and that of our children belongs to them, not to us. Ours it to pass on the story that will help them determine the values they will live by, that will help them to survive, to give them their identity and place in the world. We fail them if we do not do this.

If we are to bequeath them a worthwhile legacy we must understand our story. We must listen to the stories of those who have come to this land from the different nations of the world. If we can add to our story the good that others offer and discard the dross that permeates all stories we can help our children build a strong and united nation. The alternative is division, insecurity and meaningless and all that comes with that.

The future may not be ours, but it is ours to shape.