First Nations Australian students in Rome enriched by cultural exchange
by Isabella H. de Carvalho and Grace Lathrop
Every summer, the Australian Catholic University (ACU) and the Australian Embassy to the Holy See join forces through the Francis Xavier Conaci Scholarship to sponsor two First Nations students to study in Rome.
On Wednesday, July 9, this year’s recipients Drew Campbell, a Wiradjuri woman, and Jacob Lasserre, a Kamilaroi man, both 19, shared their stories at an event at the Australian Embassy to the Holy See, as the nation celebrates the National Aboriginal and Islanders Day Observance Committee (NAIDOC) week from July 6 to 13. This year’s theme is “The Next Generation: Strength, Vision & Legacy.”
“My culture, it's not behind me. It is beside me and it was within me,” said Campbell in her speech, as she shared the story of her family’s aboriginal roots.
The scholarship program is named after Francis Xavier Conaci, a 19th-century Australian Aboriginal boy who travelled to Rome to train as a monk before dying tragically at a young age. He is believed to be buried in the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls.
The event was introduced by the Australian ambassador to the Holy See, Keith Pitt, who highlighted the importance of this scholarship and the opportunity to listen to the experiences of these young First Nation students. Representatives from the Vatican’s Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue and the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments were also present.
Reconnecting with their culture and history
Both Campbell and Lasserre are earning Bachelor's degrees at the ACU’s Brisbane Campus. For Campbell, who’s studying Speech Pathology, coming to Rome through this scholarship was a chance to reconnect with her Aboriginal roots and culture, especially her grandmother’s story, as she was taken from her parents at 8 years old and forced to live with a non-Indigenous family.
“What I am learning and experiencing here, all of this ties down to making her proud, essentially. And I think that's one of the most important things in my heart,” Campbell told Vatican News, adding that she was inspired by the NAIDOC theme focusing on new generations of First Nation people.
She explained that this experience in Rome has highlighted the importance of giving back to communities, which is what she hopes to do in her work as a speech pathologist. “It is all about connection, and through connection is communication”, she said. “I want to go to rural areas and help aboriginal communities and those in need. I want to be able to give them a voice and make sure they have the same opportunities as everyone else”.
An important cultural exchange
For Lasserre, who is undertaking a degree in Secondary Education, the cultural exchange he has experienced in Rome is what has impacted him the most. “This opportunity to come to Rome to spread First Nations culture and bring it back to my community is an opportunity that I'll never take for granted,” he told Vatican News. “This represents not just a step in my journey, but a step for all First Nations people across Australia.”
He wants to bring what he has learned about Italy and Catholicism back to his community, along with in his future work as a teacher. During his speech at the event, he introduced himself in his native language as a Kamilaroi man and explained the importance of symbols in indigenous communities.
Visiting the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls
Visiting the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, where Francis Xavier Conaci is said to have been buried, was very “eye-opening,” Lasserre highlighted. For Campbell, Conaci’s story is a source of inspiration for her life. “He was an indigenous boy who went out of his comfort zone and did something no Aboriginal person had done at the time,” she said. “I want to take it as a life lesson going forward, even when I am uncomfortable or going to new places. He went as far as he could, and I want to as well.”
The other speakers at the event
The event at the Australian embassy also featured two other speakers whose work focuses on First Nation communities. Kirsten Sayers, chief executive officer of Caritas Australia, shared the body’s different projects and initiatives across Australia that include supporting First Nations communities to look for employment, working with indigenous people to contrast climate change or helping young Aboriginal families and mothers. She also shared that “First Nations Catholics are the youngest and fastest growing demographic in the Australian Catholic Church.”
“There are 135,681 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Catholics, a number that has tripled since 1986,” she said. “4.6% of the Catholic population in Australia is aged under 5, but this is almost doubled in the first Australian sphere, with 8.2% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Catholics under the age of 5.”
The last speaker, Katherine Aigner, shared her experience of working with the Vatican Museums’ ethnographic section, “Anima Mundi - Peoples, Arts and Cultures,” in 2010 to reconnect indigenous collections and objects with the communities they originated from. They created the exhibition “Rituals of Life” that same year and published various catalogues.
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