Looking for Baha'u'llah's Will in Everything

Indigenous children's rights at the centre of 'National Emergency'

If you live in Australia, you know that it's been a massive week for dialogue about race and rights. The release of a report entitled 'Every Child is Sacred,' has revealed staggering incidences of childhood sexual abuse in the majority of Indigenous communities across the Northern Territory. While some kind of drastic recourse is imperative, the official authorities' declaration of a 'National Emergency,' replete with the deployment of army troops and police officers, as well as outlining plans (thankfully now under revision) to conduct invasive medical checks on every child under 16, has struck many as overly dramatic and almost completely irrelevant.

It's difficult not to feel polarised about the issues involved. On one hand, there is evidence that children have been violated. This is abhorrent, unacceptable and requires urgent action. On the other hand, I for one can't help feeling sceptical about the magnitude of this extremely public reaction considering how long other Aboriginal rights; to health care, to land ownership, to education, have been neglected - especially when a Federal election looms just months away.

What I want to focus on however is not political machinations but the fact that, as in every situation if I look hard enough, there are signs of Baha'u'llah's Will to be discerned by my hopeful Baha'i eyes. In this case, it is the language being used to criticise the velocity with which action has been taken, specifically the lack of 'consultation' with Indigenous leaders and elders. Rex Wild QC, co-author of 'Every Child is Sacred' felt "disappointed the report's recommendation for a joint approach between the Federal and Territory Governments in consultation with Aboriginal people has not happened....'The answer is to sit down with the people, work out what they need, provide them with assistance.' he said." (Read the whole article here.)

For Baha'i's, the term consultation refers to a distinctive element of future global governance revealed by Baha'u'llah. Consultation has many features, but essentially it is a mode of decision making that is spiritual in nature. True consultation seeks to respect the beliefs and rights of everyone involved when addressing issues of injustice, rather than solely those in positions of power or authority:

"The heaven of divine wisdom is illumined with the two luminaries of consultation and compassion and the canopy of world order is upraised upon the two pillars of reward and punishment." - Baha'u'llah, Tablets of Baha'u'llah, p. 126

Additionally, Baha'u'llah described consultation as a means of building unity across diverse opinions and, by implication, diverse cultures:

"Take ye counsel together in all matters, inasmuch as consultation is the lamp of guidance which leadeth the way, and is the bestower of understanding." - Baha'u'llah, Tablets of Baha'u'llah, p. 168

Any attempt to address the complex problems in the Northern Territory will be ethically challenging and will no doubt raise ugly truths about the failure of the Commonwealth of Australia to protect its most vulnerable citizens. And while I wish with every cell it had not been initiated by such confronting human right abuses, I'm glad the hyperbolic response to this report has led to such open dialogue about the dark skeleton of racial inequality in this nation's closet. The events of this last week have given voice to an increasing desire for a workable dialogue of reconciliation, for interracial consultation, and my heart glows just a little whenever I hear Baha'i terminology being freely used in contemporary vernacular. If we are going to achieve real unity in Australia, as in the rest of the world, we need to start listening to one another. Though we're not yet adept at using the gifts Baha'u'llah's legacy has bestowed upon us, we are starting to be aware of our need for them. It's a start.