Have just received an invitation via Helen Mary Hill - former political staffer, now academic, writer, East Timor advocate and activist - to join the Postcolonial Theology Network on Facebook. In case this sounds like heady stuff, in simple terms it is about reaction to colonialism and colonisation.
People might be tempted to think in terms of Africa and Asia and so on where former Empires invaded parts of the world and subjugated the local population. Oops! Wait a minute, isn't that what happened in Australia? Oh yes, but the British went away. Did they? In Australia, we tend to think that colonialism disappeared magically on the 1 January 1901 with Federation. We don't look at ourselves critically to see that we have not left behind colonial attitudes, Great White Father patronage and arrogance either within our own nation or in relationship with others - and I think particularly of our attitude toward the Pacific Island nations in this regard.
So I have signed up and accepted Helen Mary's invitation. Hopefully, I will learn a lot. Hopefully, I can make some contribution. Hope to meet you there.
You invited me to join and I'm still thinking about it. I'm still waiting for someone to return Edward Said's "Orientalism" to the library so I can borrow it and discover what postcolonialism is. I'm also not sure about joining groups on Facebook. I've joined groups and then never see them again. A mailing list might be a better bet.
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