Theological Conversation on Country

On 12 December 2025, the Victoria Treaty between the state of Victoria and First Peoples officially came into effect. The next day a smaller group gathered in St Kilda to consider and respond to the recent book Contemplating Country by Trawloolway theologian Rev Dr Garry Worete Deverell. The papers presented on the day are published in this volume. 

On 12 December 2025, the Victoria Treaty between the state of Victoria and First Peoples officially came into effect to great public celebration. The next day a much smaller group gathered at Yilawaru in St Kilda to consider and respond to the recent book Contemplating Country by Trawloolway theologian Rev Dr Garry Worete Deverell. The gathering was hosted by Wiradjuri artist and theologian Archdeacon Glenn Loughrey, who opened proceedings with a smoking ceremony and an acknowledgement of the Wurundjeri and Bunurong Countries on which we were meeting. Other Indigenous participants were Ms Sherry Balcombe (OlkolaKunjen/Muluridji-Djabugay), Ms Naomi Wolfe (Trawloolway), and Dr Deverell himself. Each of the first three Indigenous participants served as consultant to one of the three small groups that discussed responses to Dr Deverell’s book, with papers presented by non-Indigenous writers Mersina Papantoniou, John Bottomley, Anne Elvey, Mick Pope, and Duncan Reid. The facilitators for the small groups were Mr Tim Molineux (social justice officer, Uniting Church), Rev Dr Gordon Preece (editor of Ethos), and Associate Professor Joanna Cruikshank (senior lecturer, Deakin University). The second half of the morning consisted in a panel discussion, with the four Indigenous participants constituting the panel, and chaired by Rev Sandy Boyce, General Secretary of the VCC.

The papers presented on the day are published in this volume. In his summing up, Dr Deverell pointed out that non-Indigenous theological allies came in two varieties (and sometimes both): ‘those who engage our work through both respectful listening and active intellectual response; and those who not only speak but also act to support our theological work.’ Theology may begin at dusk, as Gustavo Gutiérrez told us more than fifty years ago, but if Indigenous theology is to be treated seriously as a legitimate theological enterprise, it must also be possible in broad daylight, not just after the day’s ‘real’ work of earning a living has been done.

All participants were asked to consider what they had heard and learnt from the conversation, and to tell someone else – by word of mouth, not just in writing – within the next day. The research has been done and will continue to be done; the conversation was a valuable instance of engagement between two theological cultures, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, at a decisive turning point for both communities in Victoria and more widely; and the impact is already shaping the way theology and social policy will be undertaken into the future.

John Bottomley, editor, is a Uniting Church in Australia minister and Chairperson of the Religion and Social Policy Network of the University of Divinity. John’s consultancy research interests address the trauma caused by the deepseated violence in the way work is shaped by and shapes our free-market economy, the church, and our political system. He is a member of the Creative Ministries Network Congregation.

Garry Worete Deverell is a trawloolway man from northern lutruwita/Tasmania and an Anglican priest licensed in the Diocese of Melbourne. He lives with his partner, Lil, in pataway/Burnie. Garry serves as a director of two Indigenous organisations: Six Rivers Aboriginal Corporation in the north of lutruwita and the newly established National Indigenous Ecumenical Council.

Anne Elvey is a poet and researcher of settler descent living on unceded Bunurong Country. Her most recent scholarly book is Reading with Earth: Contributions of the New Materialism to an Ecological Feminist Hermeneutics (Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2023). Anne is a member of RASP.

Mersina Papantoniou is a researcher within Social Policy/Social Sciences. Her forthcoming book (2026) is: The Multicultural Challenge to Sydney Anglican Identity: its Achilles Heel, an interdisciplinary approach.

Mick Pope is a lecturer in meteorology with a PhD from Monash University. He is an ecotheologian at large, with a M Phil on anthropocene ethics in the Hebrew Bible, and is working on a PhD on mass extinction and panentheism.

Duncan Reid, editor is an Anglican priest, an honorary research fellow of the University of Divinity and an adjunct staff member of Trinity College Theological School. He has long-standing interests in ecumenism, trinitarian theology, and an ecotheological doctrine of creation.

• Edited by John Bottomley
• Edited by Duncan Reid