Brenda's mission of reconciliation

Brenda Huddleston on her Australian trip

A Norwich woman has travelled to the other side of the world to help reconcile the Aboriginal people of Australia to the English and to white Australians. Brenda Huddleston, secretary of the REAP (Regional East Anglian Prayer network), flew out to Cairns to join a team of 35 intercessors whose aim was to effect a reconciliation by apologising to the local Aborigines whose ancestors had suffered so much at the hands of English settlers and convicts. "I saw God heal so many lives of deep hurts that often went right back through the generations to the time when their ancestors had been sent out from England as convicts, often for the most trivial of crimes," said Brenda. "Or for the indigenous people who had been taken off their own land, their children removed from them, the women raped and alcohol introduced." Brenda, from St Elizabeth's in Earlham, joined a team led by Brian Mills and Roger Mitchell who sought forgiveness on behalf of our English ancestors. Over seven weeks they visited sites at Townsville, Brisbane, Stradbroke Island and Adelaide.

"At massacre sites, orphanages, war memorials, on aboriginal land and in churches of many denominations we stood, knelt, prayed and often wept as the heart of God was communicated," said Brenda. We took symbolic things such as shackles and flags. "An Aboriginal elder, with tears streaming down his face, said that he never thought he would see the day when the British, the original people to disinherit his own people, would come in such humility to apologise. 'This is one of the greatest days of my life,' he said. "Some of the worst racial crimes in the world were committed against the Aborigines when they were under British protection," explained Brenda. Brenda is hoping to visit Prague later this year to attend a conference on Reconciliation and also visit Brazil, which is itself now sending missionaries to Britain.

Intercessors mix with Australians at a communion service on Stradbroke Island.