A Taste of Norlane
A Taste of Norlane…
(The
following reflection was written by long term Seeds punter Brent Lyons
Lee. It appeared in a take away noodle box at a Seeds style seminar
series called Noodle Nights which were held as a way of launching the new mob in 2005)
Norlane was named after Norman Lane, a local serviceman from the district who was captured at Singapore and died working on the Burma-Thailand railway line in 1943.
The name appeared
in 1947 in the Population Census. In that year the Housing Commission
began its house-building program in Norlane, and by 1976 when its
program was completed there were 2,464 Commission houses. The peak
building period was 1951-7. Much of the housing was for employees at
Ford, International Harvester and a phosphate works.
There was
enormous pressure on housing in the early 1950s, with residents
resorting to make-do two-room dwellings, tents and partially completed
dwellings. The Housing Commission provided accommodation for families
unable to rent or to afford to purchase their own houses.
Still today Norlane is one of the very few areas of Geelong
where housing is ‘affordable’ for those not already in the market and
those who missed the property ‘boom’. With so many people using real
estate as income security for retirement, in some cases people owning
several homes… what does this mean for our economic system and the
fundamental right to housing??
Industry…
The ‘north side’
is surrounded by industry. Included in this taste of Norlane is a
woodchip. There is a massive woodchip pile on the docks that gets
exported for paper. There is an ongoing tension in that the logging
industry supplies jobs for people, and let’s face it, we all use paper.
However, are our logging practices sustainable?? The woodchip is
included to remind us that we are to care for creation. The church has
often shied away from environmental issues when it should really be at
the forefront. God is the first environmentalist.
There are number
of other industries around which have traditionally had bad
environmental practices…What does it mean to live and pray in the midst
of smokestacks??
The indigenous story…
The Geelong region and much of the south western parts of Victoria
were home to a large tribe of Australian natives called the Wathaurong
but with the arrival of the first Europeans in 1802 their full blooded
numbers of our original inhabitants began to decline.
The
next visitors were explorers Hume and Hovell crossing overland from
NSW in December 1824. Local natives told Hume that the bay was called
"Jillong" and the land "Corayo". Somehow, over the years, the names
have been reversed. Geelong itself was first 'established' by Europeans between 1836-1838.
Indigenous
history is an oral history which makes it very difficult to know exact
details of ancestry. This is especially true for the Wathaurong people.
There is very little documented history of the local Indigenous people.
It is one of the only known areas in the State of Victoria where the documentation indicates that there are no known descendants of the Wathaurong people living.
The traditional boundaries of the Wathaurong peoples start along the coastline from Werribee. The Werribee River
seems to have provided a boundary between the territories of the
Woiwurong aborigines to the north east and the Wathaurong to the south
west. The Wathaurong then stretches to the Lorne Peninsula area, traversing inland to Colac, through to Cressy onwards to Ballarat.
Within these
boundaries there are approximately 14 smaller clan groups who were
traditional and territorial owners of their particular site. The
closest clan to Norlane is said to be the Yawangi whose last survivor
"King" Bill Leigh died on Wooloomanata Station (on the Geelong side of
the You Yangs) in 1912.
The You Yangs are
the remains of an ancient volcanic mountain. It looks out over rolling
hills on one side and vast plains leading to a large bay on the other.
Geologists say an ancient massive explosion of the granite mountain
formed most of the highly fertile landscape, rich in gold deposits and
precious stones.
The local clan known as Yawangi held it to be
sacred and the mountain was used in initiations and divinations by the
elders. It was also used for trading, meetings and ceremonies between
many different groups from the Wathaurong tribes.
Today
a large number of words and names from the original Wathaurung
aboriginal language are preserved in the place names and street names
within the Geelong region. Anglicised, though they may be, we now treasure names such as Moorabool, Gheringhap, Malop, Moolap, Corio, Geelong, Barwon, You Yangs, Bellarine, Colac, Beeac and Birregurra.
Having an Anglo heritage myself, to travel to Britain and do a Celtic ‘pilgrimage’ through some of the holy places throughout the UK
was amazing. I began to feel how important a sense of connection to a
land is. I believe I had a small insight in to what an indigenous
Australians feel for this great land, by walking in the steps of my
direct ‘ancestors’. The indigenous people find a sense of
self from knowing their land. Their spirituality is tied to location.
In a busy and mobile world it makes spiritual sense to slow down and
know your place.
Belief…
It
is important to have a theology or belief that can encompass a personal
sense of holiness/wholeness as well as a social understanding of
wholeness… the two aren’t mutually exclusive… they actually rely on
each other. This also has to be grounded in an understanding of your
environment or your place in creation. I wonder how we can begin to
know God or the vision of the Economy/Kingdom of God without reflecting
on these three aspects of living and belief.
I’ve included Mark Pierson’s
thoughts on Urban Seed:church to ponder. These thoughts will have some
influence on how the Norlane Missional Community thinks about ‘church’.
There is a quote from Oscar Romero about immersing ourselves in the world, just as God did
Also included is a candle, which I find is the best way to focus me to meditate on all this…
Brent Lyons-Lee
May 2005
Some of the mob at the Seedy
commissioning service. A rather lost Eco Paul showed up late having
caught the train the night before and slept on the beach!