My Experience of Pilgrimage

The physical journey undertaken as a member of the 2014 Uluru pilgrimage was significant. The
personal journey was intellectually demanding, emotionally challenging and spiritually enlightening.
The opportunity to share such a rich experience with others from our Brisbane Catholic Education
community was a true privilege. The Central Australian landscape inspires a deep sense of
connectedness with creation and the Creator, allowing for the space and time for prayer and
reflection. The pilgrimage experience provides much more though, in that it promotes
connectedness to fellow pilgrims and those we met on the journey. The opportunity to learn from
the Arrente people, local Territorians and those who have chosen to live in the centre of Australia
was enhanced by many conversations, shared insights and questions with the group during car rides,
dinners and prayer times. To be a part of a group of people so open to learning, growth and
spirituality is a gift, and one I will treasure.

Street Retreat: Alice Springs Court House
Beside Alice Springs Court House is the tiny, stone Stuart Town Gaol, long since outgrown. One gets
the sense that the current, much larger courthouse has also been outgrown. An endless stream of
defendants seems to emerge from holding cells somewhere deep in the building, led by police to
appear before the magistrate. All of the men and women who appeared during the hour I sat in the
courtroom were accused of crimes fuelled by alcohol. All had been jailed prior to this appearance
and all were returned to jail from the courthouse.
To sit in the courthouse as an observer was intimidating. I cant begin to really understand how it
would feel to be a defendant in such a place, where the glass walls are reinforced by language
barriers, arcane rules and procedures and legal jargon intelligible only to the lawyers and judges. I do
know that I felt like an intruder and really questioned my own motivation for sitting and listening to
such private stories of pain and violence and poverty. I felt sympathy for the accused but their
stories were so removed from my own, that I found I was empathising with the lawyers and
paralegals. I cant imagine spending every day surrounded by such sadness without it leaving an
indelible mark. During the hour I spend in the courtroom the magistrate and lawyers seemed to be
doing their best to help the accused to understand what was happening, using translators at times
and speaking directly to the defendants in simple terms.
One lawyer was directed by the magistrate to remind him at their next scheduled appearance to
reduce the fine that had been imposed on her client after the woman failed to appear in court as she
had checked herself into a rehabilitation centre. The fine was $1000. The woman survives on a
Basics card loaded with $80 and a keycard with $200 to support her and a young son. All agreed
that she had no means to pay the fine. The woman was sent back to jail to undergo assessment for
inclusion in a residential alcohol rehabilitation program where her son would be able to stay with
her and she would be able to work off her sentence in community service.
One man appeared briefly to seek a stay of proceedings as he had the opportunity to take part in a
job training program. Permission was given. Another man was jailed for missing a visit with his
probation officer. He had gone back to his community for sorry business. Apparently there is a
system to account for this but he had not notified the officer before leaving. I wondered if he knew
that he could have avoided further trouble by making that notification.
The moment that has stayed with me most strongly is when one man was asked to plead on 5
different counts. His response to each was guilty. Each time he replied his voice became softer and
softer, until, by the final answer he was inaudible. His sense of shame seemed very tangible, as his
crimes were read out for all to hear. He was in jail because he had broken the terms of a previous
bail arrangement.
In many ways I expect this experience is typical of time spent in any local courtroom in the country
sad little stories about poor people who do bad things when they are drunk or drugged. Clearly, the
policies we have put in place do not work here. Repeat offences seem to be commonplace. Jail time
seems inevitable and ineffective as a deterrent. My hour in Alice Springs Court House has not made
me an expert, but it has made me certain that change is needed. We need to do better.

Karen Petherick
APRE
St Brigids Catholic Primary School
Nerang