 | This article may rely excessively on sources too closely associated with the subject , potentially preventing the article from being verifiable and neutral.(March 2021) |
Brooke Prentis | |
|---|---|
| Born | 25 May 1980 Redcliffe, Queensland |
| Occupation(s) | CEO Common Grace, Indigenous activist |
Brooke Prentis (born 25 May 1980) is an Australian Aboriginal Christian leader, who is descended from the Wakka Wakka people. She is the current CEO of Common Grace and coordinator of the Grasstree Gathering.
Prentis was born in Cairns on Yidinji land and grew up in Redcliffe, Queensland on the lands of the Gubbi Gubbi people. [1] She is a descendant of the Wakka Wakka people. [1] She attended Redcliffe State High School, graduating in 1997. She studied at The University of Queensland gaining a Bachelor of Commerce and a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in Japanese and Political science. [2]
Prentis became a Christian while studying at university through The Salvation Army. She has been a member of various churches including the Uniting Church Australia, and the Anglican Church. She served as a Pastor in Ipswich within The Salvation Army’s Indigenous Ministries. [2]
Prentis is a founding member of the NAIITS (formerly North American Institute for Indigenous Theological Studies) Down Under Whitley College, University of Divinity, Melbourne, an initiative for Masters and PhD level theological education with an indigenous focus. [3] Prentis is studying a Masters in Theology through this program. She is also a scholar of the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture.[ citation needed ]
Prentis is a chartered accountant. She worked as an auditor with Ernst & Young for seven years. [4] She has served on the board of World Vision Australia and is a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD). [1]
Prentis is a senior fellow at Anglican Deaconess Ministries [5] and is writing a book with funding from the ministries as a resource for Australian Christians and the Australian Church in relationship with Aboriginal peoples. [6] [7]
Prentis has appeared on ABC’s The Drum , NITV’s The Point, Hope 103.2 FM, Soul Search, God Forbid, and Eternity magazine.[ citation needed ] Journalist Andrew West of ABC Radio National’s Religion and Ethics Report said Prentis is “one of the most prominent and eloquent Indigenous leaders in the church today”. [8]
Prentis is an advocate for reconciliation between indigenous and other Australians, particularly from a Christian perspective. [9] She is the Coordinator of the Grasstree Gathering, a national non-denominational event bringing together Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Christian leaders. [10]
Prentis was the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Spokesperson for Common Grace in a volunteer capacity since 2015. In February 2020, she was appointed CEO for the organisation, [11] making her the first indigenous CEO of a Christian organisation in Australia. [12] Prentis believes Australia Day should be recognised as a "day of mourning" and has proposed that Wattle Day should become the country's national day. [13] Prentis and Aunty Jean Phillips have led the #changetheheart movement of prayer and lament in the lead up to January 26. [14] In 2021, the service was simulcast on ACCTV in order to avoid restrictions connected to COVID-19. [15]
In 2021 the Australian Association for the Study of Religion (AASR) Women's Caucus invited Prentis to give the annual Penny Magee Memorial Lecture. The title of her talk was, "Reclaiming hope: Learning from Aboriginal resilience in Times of Disruption". [16]
The Sunshine Coast is a peri-urban region in South East Queensland, Australia. It is the district defined in 1967 as "the area contained in the Shires of Landsborough, Maroochy and Noosa, but excluding Bribie Island". Located 100 km (62 mi) north of the centre of Brisbane in South East Queensland, on the Coral Sea coastline, its urban area spans approximately 60 km (37 mi) of coastline and hinterland from Pelican Waters to Tewantin.
The Goreng Goreng, also known Kooreng Gooreng, are an inland Freshwater Australian Aboriginal people of Queensland, and also a language group. The Goreng Goreng area is between Central West Queensland in the north around Boyne Valley, extending westerly as far as the Great Dividing Range along the Dawes, Auburn, Nogo and Callide Ranges to meet the Wulli Wulli and Ghunghulu to their immediate west over the Great Dividing Range.
Murri is a demonym for Aboriginal Australians of modern-day Queensland and north-western New South Wales. For some people and organisations, the use of Indigenous language regional terms is an expression of pride in their heritage. The term includes many ethno-linguistic groups within the area, such as the Kamilaroi (Gamilaraay) and Yuggera (Jagera) peoples.
The Gubbi Gubbi people, also known as Kabi Kabi, are an Aboriginal Australian people native to south-eastern Queensland. They are now classified as one of several Murri language groups in Queensland.
A Welcome to Country is a ritual or formal ceremony performed as a land acknowledgement at many events held in Australia. It is an event intended to highlight the cultural significance of the surrounding area to the descendants of a particular Aboriginal clan or language group who were recognised as the original human inhabitants of the area. For the Welcome to be recognised as official, it must be performed by a recognised elder of the group. Welcomes to Country are sometimes accompanied by traditional smoking ceremonies, music or dance. Where an elder is not available to perform the welcome, or there is not a recognised traditional owner, an Acknowledgement of Country may be offered instead.
Patrick Lionel Djargun Dodson is an Australian indigenous rights activist and former politician. He was a Senator for Western Australia from 2016 to 2024, representing the Australian Labor Party (ALP).
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The Aboriginal Shire of Cherbourg is a local government area in Wide Bay–Burnett, Australia. In June 2018, it had an estimated population of 1,315.
Wakka Wakka, or Waka Waka, people are an Aboriginal Australian people of the state of Queensland.
Alistair Arthur Malcolm was the first Aboriginal bishop in the Anglican Church of Australia, licensed as an assistant bishop in the Diocese of North Queensland.
Evelyn Ruth Scott was an Indigenous Australian social activist and educator.
The Dalla, also known as Jinibara, are an indigenous Australian people of southern Queensland whose tribal lands lay close to Brisbane.
Tribal Warrior is an Aboriginal Australian company based in Redfern, New South Wales.
Joan Patricia Hendriks (1936-2020), also known as Aunty Joan, is a Ngugi elder of one of the three groups of Quandamooka people in Moreton Island, Queensland, Australia. She is the first Indigenous person appointed to the National Catholic Education Commission, and has brought Indigenous issues to the forefront at the United Nations and International Interfaith Forums.
Kirstie Parker is a Yuwallarai journalist, policy administrator and Aboriginal Australian activist. From 2013 to 2015 she served as the co-chair of the National Congress of Australia's First Peoples and during her tenure pressed for policies that allowed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians to gain the ability for self-determination.
Christopher McLeod is an Australian bishop in the Anglican Church of Australia. He has been an assistant bishop in the Anglican Diocese of Adelaide, as the Bishop for Aboriginal Ministry, since April 2015. McLeod is the second Australian National Aboriginal Bishop, and is only the third Aboriginal person to be a bishop in Australia. He has also been the dean of St Peter's Cathedral, Adelaide, since 31 October 2021.
Common Grace is an Australian non-denominational movement of Christians concerned about issues of justice. The organisation started in 2014. As of May 2020, the network has over 45,000 members. The CEO since June 2022 is Gershon Nimbalker.
Reconciliation in Australia is a process which officially began in 1991, focused on the improvement of relations between the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of Australia and the rest of the population. The Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation (CAR), created by the government for a term of ten years, laid the foundations for the process, and created the peak body for implementation of reconciliation as a government policy, Reconciliation Australia, in 2001.
Denise Mary Champion is an Aboriginal Australian deacon in the Uniting Church in Australia who serves as an outreach worker. She was the first Aboriginal woman from South Australia to be ordained in any Christian denomination.
Aunty Jean Phillips is an Indigenous Australian elder and has been a senior Aboriginal Christian leader for over 60 years. She was born on the Aboriginal mission of Cherbourg, Queensland and later she served as an Aboriginal missionary herself with the Aborigines Inland Mission (AIM).
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