JourneyOnline
ZILLMERE UNITING Church member Georgia Corowa is certainly good at juggling many roles.
The Churches Together Indigenous People’s Partnership (CTIPP) officer has just returned from a tour to Vanuatu performing with Singaot Sista, a group of acclaimed female Indigenous singers-songwriters from Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific and Sudan.
The Queensland Churches Together (QTC) Indigenous advisory role is something of a passion for Ms Corowa.
“It all started from a consultation that happened last year that involved a lot of Indigenous church leaders,” she said.
“They had some ideas of what they wanted CTIPP to do but making that happen is a journey.
“This year we had a reconciliation service at St John’s Cathedral for all the churches to come together for reconciliation
week.”
Ms Corowa’s role is to create a network of church congregations who either have Indigenous leadership or who are
interested in learning more about Indigenous issues relating to faith and the church.
“One of the focuses was to make the church aware of how the church missions affected Indigenous people and the
perceptions from that.
“The main thing was to get the story out and for it to be told by an Indigenous person.
“You have non-Indigenous churches who sometimes don’t know about what’s going on or what has gone on in the past so
I hope for an openness to those issues … and for Indigenous church leaders to be empowered as well.
“I know that God has placed me there for a reason and it is in my heart.
But she also has a passion for the performing arts.
The graduate of the Aboriginal Centre for the Performing Arts (ACPA) not only performs in her church band, the Zillmere
Warriors, but also in an eight voice choir and performs her own music.
“I made a decision last year to take one day at a time because for me it has to be where God leads me,” she said.
“Especially in performing arts you can get on your own track and have a goal where you want to be and it might not be where God wants you to be.
“It’s very unstable but for me I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Ms Corowa yearns for a deep connection with her cultural heritage, something the trip to Vanuatu made her appreciate.
“It was such an amazing experience.
“It came out of a festival they have in Vanuatu every year and they wanted to focus on women this year.
“The next day we had little girls coming up to us in the street in awe of us.
“You could see the women being empowered.”
For this former Bowen resident the world is opening up.
Next year Ms Corowa has another creative pursuit in the wings.
“There is a musical called Dancing the Line that has been in the woodwork for a couple of years and we are developing the
final script to it.
“It is about the Torres Strait Islanders when they had to move to Australia and they made a world record with laying down
the railway lines.
“I would like to move into telling the story of my south sea island heritage,” she said.
Photo : Georgia Corowa and Rev Bruce Boase at the reconciliation service at St John’s Cathedral in June.
