Lionel Quartermaine, 45, an Australian Aborigine and a Seventh-day Adventist, has been elected deputy chairman of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC).
Lionel Quartermaine, 45, an Australian Aborigine and a Seventh-day Adventist, has been elected deputy chairman of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC). Due to the suspension of chairman Geoff Clark, Quartermaine also took up the position of acting chairman of the panel.
ATSIC is the top representative body for Australia’s indigenous peoples, representing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to all levels of government and administering government programs in indigenous communities across Australia.
While indigenous people make up 2 percent of the Australian population generally, about 6 percent of Seventh-day Adventists in Australia are indigenous people, church officials say. The Adventist Church has a long history among indigenous communities across Western Australia, the central desert, North Queensland and northern New South Wales, dating back to the early 1900s. Not all of that history has been pleasant: Missionaries often forced the native peoples to abandon ancient languages and cultural practices, among other impositions. In the mid-1990s, the Adventist Church was one of several to issue an apology to indigenous Australians, following the national inquiry into the so-called “stolen generations,” children who were forcibly separated from their parents.
“As an Aboriginal person, I have been involved in politics all my life,” says Quartermaine. “You’re fighting for your rights from the moment you are born. And there are issues such as native title rights, health and education that affect our everyday lives.”
Quartermaine was born in Western Australia and by the age of 10 was living on the streets of Perth. He spent about four years in a foster family during his teenage years and he moved to Alice Springs in his early twenties. It was in Alice Springs that Quartermaine met his future wife, Sheryl Grogan. Under the influence of her family, he became interested in the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
From his perspective, Christian principles have a direct impact on his representation of Aboriginal people. “Right from the beginning of colonization [in Australia], Aboriginal people have been treated as second-class citizens—or, worse, like animals,” Quartermaine notes. “It was not until 1967 that we even got the right to vote. Now we have a place at the table to encourage the government to let Aboriginal people take control of their own lives. If something is forced upon you, no one likes it—so if you look at it in that context, we still have a long way to go.
“So this new role will see me spending lots of time in consultation with state and federal governments,” he explains. “I will go to Canberra [the national capital] next week. There I will start negotiating and regularly working with the ministers and government agencies.”
Among the 17 ATSIC Commissioners from around Australia, Quartermaine is joined by fellow Adventist, Commissioner Darren Farmer of Western Australia. Quartermaine hopes the wider church will recognize the leadership potential among Aboriginal members: “I hope the church will see that we can be leaders of our own people,” he urges. “As a church, we need to invest more in the development of Aboriginal pastors to be leaders and role models for the Aboriginal people.”
Eric Davey, director of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Ministries with the Australian region of the church, sees the involvement of Quartermaine and Farmer as a positive thing.
“I think it is good,” says Pastor Davey. “They are both bringing their Christian values to ATSIC, with focus on family and lifestyle that can make a difference. We as a [church] have written to them both expressing our support and prayers for them.”
Davey affirmed, however, that the church is not seeking any special favors from the commission. Asked about the role his religion would play in his new post, Quartermaine told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that he will represent his entire indigenous constituency.
“I won’t be using my religion, in any way or in any form, to try and influence the way ATSIC does things,” he told radio interviewer David Busch. “I think it’s wrong for people to try and say that I will be using that—that’s not the case. I’ll be taking directions from the other commissioners. If the Board’s made the particular decision, then I will be going that way.”
