A conference to address issues facing indigenous women of Australia is being called “long overdue” by some Seventh-day Adventists.

The Women at the Centre conference, running August 8 to 12 in Uluru, is the church’s first national meeting for indigenous, or Aboriginal, women, church Women’s Ministries leaders said.

“Domestic violence, addiction, nutrition education and how to provide healing are some of the issues that many people in the community have either expressed concern of or came to the church looking for help with,” said Delphine Writer, conference chair and a volunteer pastor at the Redfern Seventh-day Adventist Church in Sydney.

Special guests included Dr. Ella Simmons, the first female vice-president of the Adventist world church and Heather-Dawn Small, director of Women’s Ministries for the Adventist world church.

Organizers had planned for 300 attendees, including Adventist Women’s Ministries directors and associates from around the nation, but only about 100 attended due to lack of funding.

Still, Writer said the conference workshops and discussion sessions will establish a planning and ministry database to help indigenous women network in the country.

As in many countries, the indigenous population in Australia has suffered in many ways. Beginning in the 1860s, the Australian government took aboriginal children in Australia and the Torres Strait Islands from their families, attempting to assimilate them into mainstream Australian culture. The decades-long effort failed, leaving “stolen” people trapped between two cultures. Now 1 percent of the nation’s 20 million population, indigenous communities have higher rates of substance and sexual abuse, and many lack adequate education.

“We are responding to the cries for help from our people both within the Adventist Church and wider community,” said Writer, herself an indigenous woman. “By practical application [Adventists] have an opportunity to show the love of Jesus and help [these women] develop to their full potential.”

Groups of Adventist Aborigines have met locally, said Joy Butler, Women’s Ministries for the church’s South Pacific region. “But it’s important for us to be able to get together on a national level now,” she said.

Organizers said they hoped to assemble a 10-year strategic plan to develop a community’s capacity by utilizing the skills of women who are at the center of their family and their local churches.