St Anne’s Parish, Palm Island is a small but mission-focused faith community built on outreach, presence, and accompaniment for the island’s mostly First Nations residents

Parish Administrator, Fr Manh Le SVD, says his ministry is largely one of personal encounter, taking the time to share in conversation with the people of the island as they go about their lives.

“It’s all about slowing down and talking together, just being there,” Fr Manh says. “If we keep talking we can build relationship. The power of one-to-one encounter is something the First Nations people are teaching us.”

The Holy Spirit Missionary Sisters, who, along with the Divine Word Missionaries, were founded by St Arnold Janssen, are also engaged in this ministry of presence and accompaniment with the people on Palm Island.

“On Palm Island we are called to serve in diverse pastoral ministries which include making connections with women who visit the Women’s Shelter and Rehabilitation Centre; spending time with them whenever they want to chat; accepting and committing to a leading role in Parish Services, often conducting funerals and baptisms; and Liturgical Services as well as preparing the children for the Sacraments. Within the school community, one Sister has been appointed as St Michael’s School Chaplain,” the Sisters say on their website.

They say their pastoral priorities include creating a comfortable relationship with people wherever they are and listening to and respecting the ways of the local Indigenous people.

Palm Island is located off the coast of Townsville in North Queensland and despite its natural beauty, has a difficult social history.

Its residents today are mostly descendants of people taken from their traditional lands to the Palm Island Aboriginal Settlement from 1914 up to 1971. Estimates vary, but the number of tribal groups represented by the descendants, known as the Bwgcolman people (meaning many tribes, one nation), is at least 43 and has been said to represent 57 different language groups. At least 5,000 people were forcibly removed to the reserve from all over Queensland, the Torres Strait and Melanesian islands. 

Fr Manh says the dispossession of traditional lands and the forced cohabitation of many different tribal groups means that there is still much inter-generational healing to be done.

“I realise I have just made my first steps entering into the giant cave of 60,000 years of Indigenous history and culture,” he says.

“Here, on this island, I hear the cry of many who 100 years ago had been brought to Palm Island and separated from their loved ones. Here, we always acknowledge the traditional Manbarra people and the historical Bwgcolman people (many tribes, one nation). Here, I walk with the wounded memory of the lost languages, the cultures, the strange new way of life imposed on them.

“Here, I realise that we are called to be converted to the Truth, the Voice of Justice. As a recent comer to this ancient land I hear the call to an ‘Indigenous conversion’, a conversion to Heal Country.”

Fr Manh says that while only a handful of parishioners attend weekly Sunday Mass, the parish reaches out to the people in a variety of ways.

Chief among these is fostering a vibrant and warm collaboration with St Michael’s Catholic Primary School.

Fr Manh is a regular presence at the school, collaborating with the staff to share the faith and meet both the practical and spiritual needs of the students and their families.

Students from K-6 receive breakfast, morning tea and lunch at school, and the day begins with a prayer.

“Before eating, one class stands up and says a blessing and the kids pray the Hail Mary,” he says.

After the Hail Mary, the students pray together: “Lord, I promise to respect God, myself, other people and the environment, Amen.”

“It’s very simple, but beautiful,” Fr Manh says.

Meanwhile, at 11am every day, classes stop for a period of Christian meditation time.

Children also connect with the parish community when they receive the sacraments of baptism, confirmation and first holy communion.

For adults Fr Manh says that while his ministry is mainly one of presence, conversation and relationship-building, the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous life expectancy is also felt on the island, with funerals being one of the primary points of connection between the people and the parish.

Despite the low level of weekly Mass attendance, Fr Manh says big events like last July’s anniversary of 100 years since the first Eucharist was celebrated on Palm Island, are well attended and celebrated.

Townsville Bishop Timothy Harris was chief celebrant at the anniversary Mass, marking 100 years since the first Mass was said in a classroom by Dr Kelly, the Parish Priest of Ingham, North Queensland, in 1924.

“This is a day worth celebrating … a day to remember,” said Bishop Tim in his homily. “The truth is that the Catholic Church has not abandoned Palm Island or its people. The Catholic Church, through its first missionaries, the religious sisters and priests over the years to the present day, has served and continues to serve with love and devotion.”

The day was a shared celebration with St Anne’s Parish and St Michael’s Catholic School. The Mass began with students, wearing traditional face-painting, making two lines and performing songs and cultural dancing for the procession in. The celebration continued after the Mass with a kup murri lunch with meat cooked in a traditional underground method.

Fr Manh says that in recent years, the people of Palm Island have developed a pride in their identity of being “Many tribes, one nation”.

“The kids are proud of it and the adults too,” he says. “And it is beautiful because it is the same as Jesus’ prayer, “… that they all might be one”.

He says another well-loved prayer of the students at the school is the prayer composed by Aboriginal people for the gathering with Pope John Paul II in Alice Springs in 1986: "Father of all, You gave us the Dreaming, You have spoken to us through our beliefs, You then made your love clear to us in the person of Jesus We thank you for your care. You own us, you are our hope. Make us strong as we face the problems of change. We ask you to help the people of Australia to listen to us and respect our culture. Make the knowledge of you grow strong in all people, so that you can be at home in us and we can make a home for everyone in our land. Amen.”

“They know it by heart, and that’s very moving to me,” Fr Manh says. “That’s eucharist to me. That’s prayer.

“So, things are challenging here, but they are also simple and beautiful, and we have much to learn from our Indigenous brothers and sisters.”

PHOTOS

TOP RIGHT: The Confirmation class of 2025 on Palm Island with Bishop Tim Harris, Fr Manh Le SVD and the Holy Spirit Missionary Sisters.

TOP LEFT: A traditional smoking ceremony was held as people entered the Confirmation Mass.

MIDDLE RIGHT: Fr Manh Le SVD with parishioners in 2021.

MIDDLE LEFT: Fr Manh Le SVD is pictured in conversation with a Palm Island family.

BOTTOM RIGHT: The students from St Michael's School with parishioners and guests at the Mass to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the First Mass celebrated on Palm Island.