Australian students in Rome in the footsteps of Aboriginal scholar
Recipients of the 2024 Francis Xavier Conaci Scholarship speak to Vatican News about their hopes to work as teachers in their First Nations communities in Australia.
By Joseph Tulloch
Every summer, the Francis Xavier Scholarship brings Australian First Nations students to Rome.
The scholarship, sponsored by the Australian Catholic University and the Australian Embassy to the Holy See, is named after Francis Xavier Conaci, a young 19th-century Australian Aboriginal man who travelled to Rome to train as a monk before tragically dying young.
This year’s recipients are Zane Ratcliff, 23, a Wakka Wakka man, and Ryan St. John, 21, a Gamilaroi man.
At an event hosted by the Australian Embassy to the Holy See on Friday, they performed a pair of traditional Wakka Wakka dances.
The couple performs a traditional Wakka Wakka dance
A vocation for education
Ratcliff and St John are both studying for a Bachelor of Education degree at the Australian Catholic University. While in Rome, they are taking a course in Catholic Social Teaching at the ACU campus.
“I am a strong advocate for the education of indigenous peoples,” Ratcliff told Vatican News, adding that he wanted to use what he learned in Rome to inform his future teaching career.
His goal, he said, is “to help my First Nation people improve their education levels because we have a bit of a lack of education in that area.” According to a 2021 report from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, only 39 per cent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 20 and over have completed school.
St John said he works as a First Nations support worker at an elementary school. He added that he hopes to continue in that field after graduation, “working with the youth, watching them grow and helping them connect with their culture.”
Ratcliff and St John show off their body paint
Fighting for First Nations Rights
Introducing Ratcliff and St John before their dance, Australian Ambassador to the Holy See Chiara Porro noted that the event was part of NAIDOC Week, an annual celebration in Australia that honours the history and culture of First Nations people.
The event, she said, is an opportunity to celebrate the heritage of First Nations peoples – the oldest continuous culture in the world – but also a “call to action,” a reminder of the need to fight for indigenous rights.
It’s a topic that is particularly close to Pope Francis’ heart, Ambassador Porro said. She recalled his visit to Canada in 2022, where he apologized for the “evil” committed by Christians against indigenous peoples, and suggested that the pope’s concern for indigenous rights could be on the agenda again next September, when he travels to Papua New Guinea.
From left to right: Bishop Tighe, Zane Ratcliff, Ryan St John and Ambassador Porro
Education and culture
Also present at the event was Bishop Paul Tighe, from the Vatican’s Dicastery for Culture and Education.
Noting that his office was created following a recent merger, he stressed that the two different axes are complementary, because education, at its best, is about “introducing people to a way of life, to a culture.”
He thanked Ratcliff and St. John for their presence in Rome and for introducing those present to their own ancient cultural heritage.
And, referring to their aspirations of one day becoming teachers in First Nations communities in Australia, he said this work – education and the transmission of culture – is “truly a great calling”.
Bishop Paul Tighe
