In contemporary Australian and Indonesian society, cultural and religious diversity is often celebrated as symbolic of broader liberal and pluralist identities. However, rarely is the interpretive agency of Indigenous and other minorities considered integral in shaping mainstream discourses on social cohesion. This paper explores two contexts of engagement with symbolic articulations of unity in diversity, namely Warlpiri (Aboriginal Australian) formulations of ngurru-kurlu (home-having) and Indonesian Christian engagement with Pancasila. This juxtaposition offers more than analogical comparison of similar social structures: the five principles of ngurru-kurlu which, in numerous ways, resemble the panca (five) sila (principles) underpinning the Republic of Indonesia. Exploring what motivates individuals to work with mutual respect and assistance, I argue that grace is an integral characteristic for Warlpiri and Indonesian Christians who seek to bring about unity in diversity. Christians can enrich society and secular ideals of social cohesion by becoming a gift to one another.

Dialogue has been identified as the crucial component of any process of recontextualising. The purpose of this research is to propose recontextualisation as the process for the teaching of Relationships and Sexuality Education in Catholic secondary schools. A worldwide survey of Catholic beliefs found an extraordinary disconnect between the Church’s basic teachings on sexual ethics and the viewpoints held by many of the world’s Catholics, with many young people even more likely to hold views contrary to Church teachings. For many young people, the Catholic faith has lost plausibility and it is no longer perceived as relevant. Consequently, this has implications for the teaching of Relationships and Sexuality Education in Catholic schools. Therefore, the problem which this research is addressing is finding a way in which the Church’s teachings on sexuality could be brought into dialogue with the lived experience of students in Catholic secondary schools. By using a dialogical approach, recontextualisation will enable the teachings of the Church and the current context of students’ lives to be brought into dialogue with each other. This research project will draw upon the five criteria of recontextualisation as proposed by Didier Pollefeyt and Jan Bouwens (KU Leuven).