Greater Dandenong Interfaith Network leader and Living Treasure Helen Heath OAM has been remembered for bringing together our diverse community.
Heath died on 24 January after a two-year battle with cancer.
After her diagnosis, she resigned as the IFN’s inaugural executive officer after more than 25 years with the network.
Greater Dandenong mayor Sophie Tan led tributes at a 27 January council meeting, stating Heath had been the IFN’s “cornerstone” since first volunteering in 2000.
“Helen was a calm, strong, deeply empathetic voice for dialogue and mutual respect.
“For those who know her, Helen’s true legacy lives in the relationships she built, the doors she opened for others and the sense of belonging she built across our extended and diverse communities.”
Heath had worked tirelessly to bring people together across “faiths, cultures and differences”, exhibiting “humility, patience and an unwavering sense of fairness”, Cr Tan said.
Cr Tan would fondly remember Heath’s “gentle humour, mindfulness to bring joy, hope and connection to others”.
Heath has been recognised for her community service, including as Greater Dandenong’s Citizen of the Year in 2006, an Order of Australia medallist (OAM) in 2011 and a Greater Dandenong Living Treasure in 2024.
Cr Tan noted Heath’s work across a variety of groups as testament to her “lifelong commitment to peace, understanding and inclusion”.
“Her work extended nationally and internationally through the Parliament of the World’s Religions, the Faith Communities of Victoria and the Jewish Christian Muslim Association of Australia.”
Cr Jim Memeti said Heath was a “dear friend” to him and the community.
“She was very passionate about our community.
“Her work and her support to different faith members really went down to the roots of this community.”
Her death would touch many thousands in Greater Dandenong, he said.
“May she rest in peace. We’ve definitely lost a Living Treasure.”
Cr Rhonda Garad said Heath was an “extraordinary person” who could bring people together.
“There was so much joy, dedication and commitment to what she did. It’s a great loss to our community.”
When Covid lockdowns struck in 2020, Ms Heath founded the regular Star Journal column, Message of Hope as a “glimmer of light”. The column features a different faith leader each week.
“It struck me that people couldn’t communicate with each other. Because of Covid, we were isolated,” she told Star Journal.
“I still think that’s important in this area. There are a lot of mental health problems, a lot of differences, family violence…”
Heath herself wrote some of the columns. While troubled by the world’s conflicts, Heath penned a Plea For Peace.
She wrote of how to overcome “soul destroying times”, to focus on the good things being achieved.
“Seizing a minute to breathe, meditate, send good wishes or offer a prayer, caring and loving those right next to you, and trying to look for moments of joy in the ordinary every day.
“A quiet moment’s pause, perhaps over a cuppa with a friend, can provide, even briefly, a space to experience compassion for others – indeed for us – and so lift our spirits.”
Brought up in a Christian faith, she told Star Journal that she had come to sit across “all traditions”.
She trained in theology not to be pious but in order to explore – which was good grounding for her IFN role.
““There’s a core in us – we all have good – but how do we reach that sacred ground and we connect with each other.
“Honouring the differences without letting them get in the way.”
Over the past decade, she had been occasionally called to defend interfaith – which she regarded as a form of education, to quell race hate and violence.
She also argued to retain the traditional prayer, meditation or reflection by various faith leaders at the beginning of council meetings.
“I guess it is a symbol. You can’t solve the problem but how do we get on here?”
