South / Learn
The south brings to mind summer, with long days and a burgeoning sense of emotions and relationships. Here, time is taken to relate to the stories we have engaged in. To try and understand them on a deeper level, to empathize and connect with them, to see how they fit with ours, and where they diverge. This direction is associated with adolescence, and marks an important step in the learning journey as, like an adolescent, the learner struggles to find their place in a larger, more diverse, world.
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Following our year of listening, the NCS community spent a year learning in the classrooms, taking students on field trips, inviting guests to speak to the students, and encouraging our greater community to participate in the learning experiences. Our year of listening had led us to understand that the way we saw the world was not a universal perspective and we worked to incorporate other perspectives. This included the weekly use of texts written by Indigenous authors.
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Posture
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It’s difficult to remember that our attitudes towards Indigenous knowledge and perspectives have changed so much over the last decade. Biases, unconscious and overt, that I once held about people, history, and current events, needed to be exposed in order to be addressed. I know this shift in perspective took years and multiple encounters with alternate perspectives to get to where I am today. I also know that I have not ‘arrived’ by any means. This learning journey is ongoing and I anticipate that I will have as much, if not more, to unlearn as there is yet to discover.
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Before you can open yourself up to new experiences and perspectives, it is important to understand that you still have much to learn. Personally, this journey began with education. Realizing that there were holes in my knowledge and resources of historical events that still affected people today is what guided my practice. However, as a Christian school teacher, it was also important to look at my faith and understanding of certain Christian postures that might prevent me from fully embracing Indigenous perspectives and practices.
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What follows is a small sample of the books and speakers that helped me decenter my Christian perspective from a Euro-centric Western one to a more hospitable and universal one.
FAITHFUL LAMENT:
THE DOCTRINE OF DISCOVERY
Pagans in the Promised Land makes a unique challenge to U.S. federal Indian law and policy, attacking the presumption that American Indian nations are legitimately subject to the plenary power of the United States. Steve Newcomb puts forth a startling theory that U.S. federal Indian law and policy are premised on Old Testament narratives of the chosen people and the promised land, as exemplified in the 1823 Supreme Court ruling Johnson v. McIntosh, that the first "Christian people" to "discover" lands inhabited by "natives, who were heathens," have an ultimate title to and dominion over these lands and peoples. This important addition to legal scholarship asserts there is no separation of church and state in the United States, so long as U.S. federal Indian law and policy are premised on the ancient religious distinctions between "Christians" and "heathens."
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(Click cover image for link to Google Books)
MARK CHARLES
UNSETTLING TRUTHS
You cannot discover lands already inhabited.
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Injustice has plagued American society for centuries. And we cannot move toward being a more just nation without understanding the root causes that have shaped our culture and institutions. In this prophetic blend of history, theology, and cultural commentary, Mark Charles and Soong-Chan Rah reveal the far-reaching, damaging effects of the "Doctrine of Discovery." In the fifteenth century, official church edicts gave Christian explorers the right to claim territories they "discovered." This was institutionalized as an implicit national framework that justifies American triumphalism, white supremacy, and ongoing injustices. The result is that the dominant culture idealizes a history of discovery, opportunity, expansion, and equality, while minority communities have been traumatized by colonization, slavery, segregation, and dehumanization. Healing begins when deeply entrenched beliefs are unsettled. Charles and Rah aim to recover a common memory and shared understanding of where we have been and where we are going. As other nations have instituted truth and reconciliation commissions, so do the authors call our nation and churches to a truth-telling that will expose past injustices and open the door to conciliation and true community.
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(Click cover image for link to Google Books)
RICHARD TWISS
INDIGENOUS CHRISTIANITY
The gospel of Jesus has not always been good news for Native Americans.
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The history of North America is marred by atrocities committed against Native peoples. Indigenous cultures were erased in the name of Christianity. As a result, to this day few Native Americans are followers of Jesus. However, despite the far-reaching effects of colonialism, some Natives have forged culturally authentic ways to follow the way of Jesus.
In his final work, Richard Twiss provides a contextualized Indigenous expression of the Christian faith among the Native communities of North America. He surveys the painful, complicated history of Christian missions among Indigenous peoples and chronicles more hopeful visions of culturally contextual Native Christian faith. For Twiss, contextualization is not merely a formula or evangelistic strategy, but rather a relational process of theological and cultural reflection within a local community. Native leaders reframe the gospel narrative in light of post-colonization, reincorporating traditional practices and rituals while critiquing and correcting the assumptions of American Christian mythologies.
Twiss gives voice to the stories of Native followers of Jesus, with perspectives on theology and spirituality plus concrete models for intercultural ministry. Future generations of Native followers of Jesus, and those working crossculturally with them, will be indebted to this work.
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(Click cover image for link to Google Books)
TERRY LEBLANC
NAIITS
CHERYL BEAR
INDIGENOUS MINISTRY
"'I am giving you a new road to walk,' [Creator Sets Free (Jesus)] said. 'In the same way I have loved you, you are to love each other. This kind of love will be the sign for all people that you are walking the road with me.'"
(John 13: 34-35, First Nations Version)
“[G]iven the enduring impact of racism, colorism, discrimination, classism, and immigration on
education in the United States and elsewhere, it is imperative that educators find ways to provide experiences that challenge the status quo and its debilitating historical legacies”
(Pirbhai-Illich et al., 2017, p. 74).
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“Centring narratives of the marginalized, Indigenous, and people of colour is essential to the initial process of conscience and consciousness raising among white, mainstream populations”
(Pirbhai-Illich et al., 2017, p. 237).
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“I conceptualize five conditions or dimensions that have framed the struggle for decolonization. The first I would define as a critical consciousness, an awakening from the slumber of hegemony, and the realization that action has to occur. The second condition I define as a way of reimagining the world and our position ... within the world, drawing upon a different epistemology and unleashing the creative spirit. This condition is what enables an alternative vision; it fuels the dreams of alternative possibilities. The third is concerned with ways in which different ideas, social categories and tendencies intersect: the coming together of disparate ideas, the events, the historical moment. This condition creates opportunities; it provides the moments when tactics can be deployed. The fourth condition I have defined simply as movement or disturbance: the distracting counter-hegemonic movements or tendencies, the competing movements which traverse sites of struggle, the unstable movements that occur when the status quo is disturbed. The fifth is the concept of structure, the underlying code of imperialism, of power relations. This condition is grounded in reproducing material realities and legitimating inequalities and marginality. What I am suggesting, by privileging these layers over others, is that separately, together, and in combination with other ideas, these five dimensions help map the conceptual terrain of struggle”
(L. T. Smith, 2012, p. 201).
Teacher Education
As well as reading and speaking with members of the Alderville community, various staff at NCS, including myself, have taken courses and participated in conferences (both online and in person) to educate ourselves.
FNMI ADDITIONAL QUALIFICATION COURSES
Our first Indigenous Studies Teacher, Alison Young, took an AQ course from Trent University like the one linked below before bringing those teachings into our classrooms.
WALKING THE GOOD WAY TOGETHER
In the fall of 2018, two members of the NCS staff, myself included, took part in a two-day conference called ‘Walking the Good Way Together’. Much like this recent iteration, linked below, available completely online, the conference serves to help educate non-Indigenous people about the past and serve as one faithful step in the reconciliation journey between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people.
FREE MASSIVE OPEN ONLINE COURSES
Considering that so many Indigenous perspectives have been left out of the collective education of Canadians, at least until the last decade or so, MOOCs, like the two listed below, are excellent first steps for educators as well. I took the UBC one in 2018 before taking over the senior class Indigenous studies classes at NCS and found the experience invaluable.
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Indigenous Canada,
University of Alberta
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Reconciliation Through Indigenous Education,
University of British Columbia
Guest Speakers
Knowing we lacked the relevant information to share with our students, we took courses and reached out to our local First Nation community, Alderville, for experts and educators to speak to us and our students.
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We have hosted a number of guests at NCS who have helped us all in our learning journey. Below are a selection, the majority of which have continued to help us along the way.
Hospitality Towards Indigenous Guests
As we have learned, we have adapted our practices to honour the traditions of our guests as well. Inviting them, or thanking them for their presence by offering a traditional gift. This resource, put out by Trent University (link in image), is an excellent one for following these practices well. It is specific to the First Nations of our area. I encourage you to reach out to your local institutions to see if work like this has been done for those in your area.
Dave Mowat
Currently the Chief of Alderville First Nation, Dave was one of the very first guests invited to the school to speak to the staff about the history of Alderville, Northumberland, and surrounding areas from an Indigenous perspective. Dave is currently collaborating with our principal and other members of the local ministerial in creating a series of videos about the history and current affairs of Alderville First Nation.
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John Mattson
John shared some cultural items, stories, songs, rituals, and dances that enrich and nourish his people. John was especially happy to speak to some of his Alderville students in their school, rather than in his after school programs in Alderville.
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Melody Crowe
A Knowledge Keeper from Alderville, Melody shared Ojibwe language, songs, and teachings such as the Medicine Wheel, Sacred Medicines (tobacco, sage, sweetgrass, and cedar), and the Grandfather Teachings (Wisdom, Love, Respect, Bravery, Honesty, Humility, and Truth) with us and our students. Melody continues to offer her knowledge, advice, and support to NCS as we continue our journey.
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Dave Simpson
A grandfather of many former NCS students from Alderville, Dave’s perspective as a leader in Alderville, Christian pastor, longstanding NCS community member, and Indigenous person has been greatly appreciated over the years. Dave continues to speak into our practices and is generous with his time, humour, and stories. Dave also participated in an interview with our principal for use in our classrooms and beyond.
Image by Valerie MacDonald, read her interview with Chief Mowat here.
