Indigenous Justice

Budgets are moral documents. They reveal to us the priorities of our government, especially with respect to the needs of marginalized people. They call us as Christian citizens to respond, whether with praise or constructive criticism.

My favourite part of my job is leading the Blanket Exercise. I love seeing a light go on for people as they learn parts of Canadian history that they never learned in school and realize how we came to the broken place we are today. I love learning from participants in the sharing circle afterwards, especially when they speak about Indigenous people that they know. I love how it helps our intellectual, brainy denomination to learn with our hearts as well.

This past year, as new parents, my spouse and I have been figuring out how to raise our family and also find time to continue serving God. In our church, we have been learning about being a family on mission. As parents, it can get complicated choosing between spending time with our family or serving God; or trying to find the time for both our family and serving God, while keeping the two separate. But God has designed us to be a family that is on mission together for him and with him.

Under this red dress is a sign that reads “Who is She?” It is this sign that truly compelled me to read about and pray for the people who are represented by these red dresses that many Canadians have seen in their cities over the past few month.

“Some of our elders died of broken hearts, far from their homes,” said Dionysio Brown, Miskito leader and cultural expert. He was speaking of the forced relocation of his people from their homes along the Rio Coco to inland communities by the Nicaraguan government in the 70s, during Nicaragua’s conflict between the ruling sandinistas and the US-backed contras . We were standing in his dimly lit, one-room museum on his Indigenous Miskito culture, among the dictionaries, Bible translation, postcards, and Miskito clothing that represent his life’s work.

Over the years, God has placed ministry to and with the First Nations peoples on the hearts of several people in our congregation (Emo Christian Reformed Church). As a direct result of our involvement with God’s Great Outdoors, three men from our congregation asked the question, “How can we have a shared ministry with the First Nations people living all around us?” Last winter, Larry, Richard, and Dan contacted Adrian Snowball, one of the Elders of the Naicatchewenin people, living at Northwest Bay Reserve.

I personally witnessed my assistant superintendent wipe tears from her eyes as she watched video footage of survivors speaking. That powerful learning significantly shifted the culture of our school.

It’s been a great year for Do Justice. Thanks for reading and learning along with us, as we wrestled with faith with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other (Karl Barth)!

One Inuit leader said "we are human barometers of climate change."

We’re happy to say that we’ve rarely been more hopeful after almost a decade of partnership, research, education, mobilization, and advocacy for reconciliation and justice.We’re happy to say that we’ve rarely been more hopeful after almost a decade of partnership, research, education, mobilization, and advocacy for reconciliation and justice.We’re happy to say that we’ve rarely been more hopeful after almost a decade of partnership, research, education, mobilization, and advocacy for reconciliation and justice.