How does it feel to be Native American?
A couple weeks ago I had the privilege of grabbing coffee with Mark Charles while he was passing through Phoenix on his way to a conference in Tucson.
Mark lives on a Navajo Reservation in northern Arizona, and is doing some wonderful work related to reconciliation, development, and contextualized worship. Among his many undertakings, he serves on the CCDA Board of Directors, the Christian Reformed Church Board of Trustees, and is a resource development strategist for indigenous worship with Calvin College's Institute of Christian Worship.
Here’s part of his presentation at that conference in Tucson, addressed to James Anaya, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples:
Being Native American and living in the United States feels like our indigenous peoples are an old grandmother who lives in a very large house. It is a beautiful house with plenty of rooms and comfortable furniture. But, years ago, some people came into our house and locked us upstairs in the bedroom. Today our house is full of people. They are sitting on our furniture. They are eating our food. They are having a party in our house. They have since unlocked the door to our bedroom but now it is much later and we are tired, old, weak and sick; so we can't or don't come out. But the part that is the most hurtful and that causes us the most pain, is that virtually no one from this party ever comes upstairs to find us in the bedroom, sits down next to us on the bed, looks us in the eye, and simply says, “Thank you. Thank you for letting us be in your house.”
I encourage you to read the full text of the presentation.
If you’re interested in learning more about the “conversation for reconciliation” Mark mentions later in the presentation, the best way to do so is to like the Facebook page he created for the reading of the government’s apology in Washington, DC on December 19.
I’m grateful for thoughtful, articulate Native leaders like Mark. We non-Natives have much to learn from our hosts, if only we’ll listen.
YKR45DVHN7VG
Repaso: Sierra Leone in photos; Jake Belder on forgotten places; Living Room Songs; Q&A from The Justice Conference; UMC repents; Twitter does it again
1. Sierra Leone ten years after the war
Earlier this week I submitted a writing project focused on Fambul Tok, a home-grown peace and reconciliation initiative taking place around bonfires across Sierra Leone. It's worth knowing about. As I finished my writing, former Liberian president Charles Taylor was convicted of war crimes in Sierra Leone, a full decade after the war ended. And The Big Picture posted this photo essay with a look at what the country looks like in 2012.
2. Jake Belder on forgotten places
Jake Belder, an assistant minister in Hull, England (and by Twitter appearances, an all-around good guy) has a great feature essay in Comment:
One of the delights of living in England is venturing off the main roads into the little villages that dot the countryside. At the heart of many of these picturesque villages is a small church that has stood for hundreds of years, a reminder the role churches used to play in holding these communities together. Whenever I get the chance, I wander into these churches. I love the musty smell of the old stonework, the silence, and the sense of being in a place altogether different from the world outside. And when I sit in one of the old pews, I think about those who have sat in them over the last five hundred years. Who shepherded them as they lived their lives in this place? How were they equipped to live faithfully in this context?
3. Living Room Songs by Ólafur Arnalds
Joy Williams of The Civil Wars tweeted this last weekend: “Having my heart broken & mended again by Icelandic composer Ólafur Arnalds' Living Room Songs EP.” I think you’ll agree, as I do, that these songs are hauntingly beautiful, not unlike the music of fellow Icelandic band Sigur Rós.
4. Q&A videos from The Justice Conference
For those who weren’t able to attend The Justice Conference in Portland in February (and for those who were there too, I suppose), videos from a bunch of Q&A sessions have been posted at askquestions.tv. Lots of great stuff.
5. UMC apologizes to Native Americans
Thanks to Brittany Bennett for sharing the link to this video from the United Methodist Church’s General Conference, where the denomination initiated an act of repentance to begin the process of healing relationships with Native Americans. It’s encouraging to see a group of Christians taking this so seriously.
6. Yet another reason to love Twitter
Katie and I have a really good reason to love Twitter; ask us about it sometime. Another reason to love Twitter is when you’re a cancer survivor who loves baseball and you get to play catch with a pitcher from your team just because you replied to this within two minutes.
Repaso is intended as a thought-provoking compilation of news and commentary from the past week related to the intersections of faith, development, justice and peace. As always, I welcome your thoughts on any of the links and ideas in this roundup!
[Photo credit: Finbarr O'Reilly/Reuters via The Big Picture]
Preserving Mayan language and culture in Guatemala
For a formative part of my childhood, my family lived in the western highlands of Guatemala in Sipacapa, a municipality of about 15,000. My parents were working as linguists among the Sipacapense, helping to preserve the local language which had been passed down orally from generation to generation, but, like the 21 other Mayan languages in the country, was at risk of becoming obsolete.
I was pleasantly surprised to see that Al Jazeera English's Living the Language show produced an episode about ongoing efforts to preserve Mayan languages and cultures in Guatemala, where the Maya still comprise more than half the population, but where Spanish is used almost exclusively in schools, business, media and government.
It's a fascinating look at what it means to be part of the majority population in a country long run by European-descended elites. "We can't sit around and complain," one Mayan leader says in the video. "We must act to save our language."
[Image credit: Pedro Cruz Sunu via changethelifechannel.blogspot.com]
Recent Posts
- Mini-vacation
- Repaso: Chris Wright interview; refugees in Lancaster; science in a fallen world; most read books; Jeppe on a Friday
- Lesslie Newbigin on faith, doubt, and gospel reasonableness
- Truth, gentleness, and convicted civility
- Remembering Iraq with Preemptive Love