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“They asked what we were doing here,” recalled the Mohawk musician from Ontario, Canada, who writes praise songs incorporating Hebrew, Mohawk and English lyrics in traditional native music styles. “We said, ‘We came to bring the message that you brought to us long ago. When the white man first came across the great salt water, he came with the message that Jesus died for us. You have forgotten about that.’”
Aboriginal Christians from Canada and the US have been sharing the gospel in ways unique to their cultures. Feather headdresses, drums and traditional dancing attract attention that a white North American can’t. “The world basically looks at us as folk heroes,” Maracle said.
From “evil” to drumming and dancing for Christ For years Aboriginals in Canada were told their culture was bad. Missionaries banned the use of drums and dancing. Church-run boarding schools forbade children from speaking their native languages. “My dad was beaten for speaking his language,” said Maracle, whose band and ministry, Broken Walls (www.brokenwalls.com), reflects his desire to break down barriers between white people and Aboriginals.
But all that’s changing. What once was considered evil is now being used for a new style of missionary work. The descendants of those who accepted the gospel from white missionaries a hundred or more years ago are now looking to their cultural roots for a unique expression of faith.
“We’re using music to reinstate our culture,” Maracle said. “The drum is one of the things we were told was evil.” In truth, “no culture is inherently evil and no culture inherently good.”
“We’re embracing culture as a part of God’s gift,” added Terry LeBlanc, a Mikmaq from New Brunswick who now lives in Alberta and heads an organization called My People International, which focuses on leadership training in a cultural, contextual manner. LeBlanc recalls going to Tibet on a cultural exchange and performing for Buddhist monks. “We presented native culture in dance and song and in stories,” he said.
But the presentation had a twist: “We communicated the gospel in our dances and songs.” The presenters explained to the monks how their stories have changed because of the gospel.
Inuit Christians from the high Arctic have had similar opportunities to share their faith. A spiritual renewal that has swept the Arctic for several years has resulted in Inuit teams leading missions in southern Canada, Africa and Israel.
Chinese, Palestinians, Israelis connect with Aboriginal message In China, traditional respect for elders is similar to the respect Aboriginal people have always had for the older members of the community. Maracle says Chinese elders listened to his message through an interpreter and were deeply moved when he explained that God sent his son Jesus to die. After the talk, “people came looking for me, asking me more about God,” he said.
In many cases the people who hear their message find a deep connection with Aboriginals that they wouldn’t have with white North Americans. Both Palestinians and Israelis can identify with native people over land issues, for example. In Canada, Aboriginals have struggled for rights to their own land since European settlers began taking over tracts of land and government officials sent natives to live on specific “reserves.” Centuries later, some of these land ownership issues remain unsettled.
Even a naive understanding of Aboriginal people—an exaggerated sense of the connection to the earth, or an exotic idea of “Red Indians” gleaned from popular movies—can be an advantage, LeBlanc says. “I think God is using that—that high interest and very high awareness,”he said.
Culturally relevant theological training The shift from being recipients to messengers of the good news is also affecting theological education. LeBlanc’s four-year-old My People International offers resources ranging from culturally appropriate vacation Bible school curricula to formal education for adults.
“In the last 15 to 20 years [Aboriginal] people have pursued theological education at a more in-depth level,” LeBlanc said. Several Aboriginal Christian leaders are working on doctoral degrees, including LeBlanc and Richard Twiss, a Lakota Sioux based in Washington State who travels worldwide with a message of transforming culture through the gospel.
In the bigger picture of the Christian story, the new opportunities for Aboriginal missionaries make perfect sense to Jonathan Maracle. “Jesus Christ wasn’t a white guy,” he quipped. Coming from the tribe of Judah, “Jesus has a really good understanding of Aboriginal people.”
Freelance journalist Debra Fieguth of Kingston, Ontario, has written on the Canadian church for 20 years.