OACS News Service

Redeemer hosts First Nations art tour with reconciliation theme
Greater understanding, commitment to work to reconciliation intent of gathering
Tuesday February 5, 2013 -- Michelle Strutzenberger
It’s a unique moment for dialogue, learning and reconciliation between aboriginal and non-aboriginal Canadians as the Idle No More movement continues, and a church denomination is proposing artwork can pry open the lid on the current acrimonious debate, cultivating understanding and grace.

Seventeen vivid paintings by Cree artist Ovide Bighetty are on a tour across Canada, the centrepiece of day-long gatherings at churches, colleges and other organizations.

Next up is a Feb. 9 event at Redeemer University College in Ancaster.

Rich in colour and imagination, the paintings depict the death and resurrection of Jesus in an aboriginal context and in what’s known as the Woodlands style, a distinctly First Nations art genre.

“To have that story portrayed from the aboriginal perspective, painted in the Woodlands style is very evocative,” says Steve van de Hoef, justice and reconciliation mobilizer of the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) in North America, which is spearheading the tour.

Van de Hoef notes the paintings provoke searching questions such as what the traditional redemption story has to say within the context of aboriginal culture. They also invite people to think about what the same story says about the relationship between indigenous and non-indigenous people.

Blend this kind of inquiry with the learning the tour also includes — a workshop on the history of colonialism, several on the residential schools and one on God’s call to the Canadian church to participate in reconciliation — and it’s likely the conversation will be more open, van de Hoef says.

“If we bring that attitude of openness that I think something like artwork invites us into, then we’ll be more able to have the dialogue from a place of hospitality and graciousness rather than an attitude of suspicion that is sometimes characteristic of these kinds of conversations,” van de Hoef tells OACS News.

Old Testament theologian Walter Brueggemann has written recently on the place and function of art in transformation.

“It is not the manager, not the ideologues, not the social activists, not the shrill moralist, right or left, but the poets who are able — and compelled — to go to the depth of the crisis and to reach deep into God’s own conflicted heart,” Brueggemann is quoted in a paper titled "Art Calling Out Empire."

The CRC's commitment to First Nations reconciliation was also shown through its involvement with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s (TRC) Saskatchewan National Event in Saskatoon last June. A booklet of the same art was placed in the TRC’s Bentwood Box as a public expression of the CRC’s commitment to this journey of reconciliation with indigenous peoples in Canada.

CRC spokesperson Rev. Bruce Adema noted at the time that the CRC community is praying this artistic depiction will help bring people together on the road to reconciliation.

“This art also testifies to the presence of the Creator’s truth and beauty in Indigenous culture,” he said, speaking to the largely First Nations audience.

“The church and the nation of Canada is poorer because we refused to acknowledge the Creator’s truth and way as revealed to Indigenous people. We are grateful that the Creator has sustained your will to protect your culture, language and ceremonies.

“As we together heal and reconcile we eagerly look forward to the ever-deepening contribution of you the Indigenous people to our shared lives on this land. We pray expectantly that Kisê-manitow (Creator) will guide our mutual journey to healing, justice and reconciliation.”

The Feb. 9 event at Redeemer includes a keynote by Lori Ransom, TRC senior advisor on church relations, a panel discussion on land rights and land claims, and a series of workshops on topics related to reconciliation and indigenous justice. For more information on this event and others in this tour, please visit the reForming Relationships website.

You can comment on this story by e-mailing michelle(at)axiomnews.ca.