NAIITS: An Indigenous Learning Community
16th Annual Symposium
June 6 - 8, 2019
Co-hosted by Tyndale Seminary
“Land and Place: Indigenous Perspectives In an Era of Displacement”
General Information
The Symposium:
The purpose of the symposium is to facilitate open dialogue about various aspects of biblical and theological contextualization in Indigenous thought, history, and experience. Symposium planners hope that participants will bring together academic and practical approaches to the issues being addressed in the symposium.
For many years now NAIITS has been exploring topics of interest and concern to a wide variety of people engaged within the Native North American and wider Indigenous community. At each symposium there have been clear articulations of the landscape in which we found ourselves. There have been cutting edge insights about how we might more effectively engage with Indigenous people, their communities, and those from other socio-cultural backgrounds and contexts.
Our focus will be on overall health and well being of human beings with one another, the land, politics, and the rest of the creation of which we are a part. Of particular interest will be those topics and presentations that describe a holistic and corrective approach to dealing with justice framed within the need for relationship with land and place for people of all walks of life.
Of interest will be how the interplay of theology and practice from Indigenous perspective, might transform our understanding of the human community environment, the practical issues of social context, and relationships with the living creation of which humanity is a part. Presentations will address one or more of the following topic areas as noted above:
1. Indigenous values and perspectives that might contribute to alternative responses to those being offered elsewhere in respect of land and human displacement from it;
2. Indigenous readings of the gospel and theologies that might offer a way forward in some of the following:
- For example, does, or how does the Bible instruct us as far as corrective approaches to the concept of dominion over the land?
- What do the concepts of ownership and/or stewardship mean?
- What, if any, are human responsibilities to the land?
3. Does land simply have a utilitarian function or is there a spiritual connection we are intended to have with the land?
- If there is a spiritual connection, how does the land as part of human identity help us heal, or conversely, how does our identity help promote healing of the land?
4. What are the implications of short and long-term displacement; displacement and disconnection; displacement and reconnection?
TIME: June 6, 3:00 pm beginning with registration through to the closing ceremonies Saturday June 8th at 4:00 pm. Friday evening will have a special singular focus.
LOCATION: June 6 - 8, 2019 - Co-hosted by Tyndale Seminary
The purpose of the symposium is to facilitate open dialogue about various aspects of biblical and theological contextualization in Indigenous thought, history, and experience. Symposium planners hope that participants will bring together academic and practical approaches to the issues being addressed in the symposium.
For many years now NAIITS has been exploring topics of interest and concern to a wide variety of people engaged within the Native North American and wider Indigenous community. At each symposium there have been clear articulations of the landscape in which we found ourselves. There have been cutting edge insights about how we might more effectively engage with Indigenous people, their communities, and those from other socio-cultural backgrounds and contexts.
Our focus will be on overall health and well being of human beings with one another, the land, politics, and the rest of the creation of which we are a part. Of particular interest will be those topics and presentations that describe a holistic and corrective approach to dealing with justice framed within the need for relationship with land and place for people of all walks of life.
Of interest will be how the interplay of theology and practice from Indigenous perspective, might transform our understanding of the human community environment, the practical issues of social context, and relationships with the living creation of which humanity is a part. Presentations will address one or more of the following topic areas as noted above:
1. Indigenous values and perspectives that might contribute to alternative responses to those being offered elsewhere in respect of land and human displacement from it;
2. Indigenous readings of the gospel and theologies that might offer a way forward in some of the following:
- For example, does, or how does the Bible instruct us as far as corrective approaches to the concept of dominion over the land?
- What do the concepts of ownership and/or stewardship mean?
- What, if any, are human responsibilities to the land?
3. Does land simply have a utilitarian function or is there a spiritual connection we are intended to have with the land?
- If there is a spiritual connection, how does the land as part of human identity help us heal, or conversely, how does our identity help promote healing of the land?
4. What are the implications of short and long-term displacement; displacement and disconnection; displacement and reconnection?
TIME: June 6, 3:00 pm beginning with registration through to the closing ceremonies Saturday June 8th at 4:00 pm. Friday evening will have a special singular focus.
LOCATION: June 6 - 8, 2019 - Co-hosted by Tyndale Seminary
Schedule
Enter the name for this tabbed section: Thursday
3:00 General Registration Opens
5:00 Dinner
6:30 Opening Ceremonies
8:45 Q&R
9:00 Close
9:30 Reception for Graduates and their Families
5:00 Dinner
6:30 Opening Ceremonies
- Ceremony (Outdoors, weather permitting)
- Welcome and Acknowledgement of the Land.
- Official Greetings
- NAIITS greetings
- Graduation
8:45 Q&R
9:00 Close
9:30 Reception for Graduates and their Families
Enter the name for this tabbed section: Friday
7:00 Registration and Breakfast
9:00 Gathering Song - Morning Reflection – Lenore Three Stars
9:30 Plenary –– Alison Kemper – “Surrender: The Acquisition of Hudson’s Bay Company and the Alienation of Rupert’s Land from Indigenous Peoples.”
10:15 Q&R
10:45 Coffee Break – Please pick up your coffee and head to your talking circle
11:00 Talking Circles
12:00 Lunch
1:15 Plenary –– Keith Starkenberg – “Falling and Standing: Learning a white theology of land in North America."
2:00 Q&R
2:30 Plenary –– Marilou Maissoneuve – “Being Christian and Innu: is a reconnection with the land possible? A Historical and Anthropological analysis.”
3:15 Coffee Break – Please pick up your coffee and head to your talking circle
3:30 Talking Circles
5:00 Dinner
6:30 Celebration of the Life and Work of Dr. Wendy Beauchemin Peterson
8:00 Concert With Michael Jacobs
9:00 Close of the Day
9:00 Gathering Song - Morning Reflection – Lenore Three Stars
9:30 Plenary –– Alison Kemper – “Surrender: The Acquisition of Hudson’s Bay Company and the Alienation of Rupert’s Land from Indigenous Peoples.”
10:15 Q&R
10:45 Coffee Break – Please pick up your coffee and head to your talking circle
11:00 Talking Circles
12:00 Lunch
1:15 Plenary –– Keith Starkenberg – “Falling and Standing: Learning a white theology of land in North America."
2:00 Q&R
2:30 Plenary –– Marilou Maissoneuve – “Being Christian and Innu: is a reconnection with the land possible? A Historical and Anthropological analysis.”
3:15 Coffee Break – Please pick up your coffee and head to your talking circle
3:30 Talking Circles
5:00 Dinner
6:30 Celebration of the Life and Work of Dr. Wendy Beauchemin Peterson
8:00 Concert With Michael Jacobs
9:00 Close of the Day
Enter the name for this tabbed section: Saturday
7:00 Breakfast
8:30 Gathering Song – Morning Reflection -
9:00 Plenary – Naomi Wolfe/Mark Brett – “Traditional Land and the Responsibility to Protect Immigrants: A Dialogue between Aboriginal Tradition and the Hebrew Bible”
9:45 Q&R
10:00 Coffee Break
10:15 Marketplace I – Full Sessions – participants select one
1:30 Plenary –– Danny Zacharias – “GraceLand: The Land as Relational Gift in the Bible.”
2:15 Q&R
2:30 Final Circle - Closing Reflections
3:30 Closing Ceremonies
4:00 N’multes! Until Next Time!
* A travelling Snack will be provided following the closing ceremonies
8:30 Gathering Song – Morning Reflection -
9:00 Plenary – Naomi Wolfe/Mark Brett – “Traditional Land and the Responsibility to Protect Immigrants: A Dialogue between Aboriginal Tradition and the Hebrew Bible”
9:45 Q&R
10:00 Coffee Break
10:15 Marketplace I – Full Sessions – participants select one
- Monica Friesen –“Redeeming Displacement: Cultural Safety as a Christ-Motivated Ministry of Nursing.”
- Joshua Grace - “Colonial Ways of Knowing and Detachment from Sacred Geography.”
- Brooke Prentis – “Dangerous memories in the land we NOW call Australia. Do the Exiles hear the call to country today?”
- Eric Seaberg – “A Sami Pilgrimage: Finding a way back to Sacred Land in the Midst of a Diaspora.”
- Marc Levasseur – “The evil that is the cure: Western Christian and Native worldview on land.”
- Jason McKinney – “From Urbs Nullius to Terra Sacra: Seeking a Spiritual Commons”
- Crystal Porter – “A Search to Belong: Cultural Reclamation on the Jesus Way.”
1:30 Plenary –– Danny Zacharias – “GraceLand: The Land as Relational Gift in the Bible.”
2:15 Q&R
2:30 Final Circle - Closing Reflections
3:30 Closing Ceremonies
4:00 N’multes! Until Next Time!
* A travelling Snack will be provided following the closing ceremonies