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.
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.
NAIITS invites proposals for papers and presentations from scholars, practitioners, and other interested peoples that address themselves to the contribution that Indigenous people can make, do make and, perhaps, should make, to contemporary expressions of racial discrimination, white privilege, and the resurgence of an aggressive form of white supremacy and neo-fascism in the North American context.
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 injustice framed within historic and contemporary racism, racial prejudice and white supremacy.
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 racial relationships. Papers that utilize any of a broad range of research and presentation methodologies will be considered. Submissions should address one or more of the following topic areas as noted above:
• Forms and focuses of racism, their impact on Indigenous communities and ways to address these impacts;
• White privilege and the suppression of racially equitable societies;
• The impact of the Indian Act in Canada and, counterpart legislations in the US, that maintain a perspective of Indigeneity which by default creates complicity in Indigenous leadership;
• White supremacy and the rise of neo-fascism, specifically in the North American context; a response from Indigenous values and ideologies;
• Indigenous values and perspectives that might contribute to alternative responses to those being offered elsewhere;
• Indigenous readings of the gospel and theologies that might offer a way forward.
TIMES: June 7, 3:00 pm beginning with registration through to the closing ceremonies Saturday June 9th at 4:00 pm. Friday evening will have a special singular focus.
LOCATION: Acadia Divinity College, 38 Highland Ave. Wolfville, NS
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 injustice framed within historic and contemporary racism, racial prejudice and white supremacy.
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 racial relationships. Papers that utilize any of a broad range of research and presentation methodologies will be considered. Submissions should address one or more of the following topic areas as noted above:
• Forms and focuses of racism, their impact on Indigenous communities and ways to address these impacts;
• White privilege and the suppression of racially equitable societies;
• The impact of the Indian Act in Canada and, counterpart legislations in the US, that maintain a perspective of Indigeneity which by default creates complicity in Indigenous leadership;
• White supremacy and the rise of neo-fascism, specifically in the North American context; a response from Indigenous values and ideologies;
• Indigenous values and perspectives that might contribute to alternative responses to those being offered elsewhere;
• Indigenous readings of the gospel and theologies that might offer a way forward.
TIMES: June 7, 3:00 pm beginning with registration through to the closing ceremonies Saturday June 9th at 4:00 pm. Friday evening will have a special singular focus.
LOCATION: Acadia Divinity College, 38 Highland Ave. Wolfville, NS
Schedule
Enter the name for this tabbed section: Thursday
4:00 General Registration Opens
5:30 Dinner
6:30 Opening Ceremonies
8:45 Q&R
9:00 Close for the Day
5:30 Dinner
6:30 Opening Ceremonies
- Welcome - Tribal Leadership
- Welcome - General Greetings
- Entry of Grads and Faculty
- Address to grads
- Graduation and Blanketing
- Scholarship Awards
8:45 Q&R
9:00 Close for the Day
Enter the name for this tabbed section: Friday
8:00 Registration and Breakfast
9:00 Morning Reflection: Kimberlee Medicine Horn Jackson
9:30 Plenary – Patricia Courtney — "Racism: The Australian Way!"
10:15 Q&R
10:45 Coffee Break
11:15 Talking Circles
12:00 Lunch
1:30 Plenary – Alistair Reese — "Indigenous Generosity, Treaties, and Reconciliation"
2:15 Q&R
2:45 Coffee Break/Talking Circles
3:15 Full Circle Conversation
5:00 Dinner
6:30 Plenary — Damian Costello — "As If They Were Our Own Flesh And Blood: White Captives, Residential Schools and Indigenous Theology"
9:00 Morning Reflection: Kimberlee Medicine Horn Jackson
9:30 Plenary – Patricia Courtney — "Racism: The Australian Way!"
10:15 Q&R
10:45 Coffee Break
11:15 Talking Circles
12:00 Lunch
1:30 Plenary – Alistair Reese — "Indigenous Generosity, Treaties, and Reconciliation"
2:15 Q&R
2:45 Coffee Break/Talking Circles
3:15 Full Circle Conversation
5:00 Dinner
6:30 Plenary — Damian Costello — "As If They Were Our Own Flesh And Blood: White Captives, Residential Schools and Indigenous Theology"
Enter the name for this tabbed section: Saturday
8:00 Breakfast
9:00 Gathering Song
Morning Reflection: Marc Levasseur
9:30 Marketplace "The Pitch"
10:45 Coffee Break
11:15 Marketplace - Full Sessions — Participants select one
1:30 Plenary – Adrian Jacobs/Jennifer Henry — "Treaty as Fragility Preventative"
2:15 Q&R
2:45 Coffee Break/Talking Circles
3:30 Final Circle — “Closing Reflections” – NAIITS Community Members and Guests
4:00 Closing Ceremonies
9:00 Gathering Song
Morning Reflection: Marc Levasseur
9:30 Marketplace "The Pitch"
- Matt Milliner – “Culture, Competence, and White Supremacy”
- Erna Hackett – “A Community’s Theology of Justice"
- Jeff Baggaley – “Treaty Denial, Racism, and 250 years of Baptists in Mi'kma'ki: A Response to the TRC Calls to Action to the churches."
- Adam Stewart – “The Unfinished Work of Reconciliation in Canada: The TRC, Neoliberalism, and Synergism”
- James Perkinson – “Between Fish-Songs, City Sermons, and Plant Riddles Reading the Sign of Jonah Indigenously in Settler-Colonial Detroit”
10:45 Coffee Break
11:15 Marketplace - Full Sessions — Participants select one
- Matt Milliner – “Culture, Competence, and White Supremacy”
- Erna Hackett – “A Community’s Theology of Justice"
- Jeff Baggaley – “Treaty Denial, Racism, and 250 years of Baptists in Mi'kma'ki: A Response to the TRC Calls to Action to the churches."
- Adam Stewart – “The Unfinished Work of Reconciliation in Canada: The TRC, Neoliberalism, and Synergism”
- James Perkinson – “Between Fish-Songs, City Sermons, and Plant Riddles Reading the Sign of Jonah Indigenously in Settler-Colonial Detroit”
1:30 Plenary – Adrian Jacobs/Jennifer Henry — "Treaty as Fragility Preventative"
2:15 Q&R
2:45 Coffee Break/Talking Circles
3:30 Final Circle — “Closing Reflections” – NAIITS Community Members and Guests
4:00 Closing Ceremonies
Presenters
Check back here In the coming months to see who will be presenting!
Jeff Baggaley
Jeff comes by his settler status honestly. His mother’s side goes back to the first settlers in Quebec. His biological father’s side came over on the Mayflower. Jeff met his wife, Ronalda at University. He and Ronalda have three adult children; Jess is in her final year at StFx University in forensic psychology; Seamus is in his third year at StFX University in human kinetics; Joshua is Global Developmental Delay (GDD), and lives with his mother in Antigonish, Nova Scotia.
Damian Costello
Damian Costello is a Catholic theologian who specializes in the intersection of Catholic theology, Indigenous spiritual traditions, and colonial history. He has written on the Spanish Dominican priest Bartolomé De Las Casas (Honor and Caritas: Bartolomé De Las Casas, Soldiers of Fortune, and the Conquest of the Americas). He is the author of Black Elk: Colonialism and Lakota Catholicism and his current work focuses on the cause for Black Elk's canonization in the Catholic Church. Costello's work is informed by five years of ethnographic work with the Navajo Nation.
Patricia Courtenay
Patricia belongs to the Gurang Gurang and Birri (Aboriginal Australian) nations, and also has English, Irish and French ancestry. She has over 30 years of professional experiences in the human services in; community, government, education and religious organisations. In 2008 Patricia was ordained as a Priest within the Anglican Diocese of North Queensland. Patricia is currently studying with the Australian Catholic University researching the topic ‘Aboriginal Spirituality in a Christian Context’.
Erna Kim Hackett
Erna Kim Hackett is Executive Pastor at The Way Berkley in Northern California. Previously she worked with campus ministry InterVarsity Christian Fellowship for 18 years. She focusses on the the intersection of ethnic identity development and racial justice, and is passionate about the development of women of color leaders. She blogs at www.feistythoughts.com and is pursuing her Master in Intercultural Studies with NAIITS.
Jennifer Henry
Jennifer Henry is a settler, raised in Treaty 1 territory, and now living under the Dish with One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant in Toronto. She has worked as an ecumenical social justice advocate for Canadian churches for 25 years, currently serving as Executive Director of KAIROS. She worships at Church of the Holy Trinity, an Anglican Church in downtown Toronto.
Adrian Jacobs
Ganosono of the Turtle Clan, Cayuga Nation of the Six Nations Haudenosaunee Confederacy at Grand River Territory, ON. He is the father of five and grandfather of two. He lives as guest on Anishnabe Treaty One territory as Keeper of the Circle (Principal) of Sandy-Saulteaux Spiritual Centre, national Aboriginal ministry training school of The United Church of Canada.
Matthew Milliner
Matthew J. Milliner is associate professor of art history at Wheaton College. His current book projects include Tour of Turtle Island, an art history primer that moves the art of indigenous North America from the periphery to the center, and The Last Madonna, a history and theology of a Byzantine icon from its medieval origin into the present. He writes for The Washington Post, First Things, Comment and Image. He is the 2017 winner of Redeemer University’s Emerging Public Intellectual Award a three-time appointee to the Curatorial Advisory Board of the United States Senate.
James Perkinson
James W. Perkinson is a long-time activist/educator/poet from inner city Detroit, currently teaching as Professor of Social Ethics at the Ecumenical Theological Seminary and lecturing in Intercultural Communication Studies at the University of Oakland (Michigan). He is in demand as a spoken word poet and a speaker on a wide variety of topics related to his interests and has written extensively in both academic and popular journals on questions of race, class, indigenous struggles and colonialism in connection with religion and urban culture.
Alistair Reese
Alistair Reese is a farmer, historian and public theologian, of European descent who lives with his wife Jeannie [Canadian/ Lebanese/Mi’kmaq] on their Bay of Plenty, New Zealand orchard in the district of Tapuika. He has postgraduate degrees in Theology, History and Tikanga Māori. Alistair is a Research Affiliate at the University of Otago and his research and speaking interests centre on a theological interpretation of New Zealand colonial history with particular regard to post-colonial identity and reconciliation.
Adam Stewart
Adam Stewart originates from a family of mixed Mi’kmaq, Scottish, and Acadian heritage in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada. Adam currently works as an assistant professor of sociology at Crandall University in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada, where he teaches primarily in the area of social justice. He previously worked as an archivist at the Shingwauk Indian Residential Schools Centre at Algoma University in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada, where he partnered with Indian Residential School survivors to educate the public about the legacy of Canada’s Indian Residential School system.