NAIITS: An Indigenous Learning Community
17th Annual Symposium
June 4 - 6, 2020
Going Virtual!
“Community Health and Well-being: Conversations on Wholeness”
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 wider Indigenous community. At each symposium there have been clear articulations of the landscape in which we found ourselves, and there have been cutting edge insights about how we might more effectively engage as Indigenous people within our communities and with those from other socio-cultural backgrounds and contexts.
Our focus will be on the overall health and well being of human beings with themselves, their Creator/Restorer, one another, the land, 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 Asset-based, or non-disease based approach to dealing with historic and intergenerational trauma.
Of particular interest will be how the interplay of a theology that shifts its starting points and practice from a deficit framework to an asset-based one 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. 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:
- Indigenous values and perspectives that might contribute to alternative responses to those being offered elsewhere in respect of therapeutic interventions;
- Theologies and Indigenous readings of the scriptures that might offer a way forward in some of the following:
- How does the Bible instruct us as far as its understandings of communal models of life that are health focused? Extended family? Role of elders and ancestors?
- What do the concepts of shalom and restoration mean to community health and wellbeing?
- What, if any, are human responsibilities for our joint healing that emerge in the growing intercultural milieu in which Indigenous peoples now find themselves?
- What are the implications of short and long-term engagement with the land as nurturer of life for healing and community well-being? How, then, does the land bring healing to and with human persons and communities?
Papers should strive to demonstrate how traditional Indigenous understandings, cultural perspectives, and historic practices, might strengthen the wider society and mitigate the continued alienation of people from the land.
LOCATION: Delivered Virtually!
Schedule
Enter the name for this tabbed section: New Zealand (NZST)
AUCKLAND (NZST)
Enter the name for this tabbed section: Australia (AEST)
MELBOURNE (AEST)
Enter the name for this tabbed section: Davao (PST)
DAVAO (PST)
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Nova Scotia (ADT)
NOVA SCOTIA (ADT)
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Winnipeg (CDT)
WINNIPEG (CDT)
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Seattle (PDT)
SEATTLE (PDT)
Presenters
Check back here In the coming months to see who will be presenting!
Julene Pommert
Julene Pommert is the grateful descendant of the Blackfoot tribe (Pikani), Eastern tribes, and white families. She is the beloved wife of more than 30 years of Daniel Pommert, joyful mother to two young men, and humbled sister, cousin, niece or aunt to many. Having received a doctorate in 1998 in Speech Communication (intercultural communication and conflict) from the University of Washington, she also was a new mother, and after a short stint as a professor, chose to stay home for ten years. After that time, she returned to school with The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology, and studied the Bible, hermeneutics, and counseling psychology, finishing a second masters in 2014. She now spends her time teaching, reading, writing, counseling people, mothering and wifing, and when she can, painting watercolors, baking bread, and singing. She loves Creator very much and enjoys studying the Bible and talking with anybody who will talk with her about these two significant aspects of her life.
J Goins
I am the son of a Cherokee father (4/4) and a first-generation European immigrant mother. I was raised by my mother from age seven in Miami Florida. I live estranged from my culture until 2005. I served with an international Christian mission organization for 30 years. I’ve been married for 40 years, and raised my nieces for ten years.
Kenneth Wallace
Dr. Kenneth Wallace, Aboha ‘a Chihowa, is an Afro-metis from the United States with heritage from the Choctaw and Pawnee Nations as well as being African-American. He completed his doctorate in Worship Studies at the Robert E. Webber Institute for Worship Studies with a focus on Christian contextualization of Indigenous worship. He teaches nationally and internationally about multi-ethnic worship with his organization Kingdom Reflections Multi-Ethnic Worship Ministries. He has been volunteering across Canada by hoop dancing in the Way of Jesus both at powwows and for Blanket Exercises hosted by Kairos Canada. He is also a certified ethnoarts specialist with the Global Ethnodoxology Network. He is married to Achlaï, an esteemed leader in her own rite, and has a five-year-old growing worship leader named Hadassa.
Sean Delany
I grew up in Te Kao in the Far North and am of Māori and Pākehā (English, Irish, Scandinavian, Portuguese) descent. I currently live in Motueka in the South Island of New Zealand with my wife Tania and our five tamariki. Because of my upbringing in the three churches (Ratana, Anglican and 7th-Day Adventist) amongst my people and experiences throughout life, this has brought about changes which I believe are now making a positive impact on our lives and the lives of others. 3 years ago, I transitioned into ‘Whānau Ora – Family Health & Wellbeing’ as a navigator which has given me the freedom to help whānau dream cast and use effective planning tools for their futures.We have also been involved in ‘Te Haerenga – The Journey’ for the past 8-9 years which is an initiative led by Island Breeze and Baptist Māori Ministries which aims to encourage positive change in Māori communities and providing a platform to learn about leadership, discipleship, Māori values and spirituality.
Wade Adakai
My name is Wade M. Adakai (Adika’í Yázhí, transl. “Little Gambler”)Clans: Tł’ááshchí’í - Táchii’nii - 'Áshiihi - Bit'ahnii My wife and I live in Window Rock, AZ. I am a graduate of East Texas Baptist University, a recent student at Phoenix Seminary and a former instructor of Philosophy at Indian Bible College. I am currently a photographer/cinematographer for Tsehootsooi Medical Center, a poet, musician, and aspiring philosopher/theologian with an interest in exploring the Navajo Epistemology and Ontology. Most importantly, I am follower of Yeshua.
Maryl Smith
Maryl Smith, CPM, LDM, has an active homebirth practice and has been catching babies since 1984. Over the years she has cared for women from over 18 different nations, worked in two free-standing birth centers, taught as adjunct staff at Birthingway College of Midwifery and served in multiple roles in the promotion of midwifery in the state of Oregon. Her passion is supporting trauma survivors during the perinatal experience. Maryl frequently travels the world with her pastor/musician husband working to preserve indigenous spiritual expression in music. Her other activities include adventures with her granddaughters, herb gardening, writing and being active in her local Native American community.
Martin Brokenleg
Dr. Martin Brokenleg is co-author of the book Reclaiming Youth at Risk: Our Hope for the Future and co-developer of the Circle of Courage model and provides training worldwide for individuals who work with youth at risk. He is a retired professor and was most recently Director of Native Ministries and Professor of First Nations Theology at the Vancouver School of Theology. For thirty years, Martin was Professor of Native American studies at Augustana University of Sioux Falls, South Dakota. He has also been a director of The Neighbourhood Youth Corps, chaplain in a correctional setting, and has extensive experience as an alcohol counsellor. Martin has consulted and led training programs throughout North America, New Zealand, Europe, Australia, and South Africa. He is the father of three children and an enrolled member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe.
Ji-gaabiikwe Diane Campeau
Ji-gaabiikwe Diane Campeau is a Nahkawe-iniikwe, Nêhiyaw-iskwêw and Metis woman and mother to her twelve year old daughter, N’baagiizho Kenadee. Ji-gaabiikwe is a survivor of the Sixties Scoop and shares her heart story of reclaiming, redeeming and rediscovering herself as an Anishnaabekwe. She is a registered Social Worker and has been in the social work profession for the last 17 years. She is currently on staff with iEmergence, working out of Regina, Saskatchewan on Treaty 4 territory.
John McNeill
My background includes five decades of work as a Christian educator in very culturally diverse settings in Central and Eastern Europe, behind the Iron Curtain, and more recently in higher education in North America. Christel, my wife and I , have been married for almost 52 years, and are blessed by our 5 daughters (one unofficially but very firmly adopted) and 14 grandchildren. My hobbies include woodworking, welding, gardening and sailing. The gardening along with volunteer work with NAIITS has been specially important for me in developing a renewed sense of both identity, personal and communal, and connection to land and its Creator, in ways that were definitely NOT part of my settler inheritance.
Micky ScottBey Jones
Micky ScottBey Jones , the Justice Doula is a womanist, contemplative activist, movement chaplain, certified Enneagram coach and trainer and nonviolence practitioner supporting students, clergy, activists and everyday leaders in a variety of roles - speaker, writer, facilitator, transformative travel guide, consultant and teacher. She is the Director of Resilience and Healing Initiatives with Faith Matters Network and has a B.S. in Consumer and Family Sciences and M.A. in Intercultural Studies from NAIITS/Portland Seminary. Micky is a facilitator and Master Practitioner Candidate with Narrative 4. She is the author of Keep the Fires Burning: Conquering Stress and Burnout as a Mother-Baby Professional (Hale Publishing, 2011) and contributing author of Becoming Like Creoles: Living and Leading at the Intersections of Injustice, Culture and Religion (Fortress, 2019) and Keep Watch With Me: An Advent Reader for Peacemakers (Abingdon, 2019). You can interact with her work and collaborations at Faithmattersnetwork.org and social media:
Cecilia Titizano
Cecilia Titizano is Bolivian of Aymara descent. She holds a Ph.D. in Philosophical Theology from the Graduate Theological Union (GTU) in Berkeley, California. For many years, Cecilia has worked in the area of international development, among Quechua and Aymara communities. She is part-time faculty in the Theology and Religious Studies Department at the University of San Francisco, where she teaches Indigenous Cosmologies and Theologies and Ethics in the Indigenous Spiritual Traditions. Cecilia serves in Memoria Indígena as an advisory board member and is part of the Comunidad de Sabias y Teólogas Indígenas del Abya Yala (COSTIAY).