Voices of the Matriarchs and Women in Community
Woman is the centre of the wheel of life.
She is the heartbeat of the people.
She is not just in the home, but she is the community,
she is the Nation, one of our Grandmothers.
The woman is the foundation on which Nations are built.
She is the heart of her Nation.
If that heart is weak, the people are weak.
If her heart is strong and her mind is clear,
then the Nation is strong and knows its purpose.
The woman is the centre of everything.
Elder Art Solomon
Excerpts taken from Songs for the People: Teachings on the Natural Way.
(Toronto: NC Press Ltd., 1990), 34-35.
Women—grandmothers, mothers, aunties, and daughters—are integral to the preservation, resurgence, and flourishing of Indigenous traditions and community.
NAIITS: An Indigenous Learning Community honours the matriarchs who animate and inspire our biblical stories, including Eve, Deborah, Judith, Ruth, Mary(s), Phoebe, and Junia. We also honour the matriarchs who animate and inspire our own ancestral Indigenous stories and her-stories.
We honour NAIITS’ own matriarchs who were midwives to the vision, ethos, and theology of our Learning Community and aunties to our students. We honour the matriarchs who make up our students, alumnae, teachers, board members, and leadership of our Indigenous Learning Community.
We especially honour Wendy Peterson—one such matriarch, midwife, and auntie—who played a pivotal role in the global Indigenous contextualization movement and the founding of NAIITS. She also stewarded the Journal of NAIITS for many years as its lead editor before walking on in 2018. In her 2018 dissertation, “A Gifting of Sweetgrass: The Reclamation of Culture Movement and NAIITS: An Indigenous Learning Community,” Wendy recounted the story of the early days of NAIITS within the broader contextualization movements, making it accessible for future generations. Wendy’s legacy of academic excellence, mentorship, and clever wit has left an indelible impression on our community that was, in a way, its own gifting of sweetgrass.
At our upcoming 2025 NAIITS Symposium, we invite you to join us June 5-7 at Tyndale University in Toronto, Canada, to honour, remember, celebrate, sing, and tell the story of “The Voices of the Matriarchs and Women in Community.” We invite proposals for papers and presentations that consider a wide range of topics related to our symposium’s theme, including but not limited to:
- Indigenous/Aboriginal matrilineal and matriarchal societies and the distinct roles and functions of women in Indigenous ceremonies and societies.
- The role of women in the preservation, maintenance, and radical resurgence and revitalization of our Indigenous ceremonies, communities, epistemologies, and lifeways.
- The agency, authority, leadership, representation, and power of women in Indigenous, Christian, and Indigenous Christian spaces and stories.
- The contributions and legacies of Indigenous women leaders and scholars in the NAIITS community and beyond.
- Indigenous conceptions, traditions, practices, songs, and ritual protocols relating to womanhood and motherhood.
- Reciprocal kinship relationships between women and with all our relations.
- Initiatives and concerns impacting Indigenous communities and the contribution of women in these endeavours.
Overall, we invite presentations grounded in research and stories of life at its best about the role of women in rebuilding community health and well-being. Proposals are not limited to women but inclusive of all as we recognize and celebrate the continuing role and legacy of women being foundational to our communities. We welcome proposals from academics, practitioners, community leaders, elders and students to share their insights and creative expressions that will enrich our Learning Community’s understanding and engagement with our symposium’s theme.
Please join us in our dance (and, yes, there may be dancing) celebrating our matriarchs and women at the 22nd annual NAIITS Symposium.
For the 2025 symposium, we invite people who desire to present a paper, panel or presentation on one of the themes identified above to submit an abstract and proposal for consideration. In the abstract, please outline the intention of the paper as well as the method(s) of research and presentation. Please also submit a bio and photo (or bios in the case of a panel) of the presenter(s) for use in promotion of the symposium.
Proposals using any of a broad range of research and presentation methodologies will be considered. Submissions should address one or more of the topic areas as noted above.
Presentations should strive to demonstrate how traditional Indigenous understandings, cultural perspectives, and historic practices, in conversation with biblical Christianity, might strengthen the impact of Indigenous epistemologies in the context of global realities.
Submission Guidelines
Submissions are received through the online portal only, and must include a brief personal bio, a photo and both an abstract and proposal for the presentation of not more than 300 words in total. The proposal must include a clear statement of your ideas and, if a scholarly presentation, enough of a context to show that you are aware of the basic issues and literature of the field.
- a) Papers and/or panels*
- Papers should be both theoretically solid and simultaneously practical. Submissions will be evaluated considering their potential to contribute to the Symposium. To encourage dialogue, we welcome submissions from various perspectives, from Indigenous presenters as well as those from supportive non-Indigenous presenters. Scholarly papers must adhere to the latest Chicago Turabian formatting style; in Times Roman 12 pt. font; and have complete footnotes and Works Cited. Please refer to the NAIITS Journal Style Guide for more information. Papers may be distributed to selected respondents at the sole discretion of NAIITS. Presented papers will be published in the NAIITS Journal after a circle peer-review process.
- b) Practitioners
- If the proposal is for a more practitioner focused presentation – something very much welcomed – then the proposal should describe the individual’s community of practice, the length of time the person has been in that community of practice, the connection the practitioner is making to the topic under consideration and how the presentation is intended to be given.
- c) Presence
- While pre-recorded presentations from those unable to attend in-person have been accepted the last several years, the Symposium is the annual in-person gathering of the NAIITS learning community and it is anticipated that, as with all societies and learning communities such as NAIITS is, that presenters will attend in person at their own expense to contribute most fully to the conversation. Exceptions may be made, but will be just that, exceptions.
Regardless of whether the intent is paper, panel, or practitioner, the proposal is the document on which submissions will be evaluated and selected. It is to be understood that abstracts, bios, and photos provided for submissions selected for presentation will be used in advertisements and other symposium materials. Selected papers will be allotted 40 minutes for presentation. The presenter may, at NAIITS’ discretion, be asked to pre-record the session for use in virtual formats it may also choose to present.
The deadline for submission of proposals for papers is midnight local time January 15, 2025. Please submit electronically here.
Finished papers must be submitted in the above style no later than April 15, 2025 so as to be included in the symposium.
*PLEASE NOTE: Panels will only be accepted if the panellists also submit a paper – either jointly or individually – for publication in the annual NAIITS journal. A simple PowerPoint presentation will not be accepted.*
NAIITS
- Is a member of Indigenous Pathways (IP), a non-sectarian, non-profit charity devoted to ministry with and within the Indigenous context.
- Is the educational member of the IP family dedicated to encouraging the development and articulation of Indigenous perspectives on theology and practice rooted in life as followers of the Jesus Way.
- Addresses scriptural, theological, ethical, and social engagement issues from Indigenous perspectives.
- Facilitates the creation of a written theological foundation for a) the visioning of new paradigms of ministry with and by Indigenous peoples; and, b) the contextualization of faith in Indigenous contexts.
- Facilitates the development and implementation of Indigenous learning styles and “world views” in written work and publications.
- Facilitates the development of theological partnerships with other cultural communities of following the Jesus Way of faith to explore intercultural expressions of that faith.
- Is committed to genuine dialogue with the historical traditions of following Jesus and values the written and living resources encompassed in these traditions.
Artist's Note
The sun, which represents many tribes and nations, symbolizes the hope of a new horizon, the beginning of the new chapter, a coming back. The moon and the stars are dreams that come to Indigenous people, spilling out of a medicine pouch, which is kept close to the heart where hopes and dreams begin. They are dreams that are kept safe for the right time. The movement of these astral bodies as they pour out of the pouch communicates that the dreams of Indigenous people are still active and relevant. There are both new and old dreams that are being held onto. The stars and moon have been here long past our memories and will outlast our lives, representing the truth that Indigenous peoples never left.
~ Kiara Fehr