Indigenous wisdom could help build interfaith relations

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 09/03/2024 (922 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Could Indigenous people help the interfaith community build bridges and heal relations following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza?

That’s the question Loraine MacKenzie Shepherd, a former minister at the Augustine and Westworth United churches here in Winnipeg, asked on Feb. 6 when she received the Lieutenant Governor’s Award for the Advancement of Interreligious Understanding.

Noting that efforts to date to build bridges, hold gatherings and have conversations between faith groups about the attack and the war have been unsuccessful, MacKenzie Shepherd wondered if there might be a new way to deal with the situation.

Perhaps, she wondered, it’s time to invite Indigenous people, with their traditions of healing and reconciliation, to “help us sit in the fire and have difficult conversations,” as she put it, adding it might be “a third way out of our current impasse that deters interfaith gatherings.”

That idea intrigued me. Could Indigenous people offer a way out of the current impasse? I reached out to Stan McKay, an elder and knowledge keeper at Fisher River Cree Nation, to see what he thought about the idea.

For starters, McKay was pleased simply to have been asked the question. “We usually aren’t asked to contribute to solving some of the world’s problems,” he said. “Instead, we are often seen as the problem.”

If asked to help faith communities navigate this challenging time, McKay said he thought Indigenous people would be open to being “part of sharing ideas and possibilities.”

At the same time, he added, they would do it only if invited, and then with caution and humility. Indigenous people, he explained, “know only too well what it is like to be aggressively imposed upon.”

As for how they could help, it could be a series of circle meetings where various perspectives are shared in a way that “allows for conversation,” McKay said, noting that Indigenous people “understand there are many truths … it’s a mistake to think all truth is only in one culture or way of life.”

The circle meetings would not be opportunities for making statements and presenting research, as happens in many other settings, he said. Instead, it would be a time to share stories. “We are a people of story,” he said of Indigenous people, adding “everyone has a story, and needs a safe place to tell it.”

Also important would be taking time, not rushing things, McKay said. “It takes time to build consensus, to hear each story, to build community,” he said.

And what if, after sharing, a decision about how to proceed can’t be reached? That happens, McKay said, adding that agreement “can’t be forced. People, and the health of the community, is more important than making a decision.”

If people are willing to give time and effort to rebuild interfaith relations, then reaching out to Indigenous people “is worth exploring,” he concluded.

Listening to MacKenzie Shepherd and McKay reflect on the possibilities of Indigenous involvement in healing interfaith relations brought to mind something John Ralston Saul wrote in A Fair Country: Telling Truths About Canada. In the book, he talked about how Canada is what he called a Métis nation, heavily influenced and shaped by Indigenous ideas of egalitarianism, of a proper balance between individual and group, and of a penchant for negotiation over violence.

But over the past centuries, he said, non-Indigenous Canadians forgot the wisdom offered by their Indigenous neighbours. Instead, non-Indigenous Canadians came to believe that they, and they alone, had all the answers, cutting themselves off from a valuable source of information for how to thrive in this country.

If Canada is to be successful as a nation, Ralston Saul wrote, we need to reconnect with that original Indigenous wisdom and work together to succeed in this fair land.

If that’s true for Canada at large, perhaps it is also true for interfaith relations at this challenging time. Indigenous people may have much to offer when it comes to finding ways to share stories, hear each other and create space for difficult conversations. Perhaps they can help heal the divisions and polarization that has come between groups.

Considering the impasse facing interfaith relations not only in Manitoba today, but across Canada, maybe it’s an option that should be explored.

faith@freepress.mb.ca

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