Here's a conference you won't want to miss! Dr Ray Aldred, Director of Indigenous Studies at Vancouver School of Theology will be coming to Victoria March 15-17th.
Friday March 15th- Young adult dinner and lecture- Location TBA
Sat March 16th 9-5pm- all day conference at Victoria Church of the Nazarene.
Sunday March 17th 11am- preaching at Hollydene Community Church
This conference is brought to you by the newly founded Vancouver Island School of Theology and the Arts -Vista. Special thanks to Victoria Church of the Nazarene and Hollydene Community Church for sponsoring this event.
Lunch will be catered by Gerri Busch, an Indigenous elder from Nisga'a nation. She will be serving traditional foods.
The art of this poster is from a PCS alum Indigenous Artist Juliana Speier.
Artist’s statement:
For the design, the wolf represents Indigenous cultures and spirituality, presenting a broken copper, while the sheep represents Western culture and spirituality, presenting a cross. Sheep originated in Asia, but have been in Europe since the bronze age, and have deeply influenced the culture, is notably domesticated, and also is mentioned within scripture. The wolf has been chosen for Indigenous representation in a simple sense because it represents my own ancestor, but it also is a commentary on the fearful ideology that many Western Christians have of Indigenous spirituality, and the pervasive ideology of how we are 'uncivilized' (compared to the domestic sheep) which has been used as an excuse under Christianization to commit genocide (thus, the broken copper). The plants coming from the meeting of the two are three different species; False Hellebore, Yew trees, and Olive trees. The olive branches are a reminder that the scriptures came from a third culture, outside of the Western Christian culture we tend to be familiar with; our understanding of Christianity on this continent tends to be deeply intertwined with the Euro-Western culture and morals, entirely different from its original understanding and interpretation from the cultures of the Middle East. This cultural entanglement needs to be peeled back to understand the context of scripture clearly. The two other plants, Yew, and False Hellebore, are plants that are both used for medicine, but if taken improperly, can cause pain, suffering, and death. Yew being used to derive an anti-cancer compound and False Hellebore used by my own people as a medicine, while the majority of these plants, if ingested, are extremely poisonous.