Listening to Indigenous Voices

MCC BC Indigenous Neighbours – Listening to Indigenous Voices

The 12-session Listening to Indigenous Voices is being offered again this year. We will be starting in March. The purpose of this series is to read and listen to Indigenous worldviews, so we can respond to the call for reconciliation. It is a deep-dive into 11 specific topics and an overview of the Indigenous-Canada historical timeline. The Listening to Indigenous Voices series will be on Wednesday evenings from 7:00 to 8:15 pm. The fee for this course is $45.

Please register at MCC.ORG/LTIV.

You will be provided the Listening to Indigenous Voices dialogue guide, which includes short articles written by various Indigenous authors and some online resources if you want to dig a bit deeper. After exploring a session in the guide, we will meet on Zoom for “sharing circles” to talk about, process, learn and reflect on the chapters. I will have an Indigenous guest at each session to join us – providing time for us to deeply listen to them. I currently have about 60 dialogues guides in my office. The guides will be available for pickup at the MCC BC Administrative office – upstairs at the MCC Centre (33933 Gladys Avenue, Abbotsford) or we can mail you the dialogue guide with the addition of $5 for postage and handling.

This is an opportunity to learn about Indigenous culture; a culture that is different from your own. It may be different to hear some of the views expressed in the guide or by my guests and you may disagree at times. These sessions are about taking the time to think and understand the call for reconciliation that has been made by Indigenous peoples. It may help us better understand how to live into the ministry of reconciliation in II Corinthians 5:18-19.

Schedule: 4 Sections (March to mid-June) on Wednesday evenings, 7-8:15pm. Here are the dates and session titles for the LTIV course sessions:

Section 1

March 6^th             Session: 1 Beginnings

March 13^th          Session 2: A Tale of Two Communities

March 20^th           Session 3: The Land is Us

Section 2

April 3^rd                 Session 4: Languages of the Land

April 10^th              Session 5: Ties of Kinship

April 17^th              KAIROS Blanket Exercise – as a way to review the Colonization and Resistance Historical Timeline (in center of dialogue guide)

Section 3

May 1^st                 Sesson 6: Early Encounters

May 8^th                 Session 7: Killing the Indian in the Child

May 15^th              Session 8: Dispossession, Dependency & Oppression

Section 4

May 29^th              Session 9: Beyond Apologies

June 5^th                Session 10: Pathways to Decolonization

June 12^th              Session 11: Indigenization

I know this may seem like a big commitment, but I believe you will value the information provided in the dialogue guide, online resources and in our sharing circle conversations on Zoom. Attendance for these sessions is flexible, as I realize people may have to miss a session or two. 

This series is open to anyone to attend. Feel free to pass this information along to family and friends, or others you know that would be interested in attending. 

Blessings!

Bridget Findlay

Indigenous Neighbours Coordinator with MCC BC