Hosts Needed for Canadian Art Tour
The Canadian Aboriginal Ministry Committee of the Christian Reformed Church in North America is seeking people in CRCNA communities across Canada to help coordinate local showings of an exhibition of 17 Aboriginal paintings depicting Easter in the Woodlands artistic style.
Titled "reForming Relationships" and inspired by God's call to live as ministers of reconciliation, the powerfully rendered, culturally-relevant tour will begin this fall. It will feature the exhibit Kisemanito Pakitinasuwin - 'The Creator's Sacrifice.' The paintings were commissioned in 2002 by the Indian Metis Christian Fellowship (IMCF), a ministry of the CRCNA to Aboriginal people in Regina, SK.
Created by Cree artist Ovide Bighetty, the paintings are based on the gospel accounts of Jesus’ death and resurrection, and draw on symbols and tradition passed down by Aboriginal elders.
“The title of this cross-country art tour — "reForming Relationships" — gets at the heart of what this tour is all about: forging and deepening relationships between Christian Reformed and Aboriginal communities,” says Steve van de Hoef, Aboriginal Ministry staff person at the CRCNA’s Canadian Ministries and a member of the tour’s coordinating team.
"In some places this will mean building on the foundations of existing relationships. In other places it will mean learning about Aboriginal culture and current lived experience, perhaps for the first time, and providing opportunities for relationships to be built. But in all places, it will be living out Jesus’ ministry of restoring (re-forming) relationships broken by sin."
Although this is a national tour, the exhibit will be organized by local teams to fit the context of each of the localities where the exhibit is featured.
Since each location is different, with a unique local context, there are no limits to what a "reForming Relationships" tour stop could look like in your area, says van de Hoef.
"You could host an Aboriginal speaker, an opening reception or workshop, a learning series about local Aboriginal culture, display the art in a local gallery, host the Blanket Exercise, use the art as the subject for a youth group or Sunday School study series . . . "
The tour has two goals:
- Helping CRC members to learn about Aboriginal peoples and their cultures, and the history and current realities of relationships between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples in Canada.
- To be a catalyst for new and renewed relationships with Aboriginal people and communities.
If you would like to learn more, or are interested in organizing a tour stop in your community, contact Steve van de Hoef, or call 1-800-730-3490. To visit the "reForming Relationships" website, click: 'Creator's Sacrifice' tour.
As for Indian Metis Christian Fellowship, it is a working/worshipping community serving spiritual and social needs of Aboriginal people in Regina. IMCF opens its doors in the name of Jesus Christ each week-day morning.
Visitors enjoy a safe space, free coffee, a courtesy telephone, access to the local news paper and other reading material, games, and company, drawing many people to the ministry each day. (The reading materials focus on Christian and Aboriginal affairs.)
The sole requirement for access to the drop-in program is the practice of 'respect'. Posters at each entry door and elsewhere inform people that while at IMCF they are required to practice respect as follows:
- Respect the Triune Creator and all the names of God
- Respect other people's needs and safety
- Respect yourself by using decent language, and sober, drug free behavior
- Respect creation including IMCF property.
IMCF offers a range of programs and community-building opportunities throughout the week, including a daily Prayer Circle, soup and bannock lunch each Wednesday, a computer club, and programming for youth. In all it does, IMCF lives out the gospel call to reconciliation and right relationships.
