Anglican Indigenous Network Meets in New Zealand, Dreams of Higher Visibility
Episcopal News Service. March 24, 1994 [94066]
As they approached the gates of the ancestral marae, or traditional meeting house of New Zealand's indigenous Maori people in the city of Rotorua, delegations representing the Anglican Indigenous Network received a warm welcome -- and took crucial steps on their journey towards visibility and self-determination.
American Indians and native Hawaiians, joined by indigenous cousins from Canada and, for the first time, aborigines from Australia were presented by the Maori hosts of Aotearoa/New Zealand for a traditional exchange of speeches and song to express a growing sense of community.
"We have come as students -- to learn from the example you have set," said Bishop Steven Charleston of Alaska in one of the responses during the March 2 ceremony. "You are the first spark, the first light of rebirth of native peoples around the world. That which we thought was lost, or taken from us, is being rekindled. We see in what you have done a hope for the future of all of us."
The 36 participants had come for five intense days of discussion and strategy on how to intensify their efforts for self-determination in their respective Anglican churches. And they had come to study first-hand the unique relationship between the Maoris and the Anglican Church of New Zealand, a partnership hammered out in 1978 that gives the Maori full and equal stature and their own episcopal oversight. The move ended 160 years of misunderstanding and ensured the growth of the Maori church, establishing a model that is being carefully studied by indigenous peoples in the rest of the Anglican Communion.
While admiring the Maori model, participants held no illusions that it could be replicated elsewhere. The Maoris share a common language and culture and a small geographical area, unlike the hundreds of Indian cultures in North America. They also have a strong lay and ordained leadership -- an issue that dominated several of the sessions -- and they are growing. Yet all the participants shared a common dream that they could achieve higher visibility and more freedom to shape their own ministry, like the Maoris.
During the opening session at St. John's Seminary in Auckland, each delegation shared its struggles, talking openly and painfully of "lost traditions and lost stories," the continuing land struggles. Bishop Whakahuihui Vercoe, senior bishop of the Maori church, welcomed his guests by calling attention to the similarity of their problems but contended that "God created us as one so we should share who we are."
Bishop Sir Paul Reeves, a Maori who recently returned to the seminary after serving as Anglican Observer at the United Nations, urged a "realistic presentation of where you are." He said that he hoped the meeting could build binding, constructive relationships and some practical assessment of needs and resources, "how we can help each other." He added that the network had "reached the time in our history when we need to do something that can be measured."
The network was born when Reeves, joined by Vercoe and Archbishop Michael Peers of Canada, called together a small group of Native Americans at the 1991 General Convention in Phoenix to shape an Anglican response to the United Nations Year of the Indigenous People. The network was nourished by a series of visits between the Maori and American Indians, pointed out Owanah Anderson, staff officer for Indian Ministry in the Episcopal Church, who coordinated the exchanges. "The meeting in Phoenix broadened the cooperation and gave birth to the network," she said.
Charleston spoke for the delegation from the United States and observed that the 1992 celebration of 500 years of survival at Washington National Cathedral had been "a major effort to raise awareness." The service, which brought together indigenous people from throughout North America, emphasized that "we are not victims of history but survivors, celebrating our strength as a people."
Anderson said that recent budget cuts and restructure cast some doubts about the future but she quickly added that the election of the fifth American Indian bishop, Creighton Robertson in South Dakota, "represents a new opportunity, reinforcing an internal network we didn't have before."
Shane Jones, a Maori activist who served in the office of New Zealand's prime minister, recounted how an important treaty has provided crucial leverage for recovery of Maori culture.
In 1840 the Treaty of Waitangi defined the compact between indigenous Maori leadership and the settlers or colonizers, what Jones called the "foundation document for New Zealand society. All political institutions derive their legitimacy from the treaty."
The treaty's three simple articles, written in two languages, was "quickly forgotten" as New Zealand drew up a constitution that left the Maoris on the fringe. The treaty emerged in the 1960s as a rallying symbol for Maori rights and led in 1975 to the formation of a tribunal -- the only bi-cultural court in the world -- to investigate the persistent abuse of Maori culture and the rights as defined by the treaty.
"This society found its roots -- whether it wanted to or not -- in the treaty," Jones said in describing how it was used to recover parts of the Maori heritage. In addition to land rights, "Maori language has become an icon and symbol of cultural pride," he added.
After 150 years of marginalization and dislocation, progress comes very slowly, Jones emphasized. "We are moving through a period of decolonization, attempting to bring balance to our economic resources. In that struggle, the church has used its prophetic voice and "risked its popularity." While New Zealand is on the verge of major political and economic changes that represent fresh hope for the Maoris, Jones has doubts whether the Maoris are prepared for the transition. With such deep gaps in skills and education, it will very difficult for them to participate and help shape those changes.
Ginny Doctor, a Mohawk from New York who is now a missionary in Alaska, said that the Episcopal Council on Indian Ministry has been discussing a "homeland diocese" based roughly on the Maori model. "We began to dream that we could be like the Maori," she told the group. "It would give us the power and choice to ordain the people we need."
The vision is not a new one, Doctor stressed. It is an idea discussed a generation ago but with increasing interest because of the special needs of native peoples. She said it was time to "jump off the cradle board" of dependence, referring to an Indian method of caring for babies.
"How can we set our own standards for ordination, our own structures?" Charleston asked in a sermon to the seminary community. "How do we, as indigenous people, not only survive in institutional structures, but challenge and transform those structures in ways that will benefit our people?"
The Maori of Aotearoa have "led the way and inspired us," and "given us such a bright vision," Charleston said -- encouraging us to "reach out our arms across the dotted lines of colonialism." He added, "We are no longer stepchildren to a colonial church but a free and indigenous people.... We are prepared to take over our own destiny."
Carol Hampton of Oklahoma, field officer in the Episcopal Church's Office for Indian Ministry, pointed out that leadership is one of the most pressing problems. The clearest evidence of the crisis is the fact that there are no native Episcopalians in seminary at this time. "We must push through the barriers and take over the ordination process for our own people," she said.
In an open period of sharing, Bishop Arthur Malcolm of Australia said that he gets "really hurt inside" because, as an aborigine, he can't speak his own language or sing the old songs. Even though his people have been in Australia for about 40,000 years, the missionaries destroyed his culture and imposed European forms of culture and worship. Things began to change in 1985 when he was appointed the first aborigine bishop. "The church finally realized that only the aborigines could reach their own people," he told the hushed circle. "They still want to keep us on the end of a rope but we must be free so the spirit of God can flow through us." He expressed deep gratitude for the support of the network and what it represented to those like him who languish in isolation.
Ordained leadership is also a problem for native Hawaiians who have ordained only seven priests in their whole history, enduring a 26-year gap before the last ordination in 1991. In an effort to cultivate "culturally appropriate training," they are working with the diocese to develop an alternate process for ordination, to stand alongside the traditional process. "We must have native clergy -- or others, like the Mormons, will take over," said the Rev. Darrow Aiona of Honolulu.
The Canadians are still struggling against deeply ingrained attitudes and the legacy of residential schools established in 1820 to strip them of their heritage. Participants sat in stunned silence as they viewed a videotape of the second native gathering that contained searing personal testimonies of the effects of assimilation. In one of the video's most touching moments, Archbishop Michael Peers, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, apologized for the church's complicity in the residential schools and for trying to make natives into "our image."
"Your story is our story," Bishop Vercoe said in an emotional summary of the reports. "We are a people who know how to survive. We are custodians, links for our children of our language, customs and traditions. Let us dream on."
Sessions that attempted to sketch needs and resources in the network proved to be a mixture of powerful personal stories of pain and struggle with some hard-nosed strategies to continue the autonomy struggle that obviously cut across all boundaries of time and culture. Underlying the whole conference was a determination to fight systematic attempts to destroy native cultures around the world.
- The Australians said they were still in the early stages of building an identity on the national level and were grateful that they were now part of a network. "We need this network -- we can't do it alone," Bishop Malcolm said.
- The Canadians said that they were feeling "loss and confusion of identity," that they needed to continue the healing process, involving the whole church. "Our people need to hear the story."
- The Hawaiians said they hoped to serve as a "bridge between native Americans and Polynesians," encouraging exchanges and gatherings to explore the common ground.
- The Maoris said that they "recognized each of our journeys as precious examples of God's creation" and they were concerned that other participants not duplicate the problems they experienced.
In the closing session, ideas came spilling out of the participants -- a proposal to reach out and include Latin Americans in the network; persistent efforts to exchange people and ideas to nourish the network; a newsletter and video to interpret the network; coordination of internal communications to keep everyone linked.
At one point, Doctor pointed out that the network was experiencing "growing pains" as it struggled for self-definition. In an interview later with the U.S. delegation, Charleston said that earlier meetings were formative, working on the sense of identity, but this one was much more specific. "We are taking our first steps as a solid new network." He said that participants "found the common threads that unite us -- and some ways we can move for better support."
Charleston said that it was clear to indigenous people that they shared one basic need. "We are largely invisible in our larger societies," he said. Referring to a presentation by a Maori communicator, he pointed out that the Maori, who are about 12-15 percent of the population, receive almost no media coverage in the wider society.
"Indigenous churches around the world have come of age," Charleston argued. "The move toward culturally identifiable presence in the church will continue -- the time is right." That move should not be seen by others as "separatist" but rather a "symbol of growth and strength within the Anglican Communion. The move into mission and growth are indications of health and vitality," he said.
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