The last email outlined four key practices we can actively engage in to begin the process of decolonizing mission and movement work. I wanted to explore the first two in a bit greater detail here; they are learning from indigenous voices and elevating indigenous voices.
Learning From Indigenous Voices
The first key practice is to choose to intentionally learn from indigenous voices. This is first and foremost because it’s an internal work that one can start today. One key aspect of it is taking a hard look at your bookshelf and considering the perspectives that are there. Are they diverse? Or is it all older white men, mostly from America? I’m suspicious that for most of us, the answer would be the latter. A number of years ago I did this and set out to prove the diversity in which I thought I read but came up empty handed. It was all old white dudes for me when I did this exercise.
It was then easy to excuse it. I might have had the thought (and you might too): “but non-colonial voices haven’t written on exactly the topic that I want to read about.” That might be true in some circumstances but I would be willing to bet that they have written on important topics adjacent to what you want to read about it and that is a great place to start. I’d also be willing to bet that there is more out there than you think - it’s just not what is prioritized by the publishing industry! Here’s a non-exhaustive short list of some of my favorites from people of color specifically and focused more generally on mission engagement in some fashion. I’ll note: you might not agree with everything in every book - and that’s OK. What’s important is beginning to hear, understand, wrestle with and learn from indigenous voices (beyond old white men):
- Homeland Insecurity by Daniel White Hodge (He also hosts a podcast that I have learned a lot from called “Profane Faith”)
- The Sacrifice of Africa by Emmanuel Katongole
- “The Next Evangelicalism”, “Prophetic Lament” by Soong-Chan Rah as well as his latest book written with Mark Charles called “Unsettling Truths”.
- “Gods that Fail” and “Subverting Global Myths” by Vinoth Ramachandra (He also has a blog that is well worth paying attention to here).
- “Faith-Rooted Organizing” by Alexia Salvatierra and Peter Heltzel
- “A Theology of Liberation” by Gustavo Gutierrez
- “The New Global Mission” by Samuel Escobar
- The Story of Christianity Vol 1 and Vol 2 Justo Gonzalez
- “Cry of the Earth, Cry of the Poor” and “Ecclesiogenesis” by Leonardo Boff. Of particular interest to these reading these emails: Ecclesiogenesis is the account of a South American Catholic leader attempting to explain what amounts to spontaneous movement in his particular context.
- “The Jubilee Gospel” by Kim Tan
- “Let Justice Roll Down” by John Perkins
- “The Cross and the Lynching Tree” by James Cone
Many of these voices are still American (but not all!). And most are men (yes, I’d like to see that change). But reading and engaging them can help begin to create a more expansive view that sees some of the colonial mental models that affect us and ways we might be able to dismantle them.
Diversify our reading list is just one aspect of learning though. Another aspect of this is to intentionally enter a new context with a desire to learn rather than a desire to see it transformed; the former wants to understand and serve whereas the latter attitude assumes it has the answers and power to make a difference. While requiring more intentionality, this isn’t even all that difficult to do in my experience. Seek out people to learn from. Ask if they would share their wisdom with you. If they agree sit and listen. Ask questions where acceptable. Embrace an attitude that intrinsically understands it doesn’t have (and won’t have) all of the answers, especially when in a foreign context and culture. It’s one thing to change our reading list but we also have to be willing to actively engage as learners when in different contexts if we are going to ever hope to engage in healthy ways.
Elevating Indigenous Voices
The next important practice of a catalyst in engaging postcolonial work is to elevate the local indigenous voices around you. This is harder to do in that people are automatically going to prioritize your voice (more than likely) whether its deserved or not. This is a colonial legacy, one that you see in the stories in the last message and one that I have experienced time and again. We have to be willing to take every chance we can to prioritize local voices though. Here are some of the ways I’ve learned to do this:
- I always tried to take an indigenous leader with me anytime I was invited to teach. I was then intentional in making them take part in the training so it wasn’t just me (an outsider from America) that people were seeing. Where appropriate and acceptable - I’d even encourage them to do a majority of the teaching and I would try to serve a background role helping with logistics, resourcing and base training materials (based on what was most needed). This doesn’t mean I didn’t teach but rather I made sure things revolved around indigenous leaders rather than me.
- In times of Q&A, which happens in any good training, I always try to defer to local voices first to give answers. Americans in particular tend to be good at immediately speaking up and giving an answer but instead try saying, “What do you think about this, Person A?”
- When asked to step on to local governing boards, I asked to step on in ex-officio (aka, non-voting) capacity where ever possible. At the very least the acknowledgement that the local voice should be considered more highly was well received. In one case, I was instead asked to facilitate a board strategic planning session. As it was a facilitation role, it was one where my voice was objective (or non-participative) and I was able to focus on serving them and helping them discern their own voices.
- When it comes to leadership teams, encourage locally lead indigenous teams and offer to serve and resource them instead of directly being on the team yourself. It may not always be possible but I’d hazard a guess that more often than not - it is.
- Finally - step out and trust indigenous leaders! Don’t be afraid to step out, provide some on-the-job training (if needed) and elevate an indigenous voice that others might not have been recognized. I was once asked to speak somewhere and I asked if I could instead invite an indigenous leader I have a close relationship with. They agreed and it worked great and created more exposure for them.
Wrapping These Two Points Up
The point in learning from and elevating indigenous voices isn’t to say that as an outsider you don’t have any role to play or anything to offer but instead it’s to be cognizant of the ways that outsiders have de-prioritized these things in the past. Serious and lasting harm has been done and in our work we want to correct that! There is huge potential for expansion and growth when indigenous leaders are able to fully own and contextualize their faith. There is huge potential even for us to learn from them as they do this and grow our own faith and networks.