The Stones Cry Out and the Trees Talk: A Praxis of Epistemic Disobedience Toward a Settler Theology of Aurality

ABSTRACTEpistemic disobedience (Mignolo) to settler-coloniality in Canada requires conscientisation to Indigenous peoples’ stories and a decolonial turn (Maldonado-Torres) in epistemology and ontology of relations (Tinker) between Indigenous and settler peoples. One group of primarily settler Christians on unceded and unsurrendered Algonquin/Anishnaabe territory engaged such a praxis, through Right Relations with their United Church in Ottawa, toward social healing (Lederach and Lederach) of colonial wounds, transformationally engaging in oral-aural praxis to relationally receive hi/stories of local Indigenous communities. Stan McKay, Cree elder and former moderator of the United Church of Canada, through Indigenous peoples’ understanding of creation invites a decolonial turn with hermeneutical listening in which one hears teachings of Jesus as cry of creation – such that even “the stones cry out” (Luke 19:40) and the trees teach – which has implications for a settler theology of aurality.KEYWORDS: Colonialityindigenoussettlersettler colonialismdecolonial healingUnited Churchliberation theology Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 Engel and Lippert, “Nayaano-nibiimaang,” map.2 Simpson, “Looking after Gdoo-naaganinaa,” 36–37.3 Simpson, Dancing on Our Turtle’s Back, FN 10, 14.4 White, “Battle to Save a Mighty Old Oak Succeeds”. And see Cooper, Trading tree.5 Some concepts of “unsettling theology” in my doctorate (2018) inspired by Paulette Regan; Denise M. Nadeau has been a companion on the decolonial and anti-colonial journey (https://denisenadeau.org/). Dylan Robinson (Stó:lo/Skwah) explores decolonizing listening praxis in the field of music, and engages a (tri)alogue (Morgan, “Restorying Indigenous—Settler Relations,” 26–27) of deep listening between Indigenous and settler, see Ellen Waterman in Robinson, Hungry Listening, 243.6 As Heiltsuk theologian Carmen Lansdowne argues, oral tradition and storytelling is political and rooted in praxis, see Lansdowne, “ORiginAL Voices,” 93–109.7 The story is more fully told in chapter 6 of Morgan, “Restorying Indigenous—Settler Relations,” 152–191.8 For more information about the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, see the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation at https://nctr.ca/. Further contextualization of The United Church of Canada will follow in the article.9 See “Friendly Service to the Nation,” chapter 1 in Airhart, Church with the Soul of a Nation.10 McKay, “Aboriginal Christian Perspective,” 53.11 This article is positioned from a settler perspective of learning a praxis of aurality to Indigenous peoples and epistemologies. Exploration of Indigenous ways of listening-in-relation in Robinson, chapter 1 entitled “Hungry Listening”.12 Mignolo, “Delinking,” 317.13 Mignolo, “Decolonizing Western Epistemology,” 36.14 Maldonado-Torres, “On the Coloniality of Being,” 116.15 Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, FN 1, 17.16 Ibid., 108.17 Ibid., 21.18 See Quijano, “Coloniality of Power,” 2000. And Battell Lowman and Barker, Settler.19 Mignolo, Darker Side of Western Modernity.20 Wolfe, “Settler Colonialism and the Elimination of the Native,” 388.21 Wolfe, “The Settler Complex,” 3.22 The research is part of my doctoral work and is based on eight semi-structured appreciative interviews conducted in the months around the closing ceremonies of the TRC in June 2015. The interviews are with the minister and members of the Right Relations Ministry who were a core committed group of settler-Christians in this time of First United’s work; one member identified as Chinese-American woman, one as white-American woman, three as Euro-Canadian women, and three as Euro-Canadian men, who range in age from their 40s to mid-70s. Because of my own position as both participant and researcher (I was active in the group from 2011–2017 and am still a member of First United) I relied on tools from autoethnographic research methods, such as structured self-reflection on lived experiences, testing that reflection with other participants, and cross-analyzing personal and participant reflections and stories with the literature. Morgan, “Restorying Indigenous—Settler Relations,” 27–33.23 Church, “Hard Road Home”; Hesse-Biber and Leavy, Qualitative Research; and Ellis, Revision.24 Lederach and Lederach, When Blood and Bones Cry Out, 100.25 Morgan, “Restorying Indigenous—Settler Relations,” 187.26 In this section I point toward the transformative listening that occurred during Michel Thusky’s talk about the ongoing resistance of the Algonquin of Barriere Lake. To learn more about this community’s story of resistance, see Pasternak, Grounded Authority.27 Pasternak, Grounded Authority, 5.28 “The Barriere Lake Trilateral Agreement was signed August 22, 1991 by the Algonquins of Barriere Lake, the Government of Quebec, and the Government of Canada.” See http://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2016/bcp-pco/Z1-1991-1-41-37-eng.pdf (accessed June 22, 2021).29 Morgan, “Restorying Indigenous—Settler Relations,” 167.30 Ibid., 168.31 Ibid., 169. As Pasternak points out, there are parallels, particularly in blockades in 1990, with the story of Kanehsatà:ke Resistance (more commonly in settler history called the Oka Crisis) and the resistance of the Barriere Lake Algonquin. Pasternak, Grounded Authority, 132.32 Morgan, “Restorying Indigenous—Settler Relations,” 167.33 Ibid., 169.34 First United Church, Right Relations minutes, January 9, 2013; learning event with KAIROS. Also, in certain moments of crisis in the years post-TRC – such as when their funding had been frozen by the federal government – the Barriere Lake community has called upon their contacts at First for support. In March 2017, there was a chili dinner fundraiser for the Barriere Lake Defense Fund at the church.35 As in Tinker, “The Stones Shall Cry out,” 105.36 Pasternak, Grounded Authority, 62–63.37 Ibid., 150.38 Simpson, Blockade, 7.39 Ibid., 9.40 Ibid., 56–57.41 Ibid., 11.42 Ottenhoff, “Standoff at 1492 Land Back Lane”; and Pasternak, Grounded Authority, 56.43 Simpson, Dancing on Our Turtle’s Back, 87–88; and Simpson, Always Done, 99.44 Grosfoguel, “Epistemic Decolonial Turn,” 214.45 Castro-Gómez, “(Post)Coloniality for Dummies,” 278.46 Tinker, “The Stones Shall Cry out,” 108.47 Ibid., 121.48 Ibid., 118–119.49 Ibid., 105.50 Simard, Finding the Mother Tree, 268–270.51 Ibid., italics in original text, 285–286; some ideas about carbon testing, 184–186.52 Simard, Finding the Mother Tree, 289–293.53 Ibid., 293.54 As in Simpson, Blockade, 31.55 Simpson, Always Done, 58. She goes to share the story of Treaty with the Hoof Nation.56 Simpson, Blockade, 30.57 Miller, Skyscrapers, 209–210.58 For a version of Seven Fire Prophecies, see Benton-Banai, Mishomis Book, 89–93. For reflections on treaty processes, see Carr-Stewart, “A Treaty Right,” 126; and Miller, Skyscrapers, 212 and 264–265.59 Final Report of the TRC, Honouring the Truth, 53.60 Miller, Skyscrapers, 211 and 219.61 Conway, Edges of Global Justice, 23; Deborah Wong in Dylan, Hungry Listening, 251. See also Escobar, “Worlds and Knowledges Otherwise.”62 The traditional 1986 apology narrative starts with the moderator’s words but the process leading to that moment, was led by the Indigenous church of the UCC. Restorying UCC history by placing Indigenous representatives and their stories within the church at the centre of the narrative is a decolonial praxis in my research. See my forthcoming article “Decolonial Restorying: Interrupting Christian Coloniality of Relations in Canada” in Abdou, Ehaab D. & Theodore G. Zervas (eds). Historical and Living Indigenous Wisdom Traditions in Curricula and Textbooks: Towards More Balanced and Inclusive Global Representations.63 Morgan, “Restorying Indigenous—Settler Relations,” 179.64 See #1 to 5 of the TRC, Calls to Action, “Legacy: Child Welfare,” 1. https://nctr.ca/records/reports/.65 Bott and Pruden, “Kamloops Discovery,” https://united-church.ca/news/response-kamloops-residential-school-graves-discovery; Bott, “Moderator’s statement,” https://united-church.ca/news/moderators-statement-residential-school-burial-sites. Further calls to accountability for UCC with documentation of unmarked graves at Alberni Indian Residential School; see Judith Lavoie, “Alberni Indian Residential School survivors react to potential unmarked graves,” Broadview, February 23, 2023, https://broadview.org/alberni-indian-residential-school-survivors/.66 As in Ratcliffe, “Ottawa Churches Build Serene Space as Part of Reconciliation Project.”67 Simpson, Blockade, 5.68 Lederach and Lederach, When Blood and Bones Cry Out, 208.69 Ibid., 49.70 Morgan, “Restorying Indigenous—Settler Relations,” 200.71 Wilson, Research is Ceremony, 7–8.72 Gaztambide-Fernández, “Decolonial Options,” 207.73 Lansdowne, “Bearing Witness,” 219–20.74 Ruether, “Feminist Metanoia,” 39.75 McKay, “Aboriginal Christian Perspective,” 53.76 Tinker, American Indian Liberation, 52; Tinker, Spirit and Resistance, 97; and Kidwell, Noley, and Tinker, Native American Theology, 75.77 Tinker, “Why I Do Not Believe in a Creator,” 176–177.78 Tinker, “The Stones Shall Cry out,” 122.Additional informationNotes on contributorsJoëlle M. MorganJoëlle M. Morgan is a queer, white, feminist, crip, settler theologian and educator of primarily Irish descent. She works and lives on unceded Algonquin/Anishnaabe territory where the Pasapkedjiwanong flows into the Kichi Zibi in Ottawa, Canada where she is part-time professor at Université Saint Paul and University of Ottawa, and full-time parent and partner.