Aboriginal Theology

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Comment by George Polley on August 11, 2009 at 4:51pm

I probably should have spelled it "epiphanic", rather than epiphonic, since it has to do with epiphany, rather than phonics. Picky, picky, picky me!

By the way, I liked the "Homeland Security" photo well enough to look up the website & check it out further. Very well said! Also the one about the "Original Founding Fathers". Interesting, isn't it, Bruce, how that gets left out of the history books. :) I like the "Earth Turtle" image a lot, too.

Blessings on you and your journey into the Southwest, into Navajo and Hopi country. Take care, and keep in touch.

Comment by Bruce Ferguson on August 11, 2009 at 3:40pm

Yeah I like that word..think that I will use it....got through the border though, now I am suffering through disney land fireworks every night .... we are rv'ing at a place about four blocks...I will be glad to get to the desert and connect with eht elders, navajo people and some quieter times in El Paso...

Comment by George Polley on August 7, 2009 at 6:08am

Gee, Bruce, I'm glad you got turned back at the border, or you wouldn't have had all this come together this way. What an epiphany! (I invented a word for this kind of experience, "epiphonic", which the dictionary doesn't yet have (but should) :)

Comment by Bruce Ferguson on August 7, 2009 at 12:10am

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Yesterday morning I was denied entrance into the United States! No, I had no criminal record, I did not have any drugs, I had the financial resources to sustain myself, and I even had the required ID for a visit.

As a show of support for a friend of mine who is pursuing God’s calling in the States, I agreed to help her move her extra van, belongings and the four children whom she fosters. After days of preparation, escalating excitement and energy from the kids and deepening anxieties and stress for the adults, the morning came. We left promptly according to schedule and then arrived at the US-Canada border and began “the process” with the Border guards, and within a half an hour found ourselves on the road back to Canada! Shocked and dismayed and in silence I went over in my head what I said or did wrong. I have never been denied entrance before and this was the first time going to the States after 9-11, so the realities shocked me into understanding the seriousness of increased international security which I had always taken for granted.

Essentially, what happened was that my friend and I were unclear in the purpose of our visit. As typical Canadians, and “laid-back” British Columbians (with the Vancouver Island experience!) we indicated that we wanted to go to Disneyland and then check out the American Southwest and visit some friends in El Paso. If we liked El Paso, then we would start the process of moving to the States on a more permanent basis. Apparently we don’t do that anymore! When going to the States, be warned, be very clear on whether you are visiting or moving south.

So, in trying to be consistent with my friends direction I declared that I would be staying and applying for a Green Card under the rights of American Indians born in Canada (Jay Treaty) and therefore would also be staying in the States. However, in “over-shooting” my efforts in being consistent with my friend I was informed that I just started the official process of becoming “Americanized” which I didn’t mean to do! That is the experience that my spiritual reflections will explore today.

Reflections

The major gist of my reflections about yesterday’s experience has been about “not questioning God” (which is different than being analytically critical of ecclesiastical or institutional interpretations of what God is saying). In daring to consider that God is not preventing me from something, my thinking has shifted. The blessing of this event has allowed for a process where God is inviting me towards a deeper understanding of where I am being called. I have experienced a major shift in thinking with respect to who really cares about my life, about who has a purpose for me as well as a shift in responding to Creator with or without approval from church officialdom or the opinions of others. Something in yesterday’s events calls for a deeper commitment to the experience and lesson of blind trust in God. Something about how much the Lord is faithful to me, something about my blessings in Her creation is woven into this border experience.

God’s Whispers – I know that the event does not compare in any way with Yahweh calling Moses to the mountain top and unloading a mother load of commandments; the event was a tool in which God quietly gave me direction. You see, leaving Canada and everything that is familiar to me is not easy, yet life in Canada seems directionless and I have been living life as a mouse on a treadmill, working hard, but not going anywhere. In the back of my mind the question of whether or not I was running away from mid-life boredom or following God’s lead was weighing in. I now know that the move is more than a visit and the need for the proper documentation somehow triggered this realization to me…now I have had to recommit in prayer to following God’s will.

So, in giving up the steering wheel of my life and letting the Lord lead the way, I find myself going in some pretty interesting directions. An opportunity to move to El Paso, Texas on a permanent basis, proximity to American Indian shamans, elders, wisdom people in the American Southwest was presented to me. The chance to develop a network of thinkers who could speak to the Aboriginal side of an Aboriginal spirituality/philosophy and Christian spirituality/theology conversation was a process being set in motion.

Yesterday morning, I was turned back from the US-Canada border, informed that while I have “Indian Rights” and am welcomed in the United States, I learned what I was missing one document needed to process me as a “Foreign National” (an “American” Indian born in Canada I think) under the terms of the Jay Treaty. This registration document was needed not just for myself but also for members of my friend’s family who are considered status Indians under the Canadian Indian Act.

God, in Her wisdom, is setting up a process where permanent residence is quite do-able, it allows me to access American funds to pursue my studies, to meet and network with American Indian spiritual people and God’s work yesterday opens up doors that two weeks ago, I did not imagine to be possible….

Productive Abandonment

Since I “gave up” running my own life I have been learning about complete abandonment of our “need “(indeed the sin) of worrying and anxiety under the guise of self-reliance and responsibility. It is a peaceful feeling to take care of one’s basics: food, shelter, warmth and social/environmental interaction. There is a productive abandonment that I am starting to learn about…emptying my mind so that I can listen rather than rack my brains coming up with an agenda of prayer (which I understand not to be a conversation with God but formal presentations to God). I am experiencing an increased sensitivity with respect to being open-minded and perceptive of the subtle whispers that God puts into my life with respect to His leadership. There is the development of skills that allow me to be in a more intimate position with respect to hearing and seeing and of responding to the dynamics and elements of the “divine” within me, the Great Spirit from in and outside of me and the communion I have with all of creation from which the finiteness and smallness of my own species becomes very special to me.

So, in ending this reflection I note the many years it took me to even consider this road of peace that Christian mystics have spoken so long about; the ideas of poverty, chastity, obedience, silence…the monastic vows…vows of liberation not denial, vows that lead to skills in relating, hearing, participating and being with God in a full wholesome (holy) manner. For this I am truly grateful for yesterday’s border experience.

Comment by Bruce Ferguson on August 7, 2009 at 12:07am

Absolutely George. "Your on"! Just make sure we have sake (I'll bring the Canadian beer!) I need also to learn more about the Ainu as well...and ditto to you whom I consider friend.

Comment by George Polley on August 6, 2009 at 12:31pm

Hope so, Bruce; I'd love to sit down and chat about all you're doing. And maybe even introduce you to someone in the Ainu community. Blessings my friend.

Comment by Bruce Ferguson on August 6, 2009 at 11:59am

Hi George, ditto to you as well! Yeah, Steveston is actually a port where - up to WW II - Japanese Canadians settled and fished....most of the people in that part of the Lower Mainland had their boats confiscated by the Canadian government as part of Canada's "homeland security"...and I am glad that Canada apologized to the Japanese...as they also lost their houses and were moved to the interior of BC....So there are many touching stories about the human condition and our ability to forgive, move on and hopefully learn....thanks for the kind comments about heading her south....maybe I will get to Japan too!

Comment by George Polley on August 6, 2009 at 8:06am

Bruce, it is good to hear from you again. Your comments about Restless Wave and the fishing culture of the Pacific Northwest are beautiful and very moving. They remind me of a documentary Aiko and I saw here in Japan about a 91 year old fisherman and his 89 year old wife who still go out day after day to fish in their tiny boat. Sometimes they come back in with a fair-sized load, sometimes with only enough for their next meal. These stories link me to them and to the sea, the fish and Creation. Thanks for sharing. I look forward to more of your stories as you travel.

Comment by Bruce Ferguson on August 6, 2009 at 6:09am

The Restless Wave: The Smallest Gill Netter in the Commercial FleetShare

Spiritual Reflections
Monday, August 3, 2009

Context

In the 90’s, the Restless Wave – like many fishermen – was prematurely put on the side-lines waiting year after year for not just a fisheries opening but an opening that actually yielded fish! Last year, her license was sold and now the Restless Wave is “retired” and deemed obsolete. I saw her for the last time today as she waits to be transformed into new roles and in response to post-commercial fishery realities.

I never went fishing on her. I have never seen her ability to navigate or weather the storm. I never experienced putting my trust in the smallest boat in the fleet facing 10 foot waves. I never saw her as she dove through the waves only to resurface, refreshed and poised to take on the next wave. I never relaxed on her as she softly took her family over the calm waters on warm sunny days. Yet, the Restless Wave became my link to the way of life common to thousands of British Columbians who experienced the fisheries and lived a lifestyle that only could be lived on the West Coast.

But there is more to the story; the Restless Wave was more than a boat. Any British Columbian knows that the Restless Wave and countless other fishing boats on the West Coast was about a lifestyle and for many the only lifestyle they ever knew. A lifestyle connected to the vast resources that this province enjoyed, a lifestyle that gave rise to the love-hate struggle finding ways to live within the earth’s providence yet yielding to the pressures of the market.

The Restless Wave’s story was made real through my friendship with Margot McDonald, the boat’s captain…one of the few women to be a boat captain. I learned from her a bit about the life of a commercial fisherman as well as how the power, beauty and awesome nature of creation can be seen from the inside straights. I learned about the values, protocol, thinking and culture (way of life) that was the BC Fisheries (Gulf of Georgia and Johnson Straight). This background serves as my basis for spiritual reflection.

Spiritual Reflections

The Power of Creator and Creation - The first reflection that comes to mind is the power of Creator as represented and experienced in the awesome power of creation. The power of the earth and oceans, I think, is the primary spiritual reflection that the Restless Wave offers us. When one’s life is vulnerable to the power of the earth one respects that power all the more. As creation’s youngest and most aggressive species on the planet, we fail our role as being created in the image of God in the most pitiful manner in our denial of nature’s power and therefore God’s power in our life. We continue to fight the sovereignty of our Creator in our lives, we refuse to find the center of our being and therefore denying the experience of our created selves.

Interconnectedness – Related to God’s power exhibited in the oceans is the interconnectedness of humanity with the sea plants, life forms (animals of all designs), the water itself and the earth. We also fail to absorb the power of creation’s interconnectedness, a connectedness that provides us the basis that keeps us alive to enjoy our purpose on the planet and our purpose in God’s plan. The lessons that “communities of fish” offer humanity with respect to living with each other and our global traveling could use the lessons of swimming in schools, of getting to their destination together. The passion of spawning, of fighting upstream to get to their death, a site of crucifixion or spawning, a place to pass life on and to go to that eternal rest or nothingness. The selfless lessons of the fish swimming under the Restless Wave demand our humility and sense of humanity’s smallness when witnessing all of creation working out its salvation with our Creator.

Equitable Distribution of Resources – The Restless Wave is symbolic of a life style. A life style that work hard, drank or partied hard and fought hard. This retired boat was also representative of a life style that also helped each other, threw fish from one boat to another in order to ensure each boat could get the maximum allowed and no one was left behind. Aboriginal fishermen brought fish home for the elders, for those who could not afford fish and were faced with challenges around food security. The fishermen’s culture represented a simpler time in society when we shared the resources of the earth better in community. The “bottom line” was not a number but a measure of quality in terms of shelter, food, warmth, social companionship and community. In today’s urban bottom line and cut throat market economy, the Restless Wave is truly isolated and is moored as a memory of the past.

So, as I look forward to experiencing what Creator wants me to experience in the American southwest, I put the Restless Wave to a corner of my experiential knowledge to draw upon from time to time. I thank my Creator for having the Restless Wave in my life and I am grateful to her captain, the captains family and other fishermen I have met through the years who have truly formed my life, my experience and my character as a British Columbian living on the Pacific Coast. Megwetch Kitche Manitou.

Comment by George Polley on April 30, 2009 at 7:06am

Ahhh, good to hear from you Bruce. I've been missing your presence and was wondering what had happened to you. Good to have you back.

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