Imagining Christianity without dominance ─ Indigenous biblical scholars in conversation

The recording of this event can be found here.

Featuring guest speakers Amy N Allan and Naomi Wolfe.

 

Amy N. Allan is a feminist Hebrew Bible scholar of Choctaw, Cherokee, Tuscarora, and German descent currently residing in the greater Chicago area. Her current research at NAIITS: An Indigenous Learning Community focuses on the depictions of the Divine in the storytelling of Genesis and its implications for Itilaui Kanomi (Relational Harmony). Amy is also an interfaith chaplain at Northwestern Medicine and in the ordination process with the United Church of Christ.

In conversation, Amy will highlight that at the intersection of Native American spirituality and the Christian tradition, mutual illumination between the two has the potential to strengthen bonds of kinship across divides. However, historically, this conversation has not seen its fullest flourishing as hierarchy, dominance, and assimilation have unduly burdened or silenced Indigenous peoples. Together, we will explore positive steps on the good path of survival, resistance, respect, and harmony for all siblings.

 

Naomi Wolfe is a trawlwoolway Aboriginal with Jewish German and Irish heritage. She is a theologian and historian based in Melbourne, committed to collaborative,  community-grounded scholarship that centres Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives to reshape theological and educational practice. Her work as a historian at Australian Catholic University, as University Scholar at the University of Divinity, adjunct at St Mark’s National Theological College, and a member of NAIITS: An Indigenous Learning Community, is at the intersection of decolonising theology, Indigenous studies, and historical inquiry.

Naomi will invite us to consider Country as a living, sacred reality, and that identity is formed through relationships with Ancestors, community, and the more-than-human world. Theology grounded in Country, kinship, and the Law precedes the Church. If the Church can learn to belong within Country: through humility, accountability, and right relationship, what might emerge? Might a theological vision shaped by kinship, deep time, and reciprocity, enable Aboriginal Christian identity to speak with integrity and sovereignty to all our relations?

Supported by: Eremos, St James Institute, Pitt Street Uniting Church, United Theological College, Wellspring Community