Mar. 7th, 2016

Wrongs to Rights: How Churches can Engage the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

Edited by Steve Heinrichs, published by Mennonite Church Canada, and available to purchase online at Common Word Bookstore and Resource Center

Honouring the call of Indigenous peoples from around the world, Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission has specifically summoned, not only the State, but all churches to embrace the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. But what is the Declaration? And how might it gift and reorient Christian faith and practice?

In Wrongs to Rights, over 40 authors (including KAIROS) from diverse backgrounds – Indigenous and Settler, Christian and Traditional – wrestle with the meaning of the Declaration for the Church. With a firm hold on past and present colonialism, the authors tackle key questions that the Declaration and the TRC’s call to “adopt and comply” raises: What are its potential implications? How does it connect to Scripture? Can it facilitate genuine decolonization, or is “rights talk” another form of imperialism? And what about real life relationships? Can the Declaration be lived out – collectively and personally – on the ground?

Short articles combined with poetry and visual arts provide a rich, engaging and accessible resource for individual and group conversation in 164 pages. A study guide is included.

Contributors include:

KAIROS, Sylvia McAdam, Walter Brueggemann, Edgar Heap of Birds, Jennifer Preston, Sharon Venne, Kwok Pui-Lan, Joyce Green, Mike Barker, Lowell Ewert, Shannon Perez, Ched Myers, George Littlechild, Mark Brett, Brenda Gunn, Will Braun, Shane Rhodes, Jennifer Harvey, Lorenzo Veracini, Gord Hill, Lori Ransom, Ethna Regan, Adrian Jacobs, Linda Hogan, Dave Driedger, Laurel Dykstra, Chris Budden, Fran Kaye, Harry Lafond, Melanie Kampen, Laiza Pacheco, Jeff Denis, Adam J. Barker, Emma Battell Lowman, Sheryl Lightfoot, Melanie Dennis Unrau, Sue Eagle, James Perkinson, Ryan Dueck, Christian Peacemaker Teams, Angela Sterritt, Deanna Zantingh, Steve Heinrichs