2013 ION Conference Report

Back in September I attended the 2013 ION (International Orality Network) Conference near St. Louis where I learned more about the orality movement in missions, and the role that indigenous arts can play in the process.  For an explanation of how indigenous arts can help support orality and missions, click here for a great article by Erica Logan called "The Arts: Effectively Packaging the Gospel for Oral Audiences."  Kudos to Erica for organizing the arts focus at the ION conference, which I think made a great impact on everyone who attended (it certainly did for me!).

Stained Glass Window at Yuendumu Baptist Church in Northern Territory, Australia

Stained glass window at Yuendumu Baptist Church in Northern Territory, Australia,
showing the Cross of Christ surrounded by the Dreamings of the various Warlpiri clan divisions.
Photo by Louise, 2009.

I'm doing more research on Ivan Jordan's book, Their Way: Towards an Indigenous Warlpiri Christianity, and found this image of a stained glass window at a church in the area where he and his wife Verl were missionaries from 1973 until c. 2000 (his ministry was centered in the church at Lajamanu).  The church was built in 1967 under the direction of Ivan's predecessor, Tom Fleming, who worked at Yuendumu from 1950-1975.  Ivan writes this about Tom and the window above:

The beautiful stained glass window in the Yuendumu church building with the cross in the centre of the various Dreaming designs of the Warlpiris, is further testimony to Tom's attitude.  The window reminds those entering the building that all people come into God's family through the cross of Christ.  It also reminds them that every person who comes into God's family comes as they are; not as a White person or Westerner, but as a truly Aboriginal person, and for the Warlpiris, they come as a member of their kinship group.  This approach of architecturally relating the people to God in a graphic way is similar to what has happened at other places such as Yirrkala and Maningrida, in Arnhem Land (148).

Click on the image above to see more photos by "Louise" from the church (including more artwork, though sometimes blurry).

Book by Ivan Jordan, Their Way, Available Again

Good News!  A missions friend recently sent me some information that she received from Ivan Jordan, author of Their Way: Towards an Indigenous Warlpiri Christianity, a book that is available for purchase again.  I previously wrote about Jordan's book here and here.

Here is the book's synopsis:

The development of the Christian 'purlapa' (traditional dance) and Warlpiri iconography are two of the most significant phenomena in the history of missions in Australia. This book details the development and significance of these and other attempts to bring an indigenous expression and application of the gospel within Warlpiri culture and reflects upon the missiological journey of faith experienced by the missionaries themselves. The combined impact of the above is such that these Aboriginal people have given new understanding and gained new respect from the family of Baptist Churches in Australia. 

Ivan Jordan has worked amongst the Warlpiri people over the last two decades. He has made a most remarkable journey. As a Baptist missionary Ivan was schooled in all the interpretations and traditions of 2,000 years of Christianity that instinctively assumed that the European models were privileged with superior insight and practice; but he has deliberately been prepared to set this aside and listen and learn.

Ivan Jordan reports:

Copies of 'Their Way' are available. The first 2 print runs were done by Charles Darwin University Press but they sold out a few years ago. The Australian Baptist Mission I served with, Global Interaction, did another print run a couple of years ago and they have copies available. Contact details are:

Global Interaction
P.O. Box 273
HAWTHORN VICTORIA 3122
Tel 03 9819 4944
email: info@globalinteraction.org.au

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The book costs $25 (Australian Dollars– about the same as U.S. dollars), but the shipping costs to the U.S. will vary depending on location.  I highly recommend you order a copy if you have a deep interest in contextualized indigenous art and ministry.

If you don't get a response from the email address above, email Claudia Morris at cmorris@globalinteraction.org.au.  To read a review of the book in a Global Interaction magazine, click here and go to page 15.