Calm the Storm by Ketut Lasia

Meredakan Angin Ribut (Calm the Storm) by Ketut Lasia (Bali)

Kateri Tekakwitha: Native American Saint

The Lily of the Mohawks by Molly Kiely.

I found this story (and the cool image above) about Kateri Tekakwitha (1656–1680), a Native American Catholic woman who will be canonized today as a saint for her commitment to the church, despite being ridiculed and ostracized by her fellow Mohawks at the time.  She is known as "The Lily of the Mohawks."

There's nothing specifically about art in the article, but it's an interesting story nevertheless.  A group of more than 500 Mohawks will travel to Vatican City to witness the canonization ceremony in October, and will present a handwoven Mohawk basket to Pope Benedict XVI.

GIFT FOR THE POPE - Former St. Regis Mohawk Tribal Chief
Alma Ransom holds a handwoven baket made by Akwesasne
resident Sheila Ransom. A group from Akwesasne will deliver
the basket to Pope Benedict XVI during Kateri Tekakwitha’s
canonization ceremony this fall. (Hayden Photo)

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

*  *  *

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.

A Brief History of Visual Contextualization in India: A.D. Thomas

The Transfiguration by A.D. Thomas

Alfred David Thomas (1907-1989) was an Anglican Indian who studied at the Lucknow Art School in Santiniketan, where he studied under Bireswar Sen and Nandalal Bose.  Sen himself was influenced by French book illustrator Edmund Dulac, who produced illustrations for children's classics such as The Arabian Nights, Sleeping Beauty, and Stories from Hans Christian Andersen, among others (his work is really great!).  Thomas later attended Visva Bharati University under Rabindranath's nephew, Abanindranath Tagore (the father of modern Indian art), and also studied in Florence, Italy.  He married in Italy and eventually moved to England where he lived until his death in 1989.

The Jesus Question: Culture is God’s idea

Creation by Sawai Chinnawong

Here's the first of a two-part series called "Culture is God's Idea" by Victoria Jones at The Jesus Question.  In it, she gives a summary of an essay by Andy Crouch called “The Gospel: How Is Art a Gift, a Calling, and an Obedience?”, from the book For the Beauty of the Church.  I'm looking forward to reading her thoughts about the essay in the second post, because the summarized ideas presented here are definitely food for thought.  She begins:

[Crouch] packs so many insights into fifteen pages, with two main emphases:  God’s creation and blessing of culture in the Garden of Eden and during the Last Supper, and the “uselessness” of art (linked to the uselessness of prayer and praise).

Both ideas are intriguing and, especially for this blog, the first is very important: although human culture began in the Garden of Eden, I had never thought of God Himself as the first "culture-maker." He began this process by manipulating his previously-created resources to form the garden, and then gave it to Adam to continue cultivating (Genesis 2:8).  For more, click the link above!

Incarnate 2013: The OM Arts School of Mission

Calling all artists: if you have a passion for serving Christ overseas with your artistic talents, read on.

Incarnate 2013, the OM Arts School of Mission, will take place from Wednesday, Febuary 13 – Saturday, May 04 2013 in Torino, Italy.

It's purpose is to "graduate artists passionate and prepared to employ their gift for long term ministry, especially in Europe... you will learn and practice an incarnational approach to ministering through the arts."  To find out more about this incarnational approach, check out the school's latest blog post here.

If you're an artist and want in on the adventure, they're now taking applications for visual artists, dancers and musicians.  Deadline to apply is November 15, 2012.  For more on how the school got started last year, see this article.

*** UPDATE: Incarnate 2014 has been cancelled and rescheduled for 2014.  For more info, click here.

A Brief History of Visual Contextualization in India: The Bengal Renaissance and the Birth of Modern Indian Christian Art

Hindostan or British India map, c.1864.

Continuing in my intermittent series on visual contextualization in India, I want to give an overview on the Bengal Renaissance and its influence on 20th century Indian Christian artists.

Orientalist official of the
East India Company (circa 1760)

After the decline of the Mugal Empire in the mid-17th century, India came under the rule of various regional leaders called rajas.  About a century later, the privately-funded British East India Company took control over large areas of India, exporting cotton, silk, indigo dye, salt, saltpetre, tea and opium to Britain and Europe.  It eventually ruled over "India with its own private army, exercising military power and assuming administrative functions... In the modern era, its history is strongly associated with corporate abuse, colonialism, exploitation, and monopoly power."  It was absorbed into the British government's direct control in 1874.