Views from South Dakota
Standing bold and powerful on a bluff rising from the highway bisecting the state of South Dakota, this statue, Dignity of Earth and Sky, depicts an Indigenous woman (a composite of various women from different nations who sat for the artist) receiving a star blanket. She stands as a striking image in a land where Indigenous women are disproportionately targeted for violence rather than esteemed for their dignity.
I visited this statue with friends from the Philippines following the NAIITS Symposium held this year in South Dakota.
As usual, gathering with the NAIITS community was a highlight of the year. This year held another layer of significance for me. Sioux Falls, where we gathered, is a city just down the road from where I (Jodi) attended university and lived for several years.
In 2012, I returned to South Dakota to attend an immersion course with Richard Twiss as a way of reckoning with my family’s complicity in the colonial project. Having begun my journey of understanding this history in Canada, it was important for me to return to the places where my family had participated in the displacement of Indigenous Peoples and do my own work of understanding, lamenting and repenting.
Returning to this land for the Symposium felt like something of a homecoming, familiar yet altered. Seen with different eyes from those I had when last I lived there.
I am filled with gratitude for the opportunity again to walk with friends, new and old, on paths familiar or brand new, and to see and understand with greater depth and complexity because we walk together.
Sitting Bull’s Grave on Standing Rock Reservation, South Dakota
We also visited Sitting Bull’s grave. For a quick historical overview on who Sitting Bull was you can go here. His courage and his wisdom continue to inspire leaders to this day.
Partnership Agreement Signed at the NAIITS Symposium with Yu-Shan Seminary in Taiwan
One of the greatest gifts of NAIITS in my experience is the willingness to partner to encourage Indigenous theological reflection around the globe. This partnership will allow for cross-pollination between institutions.
NAIITS PhD cohort