Bring Back the Buffalo (I)

This last weekend I had the great privilege to participate in a special encounter trip to a Pelican Lake First Nations Reserve, an Indigenous community in northern Saskatchewan. We were there to witness and celebrate the establishment of a new herd of buffalo, as part of an act of reconciliation with Canada's First Peoples. "Bring Back the Buffalo" is an initiative led a asocial development organization called Loko Koa, in partnership with Tearfund Canada, a Christian relief ministry. The goal is to build relationships and help Indigenous peoples rebuild their cultural identity by working to re-establish self-sustaining herds of buffalo among Canada's First Nations. To date, Loko Koa has planted 9 herds of buffalo on 9 different reserves, and, like I say, we were there this weekend to celebrate the 9th herd-- 20 females, 2 males, and 18 calves-- planted on the land of the Pelican Lake First Nation. Our church was one of the donor organizations for this particular herd, and we were graciously invited to send a delegation to celebrate their release.

I am planning to share more about this experience in the coming days, as it was a formative experience on many levels: we received rich learning about Indigenous culture, the role that the buffalo traditionally have played in it, and the importance of Indigenous cultural traditions as an essential piece of cultural identity; we were challenged to think through the implications of our own identity as settlers and treaty people, and we were challenged to think through aspects of our own faith and relationship with the Lord, to understand how the Christian Gospel relates to traditional Indigenous spirituality, and vice versa. 

Over the next few weeks, I hope to share more about all of these aspects of the experience, from the way it stretched me theologically to the rich learning and faith-shaping encounters I had, from the deeper insight I had into to the mission of Jesus, to the clear the call to reconciliation and right relationship that it left ringing in my spiritual ears. It will take me a day or two to collect my thoughts and process my feelings about all that, however, so in the meantime, here are just a few photos from the trip, as a hint of what's to come.

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