21st Annual NAIITS Symposium: Dreaming Our World Home

Watch general sessions of the NAIITS symposium live streamed from Sioux Falls, South Dakota!
The purpose of the symposium is to facilitate open dialogue about various aspects of Indigenous biblical and theological contextualization in thought, history, and experience. Symposium planners hope that, in their submissions, participants will bring together academic and practical approaches to the issues being addressed in the symposium.
Across the globe, Indigenous Peoples are coming back. In the process, we’re dreaming the world home.
That’s not to say that we ever left. Though buffeted, muted, and hidden in plain sight, we’ve never gone away.
Too often stories told about Indigenous Peoples prioritize tragedy. Yes, colonization has taken a large and enduring toll on our communities. But despite the suffering, our peoples’ dreams have always been of beauty and hope.
Aboriginal singer Uncle Archie Roach (Gunditjmara (Kirrae Whurrong/Djab Wurrung) and Bundjalung Elder) captured this in 1990, with his song “They Took the Children Away”
One sweet day, all the children came back…
Back where their hearts grow strong, back where they all belong
We’re coming back and our hearts are growing stronger. We’re reclaiming identity, revitalizing ceremonies and language, immersing ourselves in culture, and asserting rights.
And we’re still dreaming.
Dreams and visions have always been a conduit for our renewal. Through dreams, we return to our origins as we journey into the future. Visions are creative doorways that help answer in community what does it look like to live at our best?
For us at NAIITS: An Indigenous Learning Community and iEmergence, the two wings of Indigenous Pathways, the dream that created our community occurred at the 1996 World Christian Gathering of Indigenous Peoples in Aotearoa. Indigenous Peoples from across the globe came together and for the first time publicly celebrated our cultural and spiritual gifts and declared “we are going to be the peoples God created us to be.”
June 2024, we invite you to come to the land of the great dreams of Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull and Black Elk and tell us what your Indigenous dreams are. What are your Aboriginal, and Torres Strait Islander dreams? Maori? Pasifika? Zuni? Nisga’a? Cree? Navajo? What are the dreams of Indigenous nations and communities from around the globe? Those living on their traditional lands and those in diaspora?
These dreams encompass a vast array of topics. How do we welcome back children into our circles? How do we heal from trauma? Renew culture and land-based spirituality?
In Western Christian spaces visions are often about the end. How are Indigenous dreams about returning to the beginning? Western dreams often emphasize the judgement of Jesus and the Creator. How do they appear in Indigenous dreams as givers of gifts and renewers of life?
Indigenous dreams bring ancient wisdom to bear on contemporary conflicts. What are our dreams for our very troubled world? How can Indigenous Peoples help dream the world home?