March 4, 2007

The Gospel According to Redwire

(This article is featured in the latest issue of Redwire Magazine)
Book Review of "The Holy Christian Bible" by Dustin Rivers

Through Indigenous struggle, it becomes essential to look at the weapons used in colonization. On the flip side, decolonization is really about humanization. There are different weapons of political exploitation through reducing the leaders to puppets or the disenfranchising of the economic land base and resources. It might be evident that the religious and spiritual aspect of ways of life were also targeted, but many different motives existed behind those attacks. With the policies of the Indian Act, or displacement through reservations, the institution of the Christian religion became the strongest form of "civilizing" (cough) of Indigenous populations. It was through the use of written word, and supposedly 'divine right' supremacy, that the white (hu)man felt self-justified in creating the "other" history (the other being the history that is not known, but is true). This false foreign history was chiefly used by the man for fear, corruption and dehumanization. This is also known as the Holy Christian Bible, written by "the god" himself, to the man, in a land in a far, far away place.

To understand the bible, it must be assumed that it is all open to interpretation of the implicit text (similar to mainstream media). Here we have the Douay-Rheims Version, from the Catholic Church, where the religion of Christianity emanated (remembering the idea that religions are man-made). If it's the literal Truth, or some allegory used to convey values, principles and morals, it did create a society to manifest itself in oppression of more than one "other" people. Although it's ironic that a religion created hope, power and faith in an originally oppressed group of people, it became a way for the oppressed to oppress billions of other people throughout history. It became one of the most genocidal books in history. Taking into account that there are many interpretations, with many translations, with different histories, and how this tool is used to create a culture that are very different from that of Indigenous people (but with similarities). The book can be related to stories of salvation, and judgment, and many different values. The main important factor of these foreign values is how some of them in practice, show how people learn from religions and this book, in a form that which is different from our own Indigenous principles. Salvation, redemption, sin, confession are all foreign values. My proof can be found in the Indigenous languages. And in the quest for self-determination, righteousness, and decolonization, it is instrumental in studying this fiction for it's history of psychological hegemony over our Indigenous spirits. It's imperative to understand being Indigenous and having the posterity, achieve the closest way of life in our lifetime to that of which our ancestors walked. For decolonization is not about trying to re-live the past, but taking those tools for future generations.

These scriptures don't convey the same morals, values, principles of our Indigenous heritage. Our histories don't talk about worshipping the land, the sea, the laws that we live within, but the Bible would have to believe in dominion, colonization, and imperialism; "Increase and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, and rule over the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the air, and all living creatures that move upon the earth." For it is the one true religion, and all other religions are wrong. And according to the book, our people were all sinners, before we even knew we we're sinners. The Christians appeared and asked: "Are these things going to hell, even if they've never heard of Jesus Christ, the Lord, and savior?" Our "mythological" beings are rendered as evil and wicked creatures, yet our beliefs are sacred and spiritual. And although there is a modern tendency to meld foreigner beliefs with that of our history, they fundamentally clash. Where the Holy Book gets wrong is everything about our history. Before Adam and Eve, we we're transformed from the Wolf, Bear, Thunderbird peoples. The histories that belong to us, that make us, illustrate a life that is mentioned no where in this book. So as a divine fax from god, it comes off as an imitation of the spiritual force our people have understood for thousands of winters prior to Jesus Christ's supposed death on the cross, for a sin we never committed. In the end, our true deliverance comes from the insurgency of our way of life, the Indigenous stelmexw, xwelmexw, bakwam, quu'as, alloogigyet, onkwehonweh, (Indigenous) way of life.

The Holy Christian Bible, by a few white European men, doesn't serve as a true conduit for our existence in this life. This is what we all do ask though: "Why are we here?" But after reading this book it uncovers how our spirituality would prevail. Except that religion never could nor did it ever cede our spiritual existence with our ancestors, our gods, and our way of life. We can then see how religions are man-made, but spirituality is a power we can only narrowly understand and decipher. There is an argument that our civilizations evolve, that they grow into something more. Except our cultures didn't just evolve into individualistic, capitalist, resource-wasting, polluting, megalomaniac-tic, narcissistic, false god-worshipping culture; It was raped by an individualistic, capitalist, resource-wasting, polluting, megalomaniac-tic, narcissistic, false-god worshipping culture.

Although faux faith for Indigenous, the Bible's fundamental default is not the preachy attitude, nor its imperialist blueprint, but our historical investigation for our Indigenous revolution. The book was the weapon, and it has had far-reaching affects. But when we talk about community healing, cultural revival, nation building, or resistance movement, this book has been the strongest tool for colonization because it is embedded in our self. It is not about reading the 'good book,' but hearing the great histories of our peoples. The protocols, the traditions, the beliefs, and philosophies that can all still be achieved. And if we don't have those, nor our languages, then we cease to be Indigenous.

Kneel Before Your God Babylon!
1:28. And God blessed them, saying: Increase and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, and rule over the fishes of the sea, and the
fowls of the air, and all living creatures that move upon the earth.

2:19. And the Lord God having formed out of the ground all the beasts of the earth, and all the fowls of the air, brought them to Adam to see
what he would call them: for whatsoever Adam called any living creature the same is its name.

2:22. And the Lord God built the rib which he took from Adam into a woman: and brought her to Adam.

6:4. Now giants were upon the earth in those days. For after the sons of God went in to the daughters of men, and they brought forth
children, these are the mighty men of old, men of renown.

9:7. But increase you and multiply, and go upon the earth and fill it.

22:13. I am Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.

Wa'a! No wonder this religion produced the "civilization" we know today.

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