Members of the Salem Quarter Indian Affairs Committee met with developers of the SouthJerseyQuakers platform. We were subsequently self-tasked with bringing f/Friends to the table, toward faithful examination of mutually beneficial relationship building with sovereign Nations, acknowledging that we reside on Indigenous land, land of the Lenape Nations, land known as Scheyichbi.
In preparation for this meeting, we were encouraged to review Worship Sharing Queries and Guidelines for those Seeking Healing Relations with Indigenous Peoples.
In attendance were voices of eight Friends: Burlington Quarter, Salem Quarter, South Jersey Quakers (sjQ), PYM staff, and the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Tribal Nation leadership. Resonation remains with You Are On Indigenous Land (YAOIL), inviting further listening to one another’s experiences, hearing individuals’ next steps, and concluding with a desire to reconvene after the coming annual Powwow.
RSoFriends of Truth in South Jersey holding shared convincement are welcome to gather with YAOIL sjQ. Contact SacredWovenWord@yahoo.com for details. Advance documents framing the YAOIL sjQ gatherings are posted below, with appreciation to those who have shaped this work and the SQ Indian Affairs Committee (IAC).
WORSHIP SHARING: Queries
Worship sharing is a Quaker practice, open to everyone, of reflecting on questions and readings. Through this practice, we encounter each other in new ways (extracts from FCNL):
- How do I embrace the call for social witnessing as an act of faithfulness? What sustains me in this work? What experiences can I share as we find and raise our collective voice?
- There are many challenges and beauties within the present moment. When thinking about them, what situations require me to be brave and constant? How are we collectively responding to those situations?
- In which ways can our action be and remain grounded in the transformative power of love? In which ways are we creating space to listen to the Spirit as we engage in our personal and social transformation?
- How are we re-creating our commitment to peace, justice, and earth restoration, and how are we supporting one another in that journey?
- Looking forward to the next few years, what are your aspirations for our FCNL community? How do we welcome difference and grow in the Spirit as we experience change? How can we best build a unified, loving, and faithful community? What would help us to advocate even more successfully for a peaceful, loving, and just society?
GUIDELINES for those Seeking Healing Relations with Indigenous Peoples:
Lessons from Scheyichbi
This set of guidelines is fluid, intentionally open to Spiritual revelations. With humility, allies of local, sovereign Native Nations faithfully embrace lifeways of accompaniment toward lasting peace and friendship. We invite individuals and corporate structures to consider decolonizing acts that include, yet are not exhausted by, the following:
- We accompany Federal/State-recognized Native Nations and/or those who are verifiably historic, interrelated, continuous, and self-governing, honoring due Tribal Nation-to-Nation/State relationships.
- We trust the sovereignty of Tribal Nations—their total authority over their own identity, culture, and lifeways.
- We acknowledge divisive acts upon the “original people” of Lenapehoking, both those who have remained and those of the diaspora who are removed from their ancestral homeland.
- We refrain from interacting with Indigenous citizens, particularly heads of state (chiefs), in a familial/intra-relational manner, mindful of being “outsiders.”
- We express sincere gratitude to Tribal ancestors, chiefs, spiritual leaders, council members, elders, culture-bearers, and youth for the shared use of their homeland.
- We reciprocate rightly ordered “obligatory” hospitality, agape, friendship, and peace.
- We listen and patiently process authentic Indigenous voices anew, with appreciation.
- We do not presume to be deserving of acceptance by self-defining; “Allies cannot be self-defined. They must be claimed by the people they seek to ally with.” (Unsettling Minnesota)
- We secure prior permissions before taking photographs or making recordings of events, finding that assumptions of forgiveness after the fact are dismissive of human/cultural rights.
- We speak from one’s own experiences with care for the use of pronoun markers of identity; “outsiders” will always be on the outside and are not to speak for Indigenous peoples.
- We speak of “others” as if they are in the room, for they may be present without one’s knowing.
- We commit to (re)educating ourselves on historic truths and cultivating decolonizing lifeways.
- We strive to be responsible in the use of space, resources, and the natural environment.
- We act out of concern for cultural lifeways holding domination and lack of human equity, rather than shame or guilt.
- We do not condone co-opting Indigenous cultures, such as non-Native people conducting Indigenous ceremonies, wearing regalia, replicating Indian art design patterns, or crafting Tribal iconography.
Therefore, Salem Quarter Indian Affairs Committee is led to be forthright with affiliate host organizations, individuals, and corporate structures that fall away from these guidelines; seeking right relations holds expectations of compassion, compliance, and related responsibilities.
Accepted by the First Contact Reconciliation Collaborative of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting
Updated 5th day, Eighth Month, 2023
