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| Torngat Mountains National Park, Labrador. Image by Denise Kitagawa. |
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A GREETING
Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my thoughts.
(Psalm 139:23)
A READING
You whom I took from the ends of the earth,
and called from its farthest corners,
saying to you, ‘You are my servant,
I have chosen you and not cast you off’;
do not fear, for I am with you,
do not be afraid, for I am your God;
I will strengthen you, I will help you.
(Isaiah 41:9b-10a)
MUSIC
A MEDITATIVE VERSE
Faithful friends are life-saving medicine.
(Sirach 6:16)
A POEM
And I think over again my small adventures
When with the wind I drifted in my kayak
And thought I was in danger
My fears,
Those small ones that seemed so big
For all the vital things
I had to get and to reach
And yet there is only one great thing
The only thing
To live to see the great day that dawns
And the light that fills the world.
- Anonymous Inuit poem, translated by Tegoodligak, found on arcticisms.com
VERSE OF THE DAY
You show me the path of life.
In your presence there is fullness of joy.
(Psalm 16:11a)
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| Hebron, Labrador. Image by Denise Kitagawa. |
One of the many return migration destinations of the Arctic Tern is Labrador. The Labrador Sea runs between the northeastern coast of Labrador, Canada on one side and Greenland on the other, just south of the Arctic Ocean. The region is the home of the Inuit, Innu, Mi'kmaq and NunatuKavut peoples. During the 1950s through 1970s, the Canadian government forced relocations of many people, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, who had been living in the coastal regions of Newfoundland and Labrador. The justification was that these coastal communities could not be properly supported by emergency and other services because of their remoteness, and that to concentrate the population into central areas would foster growth. In the wake of these resettlements, many of the coastal towns were simply abandoned and remain so to this day.
In the video below, we hear about the direct connection between these resettlements and the high rate of suicide among Indigenous peoples of the north. Resettlement has challenged the Indigenous sense of relationship to the land and cultural tradition and memory. The resources of organizations like Inuit Tapirit Kanatami are trying to meet the crisis from within community knowledge, awareness and healing traditions.
In today's music we hear the combined musical groups of Lady Cove Women's Choir and Eastern Owl (an Indigenous collective) singing a song about a woman's coming of age, as she discerns and finds her own strength within her cultural tradition. The song articulates what many of us have felt at some point in our life, when we had trouble finding our strength or did not know how to stand up to injustice. By the song's end, the collective voices have owned their warrior spirit.
In today’s reading, we hear God’s commitment to be with us in our times of fear. The Hebrew verb ‘sha-ah’ has a meaning of ‘to look in dismay and gaze about in anxiety’, more traditionally translated as ‘fear’. This more nuanced emotional meaning comes perhaps closer to capturing the deep currents of despair and desolation that can lead to suicide. Part of how we meet that despair is through listening, friendship and community, and by working toward changing the conditions that have given rise to these feelings. In the face of heartbreaking disappointments and losses, overwhelming adversity and disconnection from the forces that sustain life, the Spirit of the Creator meets and embraces us in the place of our suffering.
What we hear from God and from Jesus is 'You will be loved always.' Who do you know who needs to hear this message today? How can we be the hands of God's love to people who have been forcibly displaced?
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A STORY OF FORCED RESETTLEMENT
Two days ago, the story feature was from the Students on Ice expedition to Antarctica in 2022. Today's video below, made in 2016, is from a Students on Ice expedition along the coastal regions of Labrador, and particularly to Hebron. In 1959 the Inuit who lived in Hebron were forcibly displaced by the Canadian government. As we hear, the impacts linger for generations.
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Resources in today's devotion:
Scripture passages are taken from the New Revised Standard Version.
Tegoodligak was an Inuit ceramic artist, poet and cultural translator.
To learn more, go here.
To learn more about the forced resettlements of Newfoundland and Labrador and their impacts, go here.
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LC† Streams of Living Justice is a devotional series of Lutherans Connect, supported by the Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada and the Centre for Spirituality and Media at Martin Luther University College. To receive the devotions by email, write to lutheransconnect@gmail.com. The devotional pages are written and curated by Deacon Sherry Coman, with support and input from Pastor Steve Hoffard, Catherine Evenden and Henriette Thompson. Join us on Facebook. Lutherans Connect invites you to make a donation to the Ministry by going to this link on the website of the ELCIC Eastern Synod and selecting "Lutherans Connect Devotionals" under "Fund". Devotions are always freely offered, however your donations help support the ongoing work.
Thank you and peace be with you!