Indigenous people express themselves in many musical and artistic forms. The sound and feel of their own music elicit sensibilities of home and familiarity. A fundamental aspect to Indigenous cultural and national restoration has benn the flourishing of each nation or cultural group’s style of music and art. The colonial project worldwide has meant the death of Indigenous aesthetics and forms.
1996 saw the first World Christian Gathering on Indigenous People and the honouring of Indigenous cultural protocol, music and artistic expression. Through eight global WCGIP gatherings the idea that Christian expression can authentically be celebrated in Indigenous ways, forms and sounds broke the stranglehold of particularly Western Christian musical hegemony.
For the 2023 Symposium, we invited people to present a paper or “panel” on one of the identified themes. A full schedule has been developed and is shown in the web link for this listing.