Practicing faith as an Indigenous person: Books by Parry Stelter

On May 28, 2021, the remains of 215 children were found in unmarked graves on the site of a residential school ground. For residential school survivors and their families, this discovery triggered many painful memories. For non-Indigenous Canadians, and especially those who identify as Christians, our hearts are broken. We want to help in any way we can, but we are often hindered by our lack of knowledge of the Indigenous peoples and their culture. 

Parry Stelter is well equipped to help us understand and to address issues of interest to both Indigenous and non-Indigenous readers.

He is originally from Alexander First Nation, and both of his parents went to residential school. He has a Bachelor of Human Justice degree from University of Regina, and a Master of Divinity degree from Taylor Seminary.

In his first book, A Word of Hope for My Aboriginal People, (Tall Pine Press), Stelter discusses colonization, assimilation, and an Aboriginal response to these realities in Canadian history. I encourage you to read this book first. While it may not be necessary, it might be helpful. As Parry’s wife, Angelina, said to him, “After listening to some of the responses you’ve received to your first book, is it safe to say you

have raised more questions than you have answered?” Parry’s response was that when you start on a new journey, it is often the case that more issues show up than what you could see at the start. “My readers and I continue to learn something new as we walk this

journey together.”

Stelter said he used the word Aboriginal in his first book because it defined

all the Indigenous people of Canada whether someone is Métis, Inuit, Treaty or non-Treaty. In his second book, he used the term Indigenous because it seems to be more politically correct and more welcome in Canada. Indigenous seems to speak to the

fact that we are people of the land and for the land, and that we were in Canada first. We used the land to survive, and we shared it with each other.

In his second book, Indigenous People and Jesus: Making the Bible Come Alive, (Tall Pine Press), Stelter addresses issues that surround the question of how an Indigenous person can express faith in Jesus. Stelter says, “My purpose in writing this book is to provide a balanced view to practicing faith as an Indigenous person. Some groups of Indigenous Christians say that God created us to worship Him in ways that reflect the ways our people worshipped and communicated with the Creator before the settlers came to Canada. There are other groups of Indigenous Christians who say that because we are new creations in Christ, we should throw away all the old ways of worshipping and doing ceremonies. Many of my people are going through an identity crisis. For them, it’s hard to find people who want to talk about the issues and who can offer some insight.” 

Stelter continues, “We learned to be Christians from white settlers. Now, many of us are asking questions that will be discussed in this book. Some of these questions include: ‘Why can’t we use the drum in the church? Why can’t we hang a dreamcatcher

in our houses or in our cars? Why is the non-Indigenous community still so mad at us? We want to talk about the abuses that happened in residential schools, or during the Sixties Scoop era. Why aren’t these conversations welcome?’”

Non-Indigenous people also struggle as they wonder how to effectively connect with Indigenous people. Stelter says, “My prayer and hope is that this second book will

be a helpful tool for many readers who want to navigate the issues with more insight.”

Both books are available from Tall Pine Press, and also Amazon’s Kindle Store. The beautiful cover art on Indigenous People and Jesus: Making the Bible Come Alive was created by Parry’s daughter, Ashley Stelter.

Stelter is a doctoral candidate in contextual leadership with Providence University and Seminary. He is the founder of Word of Hope Ministries, and he offers workshops on grief, loss, and intergenerational trauma. His website is www.wordofhopeministries.ca

Stelter is planning a third book that will compliment the first two, making a trilogy that will be a rich resource for Indigenous or non-Indigenous people.