Discovery Day

Today is known both as Indigenous Peoples' Day and Columbus Day. Since culture at large is into renaming things for fear that someone may be offended or that history may not be as sanitized as they prefer, I am renaming it "Discovery Day" (for the purposes of this blog post only). The term "indigenous" is so fraught with challenge for definition, even the UN will only approximate a definition. And since the character of Columbus doesn't measure up to the achievement (accidental or otherwise) of popularizing a new discovery of a continent for Europeans, it seems that any name of any discoverer will immediately come with an asterisk. Columbus wasn't the first European to "discover" the Americas, and there was more ancient interaction of peoples than we admit. The world has always been connected. But the discovery of the Americas was not popularized until around the time of Columbus.

Some teachers call any first meetings of two cultural groups "First Contact." Though that's not my favorite term, there's a universality in that designation: everyone everywhere has had to decide what their reaction (internally and externally) to "first contacts" will be. And because humans are humans...we can navigate it badly on both sides. History is replete with many who dealt with their Discovery Day poorly. They responded with suspicion, fear, or opportunism. The "other than" became the "lesser than." If you create a "them or us" scenario, then the answer (99% of the time) is, "I choose me." 

What do you do when you discover or encounter new peoples? Some get it right. I was pleasantly surprised, for example to read Yates academic work on missions and the Maori tribe: https://www.amazon.com/Conversion-Maori-Religious-1814-1842-Christian/dp/0802869459/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1LUONQG59Y0V8&keywords=mission+maori&qid=1665401430&qu=eyJxc2MiOiIwLjAxIiwicXNhIjoiMC4wMCIsInFzcCI6IjAuMDAifQ%3D%3D&sprefix=mission+mari%2Caps%2C112&sr=8-1. One of the things we should remind ourselves of is that many Christian missionaries deal with Discovery Day well. It's not all bad encounters. I would venture to say that many more have gone well than gone poorly. Cultures will (and should) interact and engage. Anthropologists who romanticize "pristine" tribes (example: Yanomami) forget that. Change is a constant and interaction a necessity. It's how we deal with it that matters most. 

There's also an assumption that all practices or values should be encouraged. Just because something is an ancient practice doesn't make it a good one. I am, for example, thankful that societies are not setting women on fire with their dead husbands. It is okay for one culture to say to another (or one person to another), "That's not right. I disagree. There's a better way." But what do you base "right" or "better" on? That's the question.

Those who navigate Discovery Day well share in common a few traits:

• They assign respect to others. Respect is first given, not earned. 
• They ask what the other culture values and why.
• They ask what the other culture has right that their own culture may have wrong. Great encounters are marked with humility. The Discoverers can recognize the difference between what they're comfortable with and what may be better. Japanese visitors to Europe were, for example, stunned that European didn't seem to value personal hygiene. European history may have looked very different if they had.
• They are learners, not for the purpose of exploitation, but for the purpose of being interested and curious. In other words, there is no hidden agenda when it comes to valuing the other. Their first interest is insight. It helps if they like the people they're encountering.
• They are realistic. Many Discovery Days are marked because one party was just naive and dumb. Chamberlain v. Hitler = desperate to believe v. desperate to achieve. Bad combo. One of my favorite quotes comes from Dr. Tite Tienou (https://www.tiu.edu/faculty/tite-tienou/). He once wryly commented, "There are good and bad people everywhere, regardless of the color of your skin nor nationality." In a world where we tend to idealize certain people groups, it's a good reminder that the character of the person matters. 

Though missionaries may have Discovery Day as it applies to cultures, there are many discovery days as it applies to people. That family visiting your church yesterday was an opportunity. How did you respond? Did you ignore them or engage them? Did you speak in platitudes or were you curious? Were you open or closed? Were you judgmental or curious? There are discovery days for new clients, customers, classes, and contexts. Every day, we are making choices on how we'll navigate those who may be new to us. In this daily clash of people and cultures, we have to determine our postures towards those encounters. I would gently submit that posture is a condition of the heart. 

Discovery Day may be more about how we confront God's work in our hearts (what is revealed, where we fall short, where we require wisdom) than we would care to admit. That personal confrontation is something with which most missionaries are familiar. It is a confrontation all people everywhere would do well to pay attention to in their own hearts.