Incorporating Indigenous and Women’s Voices in Canadian Church History

Abstract

This article highlights the value – indeed, necessity – of conceptualizing and teaching the histories of women and Indigenous people as an integral part of Canadian church history. This is accomplished by exploring three of the myriad reasons these inclusions are important, namely: (1) because we avoid it; (2) because history is essential in identity-building; (3) because the multi-faceted histories of Indigenous peoples and women are necessary if we are to have fuller understandings of who we are as Canadian people. In concluding, it is suggested that the act of incorporating Indigenous and women’s voices into Canadian church history honours the relational nature of knowing – their history is our history, and we cannot know the latter without the former.