Repair Network
Join our Repair Congregations and Communities Network!
Ready to take the next steps toward repair beyond education and awareness about the Doctrine of Discovery?
We are a network of the Coalition that supports church communities in education, solidarity, and reparative action alongside Indigenous Peoples.
Map of Repair Network Communities
Above: Previous Organizer Katerina Gea meets with a Repair Network committee of Eighth Street Mennonite Church
What does joining the Repair Network involve?
- Commit to the 7 steps of action below as a congregation or community.
- Send representatives to four Zoom meetings each year with opportunities for cross-pollination of ideas and resources, hearing from Indigenous speakers, and invitations to join our Coalition’s campaigns.
- Connect with other optional opportunities to join us as well, like our monthly Prayer and Action hours.
- Engage your congregation in the work of our Coalition, and connect with local Indigenous peoples’ work for justice when possible.
Commit to these seven steps
1) Education & Lament
Engage with the educational resources on our website (and others) to learn about the Doctrine of Discovery and lament its impacts in your region and beyond. This is not just a mental exercise, but a heart and body experience of inner work, transformation and repentance for Christians and for settlers as we grieve the devastation caused by church-sponsored colonization and white supremacy.
2) Organize a committee or team
Create a group or task an existing committee to carry the work of repair forward beyond awareness-raising. Consider studying and adopting the Mennonite World Conference Statement of Solidarity with Indigenous Peoples and/or drafting your own repudiation statement of the Doctrine of Discovery, as Seattle Mennonite Church has done. We ask you to send representatives from this committee to quarterly calls of the Repair Network.
3) Truth-Telling
Work together to create a Land Acknowledgment statement for your congregation or community. See our Land Acknowledgment Guide for ideas on how to do this. Explore other forms of truth-telling as a congregation related to the Indigenous peoples and land where you live, such as creating public signage and memorials, remembering forced removals, and using Indigenous place names.
4) Restitution in the Budget
Work together to put restitution/ repair funds in your budget each year. You may choose to return wealth directly to Indigenous groups working for land return, sovereignty and justice in your region, or groups in other lands working to dismantle the DofD. We ask that you donate to the work of our Coalition so we can sustain and continue our reparative justice organizing (we contribute 60% of all donations toward an annual Indigenous “repair partner”). This may be your form of restitution and repair funds, or you may offer additional funds to other groups.
5) Respond to calls for solidarity with Indigenous Peoples
Indigenous lands and lives around the world continue to be threatened by extractive industry and violence because of the Doctrine of Discovery. Indigenous Peoples’ struggles for land and life are all of our struggles! Join the solidarity campaigns that the Coalition is actively involved in, support our work through advocacy and through engaging your whole congregation, and grow this movement! You may also be called to participate and show up for justice alongside Indigenous communities locally or internationally as you listen and learn from them.
6) Connect the work of repair with creation care!
Earth groans as a result of colonization. Many of the roots of our ecological crisis can be traced back to the Doctrine of Discovery and relationships of extraction rather than kinship and care with and for the land. Find ways to engage in Earth care, such as community gardening, climate change action and advocacy, or river restoration, and connect the dots in your community with dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery.
7) Commit to being contagious
Spread conversations about the work for repair and the impacts of the Doctrine of Discovery throughout your spheres of influence, including regional conferences, denominational gatherings, and beyond! Share your stories with the Repair Network and inspire new imagination for what is possible today!
“Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of injustice,
to undo the thongs of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke?…
If you remove the yoke from among you…
Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt;
you shall raise up the foundations of many generations;
you shall be called the repairer of the breach,
the restorer of streets to live in.”
— Isaiah 58:6,9b,12
Interested in joining the network?
- If your community is a fit and is ready to join, we will send you a sign-up form and invite you to our next Repair Network call!
- Reach out to us at admin@dismantlediscovery.org for more info.
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