Stories from the Field, 3 Sep 2024
Speaker: Roce Madinger
Roce began by explaining the term “ethnoarts” in the context of missions – a way of empowering local language communities to create art forms which help them connect with scripture in a culturally relevant way. This could through expressions such as music, dance, visual arts and more.
She commented that many people from minority groups have low self-esteem because these groups are often looked down on. When they discover that they can communicate with God through their own culture and arts, and they realise that their language, musical instruments, baskets, bracelets, song and dances matter to God, His love becomes more real to them and they experience joy and hope.
Referring to the vision of John in Revelation 7:9, a believer from the Matigsalug tribe in the Philippines said: “The tribes in heaven who are praising God will not be complete if we, the Matigsalug, are not there.”
Roce gave examples from the Bible to illustrate how art forms are gifts from God, providing avenues to dialogue with God, to express what everyday language finds difficult to articulate, and helping to make sense of emotions too deep to comprehend. Bazalel in Exodus 31 was given “all kinds of skills” for decorating the tabernacle; in Deuteronomy 31, Moses was instructed to write a song to teach the Israelites what God had done for them; Jesus crafted and told stories; and the Psalms are a collection of songs, laments, and worship. All through the Bible there are accounts of God’s people being encouraged to reflect the Creator’s creativity through art forms.
She encouraged those wishing to reach out cross-culturally to engage with the arts of the people group as it is a good way to learn language, build relationships and understand the worldview. She acknowledged that there are certainly challenges in using the arts in missions: some art forms or instruments may have negative spiritual associations and might need to be avoided to prevent confusing new believers. She explained the approach known as “critical contextualisation”, a term used by Paul Hiebert, a Christian anthropologist. This requires that the believers themselves, as cultural insiders, should make the decisions about how elements of their culture can be used in their new faith. This often takes time and scriptural study.
In response to a question, Roce described the process of helping the first believers of an unreached group to develop worship songs. This is a common challenge, and missionaries usually begin by translating existing hymns and songs from another language, even though they are not of the people’s cultural style. As the believers grow in number and maturity, they are then encouraged to use their own musical styles, perhaps beginning with translated psalms. Gradually the people group will develop their own worship songs with their own styles and sound.
She ended with a story about B, a Matigsalug believer who had attended an ethnoarts workshop. After that workshop, he was inspired to explore his own culture in depth and use his skill in playing the kuglung (a kind of lute) for God’s glory. His greatest challenge now is to convince his father, also a believer, that his skill in playing the kuglung does not come from an indigenous spirit in him but from the Holy Spirit! He is now encouraging tree-planting projects so that more kuglung can be made, and the Matigsalug believers can use them to worship God.
For a thousand kuglung and a thousand gongs, a thousand colors and a thousand tongues cannot begin to declare the goodness and the greatness of God!
About the speaker:
Roce Anog-Madinger was a music teacher for 15 years, then trained in Ethnomusicology and the Arts at Payap University, Thailand. Since then, she has served many minority communities in Asia. She is currently pursuing a PhD in indigenous studies with arts as the methodology so that she can be herself a supervisor of PhD students who wish to serve in this area.
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