"What the Body of Christ Needs to Know about the First Nations People: An Exclusive Interview with Jonathan Maracle of Broken Walls"

"What the Body of Christ Needs to Know about the First Nations People: An Exclusive Interview with Jonathan Maracle of Broken Walls"
by Johnathan Maracle with Aimee Herd

It was a great privilege to meet up with Jonathan Maracle, the founder of Canadian First Nations worship band and ministry, Broken Walls, at AzusaNow in Los Angeles, recently. The band is made up of lead singer, songwriter, Jonathan, from the Mohawk people of the Tyendinaga Territory in Ontario, Canada; bass player and backup vocalist, Kris DeLorenzi, who is Italian, and is from Thunder Bay, Ontario; and drummer Bill Pagaran, of the Tlingit people from Palmer, Alaska. (Photo of Aimee Herd, Editor of Breaking Christian News with Jonathan Maracle of Broken Walls at AzusaNow, Los Angeles, CA)

Broken Walls ministers all over the world to all people groups; and especially to the First Nations people in North America. Jonathan spoke candidly about the desperate state of hopelessness that has plagued so many tribes and villages, and how they are striving to bring the Light of Jesus to disperse this darkness.

Please read on with an open heart and mind to what the Holy Spirit might say to you through Jonathan's words...

"What the Body of Christ Needs to Know about the First Nations People: An Exclusive Interview with Jonathan Maracle of Broken Walls"
by Johnathan Maracle with Aimee Herd

[The Church doesn't] realize that right in Canada and in America, there are native people who have no food, there are native people who don't have fuel to keep their houses warm, there are native people who are committing suicide in large epidemic proportions. We just surge on as the Church doing what we do, and we don't really realize it.

Aimee Herd: I am here with Jonathan Maracle from Broken Walls, and what a powerful time of worship this morning. First of all, talk about, Jonathan, just leading up to coming here. What were you thinking when you were first asked to come to AzusaNow?

Jonathan Maracle: Well, I guess it's the fact that it was to be a part of something that potentially is a spark to ignite something in this generation, like a breakthrough—one of those breakthrough moments, you know? And for me to be asked to be a part of it—Lou saw us playing at another place in California, and he just walked up to me and said, ''Will you come and play at Azusa?'' And I turned around and said, ''Yes, I will.'' And so it all worked out, everything worked out for us to be here and our team.

You know, we just really know that Lou gets it. It's really kind of cool that he gets it, that First Nations people being the people of the land are here and need to be recognized, and he's opening the door for that recognition. My heart is that we will be able to share the depths of what we need to share at times. This is a good open door for us to let people see what God is doing in Indian country, and for them to realize that native people want to worship the way God created us to worship. (Photo: Breaking Christian News)

The problem being is that the Church has brought a kind of cultural conversion message to us over the last 2 or 300 years that said, "In order for you to worship with us, you've got to worship our way." And we're saying, "You know what, if we're going to ever see our people restored back to health and healing, then what we're going to have to do is we're going to have to be able to worship the way God created us."

The drum is a part of it, different types of drums and rattles, and our dance is vitally important. Each step that we take when our dancers dance is a prayer for the healing of the land. What people don't realize is that that's a potential weapon that can be used against the enemy. And so we feel that coming here helps us to get a little more exposure so people will be able to understand the importance of allowing native people in North America to become themselves again, to restore them back to a place of self-respect and dignity.

You know, we still have the highest rates of suicide in the world among our native people here in North America. And thinking about that; it can be broken, but it's because we've been circumcised from who we are. And God is using the drum, he's using our songs, our songs of old, and he's potentially using people like Lou and different ones that are seeing it. The beautiful thing is Lou really does see it. In the last couple days, we've had meetings and stuff, and we've had gatherings, and he's just really opened up his heart about how he feels. And that warms my heart to know that he feels good enough to bring me here to do this. (Photo: Breaking Christian News)

AH: When the shofars were blowing and the drums were going and you were looking out over the thousands present, did you feel like there was something happening in the Spirit?

JM: You know, I'm a very focused musician, and so when everything started, there was technical mayhem going on. So in my spirit, I knew—the coolest part of it is, (and God has said this to me so many times) "In your weakness, I am made strong." And on that stage, that's what was pouring through my mind, because I was dealing with every kind of technical difficulty known to a musician all at once. I've got a crowd waiting for us to do something and things weren't on and all. But you know what, we just surged forward and we did what we were called to do, and we prayed that the anointing would break the yoke, and we prayed that His grace would be sufficient. In my heart, in my spirit, that's where we were at.

I do know that as we played, a woman got up out of a wheelchair and was healed. I do know that as we played, I had different leaders come and speak to me that were within the gathering that said great things happened in their hearts and they were really encouraged and stirred by what we did. So in the spirit, I felt good. I had to fight the flesh. I'm just being honest. Because the enemy always wants to bring you down and take you away from your focus. So I had to fight that, but like I said, in my weakness, He is made strong, and everybody I've spoken to has come up to me all wide-eyed saying, "Oh, that was great," and I'm going, "Really?" [laughter] But you know—It was. It was powerful.

AH: You mentioned a little while ago about—and you just said that Lou Engle gets it. You mentioned to me that you'd invited him—to come up north with Broken Walls, and you mentioned that he is going to come. Can you talk about what that will involve?

JM: Yeah, that's kind of like a brand new thing that just happened in the last hour. I just happened to run into some of Lou Engle's family—his wife and his sons. As we were talking, Lou's wife said, "Oh, my son would really like to see you because he wants to be a flute player like you and he would like to have a flute," and so I thought, "Well, you know, what? I would love to make him a flute." So she took me over and introduced me to Josiah, and then we got talking, and we talked about the flute and where it came from.

The conversation eventually got to the struggle of First Nations people. It was a Spirit-led thing. We were both standing there with tears in our eyes, and I was explaining to him what's going on in our native communities that Christianity in the world doesn't even realize. Like one of our biggest struggles is that everybody goes overseas, everybody goes to different places where there's great need. They don't realize that right in Canada and in America, there are native people who have no food, there are native people who don't have fuel to keep their houses warm, there are native people who are committing suicide in large epidemic proportions. We just surge on as the Church doing what we do, and we don't really realize it. And then the problem here is that when we do realize it, we just send a bunch of people in who don't really understand the cultural difference and the world view of our native people and the non-native people. (Photo via BrokenWalls.com)

And what ends up happening is, instead of them being able to deliver the Good Message, they insult and hurt because they break the understanding. See, world view, this is really important, people have to get this. Our native people see the world from a different perspective, and when someone comes in and tries to tell them, "The way you're doing things is wrong, you need to..." Let me explain it in a different way...

I was ministering in one reservation and I asked the person. I said, "So how are you actually trying to reach the people?" This is a mission group that was there for years, trying to build relationship and all. I said, "So how do you do it?" They said, "Well, we built this rec center, and we've done all these things, and we got this all together. And when we get them all together and they play basketball and stuff, they're all having a good time. But when comes the time for us to talk to them, we try to tell them that their rattles are evil and their drums aren't supposed to be used. They need to leave the regalia and the fight behind. And all these things, they aren't of God."

I said, "You open up telling them everything is wrong with them. How about trying to tell them the love of Jesus without trying to convert their culture." I said, "Cultural conversion isn't what Jesus died for, He died for the conversion of the heart." I spoke this to the guy and the next time I went back to that community, there was a whole different feeling there. And we were able to release something in a whole new way because they are prepared for a new way of doing it.

So this is what we want to do, it's two-fold. We want to help to train people who are going to go to native communities, and we also want to be a clarion call to America and to Canada to say, "This is what's happening. And we need your help, but please, don't just run in full of zeal without the right perspective. You need some training to understand traditional values and the traditional way [of the] people." And what they have to realize, too, is the Church, for 300 years, has brought a message that has made our people back away because it's tried to pull [them] away from who they are. So native people are kind of holding Christianity at arm's length and thinking it's not really for them.

And I always say, "Jesus died for every tribe, tongue, people, and nation." And this is the vital thing, is we have to give it to them in a way that they can understand, and the drum is one of the ways they can understand. From my perspective, it seemed like the folks that were in [AzusaNow] could understand the drum, too. It seemed like when we hit it, the power of God moved. I saw the people throbbing with what we were doing and taking it in. What they have to realize is that native people, that's our form of worship. And our dances, that's our form of honoring Christ. (Photo via BrokenWalls.com)

We were at one place, and they announced us and they said, "Hey, there's Indians here that are going to play their drum. You may not like it, but you might get to like it. You know, after you've heard it a few times, you might get to like it." And I'm thinking to myself, "Well, that's a heck of an introduction" [laughing]. And I say this in a nice way, that's the ignorance that happens out there because people haven't taken the time to realize and get to know the people of their land.

All that our people have been known for is being drunks, being welfare people, being people who feel a sense of entitlement, and it's made America and Canada feel as though we're just people on the dole and taking. But if I was able to take them by the hand and walk them through some of our communities, they would understand that there's a reason why our people feel this way.

There's pain, and sorrow, and destruction. I know one family that's had four suicides in one family. I've sat with dads beside their children and their coffins, 12-year-old and 13-year-old girls, because they're just tired of trying to survive in an environment that has no love, and parents that don't know how to love because they're confused.

Fatherhood is a thing that is lost in so many of our communities, because when we were forced on reservations, our native men hunted out the reservations fast. And so in order to go out past the reservations, they had to take their families, but then our kids had to go to school. So the fathers had nothing to do, no livelihood, so they weren't getting their moose, they weren't getting their deer, they weren't doing their fishing like they used to.

AH: They weren't being who they were created to be.

JM: They weren't being who they were created to be so they started drinking, and they started taking on artificial things to fill the gap, and so fatherhood was lost in a great way in our native communities. And then the other side of that was our children at the age—when they reach the ninth grade are shipped from our communities into cities to get the rest of their education. And the problem has been they end up in gangs, end up murdered. We've had seven boys murdered in Thunder Bay just from fighting in gangs when they come in out of the remote communities. They don't know how to live in that kind of an environment, and so they have to try and make their way as a result of it. And so we're trying to expose these things.

I think my biggest reason for doing what I do, to go back to your very first question, was that I want to bring understanding to our situation. The fact that you're here and giving me an opportunity to do that thrills me. And to be able to say that we can make a difference, but I need the Christian community to begin to stand up and listen and receive some input. (Photo: Breaking Christian News)

Sometimes when we're a part of the programs, we're a subject of the program rather than an adviser to the program, and I think that our people need to begin to see ourselves. The Church needs to see us as potential partners, rather than people that open events because we're the people of the land and they need to be blessed before they get going.

AH: Hopefully this is a beginning.

JM: Yeah. I was at the first Call. I opened the first Call in Washington DC 16 years ago. There was like 400,000 people, and I struck the drum and sang "River of Life," it's what I sang in there, and then I did TheCall in Detroit. I've been faithful and I say that in humility, but when the call has come for me to represent my people, I try to be there and do that, and I want to do it in an honorable way. I want to do it in a way that my people would be proud of, and I want to be able to expose these things, and I want to see the Church say, "Yes, let's do it and get behind us so we can actually do it."

We're having revival in Alaska. We were just in a village called White Mountain [that has] 600 people in the village. I gave my testimony and I sang "Rise Up Mighty Warrior," and 400 people got up for salvation. This is revival! (Photo: Breaking Christian News)

AH: That must have been thrilling.

JM: Yeah, and then we went to other villages, and very similar things happened, like there were people moving. My desire is to see this happen in Canada. I live in Canada, I have dual citizenship, but I live in Canada, and I'm seeing firsthand the pain, and the sorrow, and the suffering, and knowing that we can fix it through the help of Christ. But we need to be able to get in there, we need to have support to do it, and so that's a big part of it.

AH: Well, hopefully, this is a clarion call to the Church to really come alongside and BE the Body of Christ that INCLUDES the First Nations people.

JM: I'd like to say, too, that I really appreciate the way the Elijah List has supported Broken Walls. Steve [Shultz] and different ones from there have been vocal about their support towards what we do. I'm looking forward to getting more contact with people in power, people that are moving in the Body of Christ that want to partner with us.

In Alaska, we can raise all the money we need to take two planes and fly village to village to do the work that we do. We have two planes and Samaritans Purse helps to support it and everyone. But in Canada, I'm just having such a struggle to make that happen. I have approached that type of people, but I can't seem to get the same results...

AH: So that's an area for which the Church can pray, where we can all pray.

JM: Yes. We keep praying that God will open doors for finances and for support for us to be able to make these outreaches and go. Cross Lake Manitoba—in the last two weeks—they had 140 attempted suicides and 6 suicides that completed. In Pikangikum, over the years, they've had hundreds [of suicides], like 16 in one year. They just had a fire, nine people died in the fire, and the village is just—they're just in mourning. I believe we can do something about it.

AH: I believe we can, too.

JM: Yes. Just the fact that we can let the world know a little bit, maybe open some doors into the hearts of people that would help us... that would we awesome.

If your heart has been touched by the things shared in this article, and if you feel the Lord calling you to reach out to the First Nations communities, and to support healing for the Native people, then please visit BrokenWalls.com. There you can request more information on how to get involved in helping First Nations people; you can learn more about, and support Broken Walls; and you can sign up to be a part of their intercessory prayer team: Warriors of Prayer. Just visit: BrokenWalls.com.

Broken Walls drummer, Bill Pagaran also heads a ministry: Carry The Cure that aims to bring hope to the hopeless and suicidal—especially young people—in Alaska. You can find out more about it by logging on to: CarryTheCure.org.

Please be praying for our First Nations brothers and sisters, and how God might have you play a part in bringing the hope and healing of Jesus Christ to them.

News Source: Breaking Christian News

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