Nation Building or Kingdom Building: An Indigenous Believer's Reflection on Reconciliation and Responsibility

There is a growing urgency across Canada to strengthen the economy — especially as tariffs, trade disputes, and global instability threaten monetary wealth. Yet too often, “nation building” becomes synonymous with resource extraction and large-scale infrastructure projects. While governments may speak of reconciliation, their actions often bypass the meaningful involvement of Indigenous peoples, ignoring commitments made through UNDRIP, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action, and the MMIWG Calls for Justice.

Each of these frameworks affirms that reconciliation is not a catch phrase we dust off and wear with our orange t-shirts once a year. It demands that Indigenous peoples have a rightful place at the decision-making tables where lands, waters, and futures for all Canadians are determined. When governments plan projects without Indigenous land guardians, the result is not progress — it’s repetition. We see history looping back on itself, dressed in new language but carrying the same disregard for treaty obligations and for the Creator’s design of relational stewardship.

A gentle reminder that stewardship is not just about the soil beneath our feet — it’s about the people, stories, and sacred responsibilities woven into the land itself.

Who Gets to Define a Nation?

While we are on the topic of nation building, I must point to a tension I feel within this conversation — as a Canadian, I feel the gravity of the moment, but as an Indigenous person I feel the familiarity of speaking from the margins.

When Christians and non-Christians defend Canada’s history by saying, “We built this nation,” they often overlook the truth that strong and complex nations already existed here — nations built on kinship, stewardship, and spiritual law.

The word nation itself carries layers of meaning. In Western thought, a nation is often defined by boundaries, governments, and economies. But in many Indigenous worldviews, a nation is defined by relationships — between people, land, water, and Creator.

So when the Church speaks of “building a nation under God,” it must ask: Does this nation and its actions reflect the God whom they serve? Whose vision of nationhood are we pursuing and why? And who was displaced in its making?

The Problem with the “Nation Building” Narrative

For generations, “nation building” in Canada has relied on extracting wealth from the land — often at the expense of those who were entrusted by Creator to care for it. Whether it’s pipelines, mines, or hydro projects, these initiatives are justified as “good for the economy.” Yet the question remains: good for whose economy?

This model of development treats land and water as commodities rather than living relatives. It measures success in GDP, not in the health of the ecosystems that sustain life. As Indigenous peoples have long taught, wealth is not measured by accumulation but by balance, relationship, and the ability to live well without taking more than one’s share.

What is at stake?

Recent studies reveal that the decimation of Indigenous populations following European arrival (c. 1520–1700 CE), known as The Great Dying, caused one of the largest ecological shifts in human history — greater even than the industrial revolution. Tens of millions of Indigenous people were lost to disease, displacement, and colonization, leaving cultivated and stewarded lands untended. Landscapes and ecological systems were drastically altered, drawing down atmospheric carbon and cooling the earth — contributing to what scientists call the Little Ice Age (Smith College Climate Literacy Project, 2025).

The earth itself responded to the absence of its caretakers. This was not only an environmental change — it was a spiritual one. The removal of those in sacred relationship with creation caused both ecological and spiritual imbalance.

The Creator Axis: The Connection Between Earth and Spirit

In Anishinaabe teachings, there are seven sacred directions — East, South, West, North, Above, Below, and Centre. The vertical axis of Above, Centre, and Below is often called the Creator Axis. It represents Creator’s act of forming humanity from the earth and breathing spirit into us.

Just as Genesis 2:7 (NRSV) says:

“Then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being.”

I would like to express my deep gratitude to my father and Indigenous Knowledge Holder, David Daniels, for his teachings on where the Anishinaabe Sacred Teachings sit directionally.

In this understanding, we are located at the Centre — the meeting point between earth and spirit. Even our very skin tones reflect the colours of the soils we come from. Our physical bodies contain the same minerals as the land and waters that sustain us. The Creator Axis in Anishinaabe teachings reminds us that what happens to the earth happens to us — physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

Romans 8:22 (NRSV) echoes this truth:

“We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labour pains until now.”

When creation groans, so do we. When the earth is sick, our spirits feel it. The Great Dying was therefore not just a tragedy of human loss, but of spiritual separation — a rupture in the Creator Axis, where earth and spirit were once held in sacred balance.

Yet there is good news: that connection can be healed. When we humble ourselves, repent, and return to right relationship with Creator and creation, we can once again produce life-giving effects.

2 Chronicles 7:14 (NRSV) reminds us of this hope:

“If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”

A Christian Lens on Systemic Injustice

As Christians, we cannot turn a blind eye to these realities. Scripture calls us to be people of truth and justice, not of comfort and denial. When meeting those who would distance themselves from acts of blatant discrimination and racism Indigenous Scholar, Mark Charles, responds, “You don’t have to be racist because the systems of the society we live in are racist for you.” That insight pierces deeply into the history of Indigenous peoples on Turtle Island.

Even if individuals do not harbor hatred, we participate in systems — legal, economic, and political — that are designed to privilege one group over others. It dismisses the worldviews that are profoundly spiritual and deeply scientific as trivial, and maintains an economic system that keeps wealth in the areas that firmly support the maintenance of these very systems that have historically excluded and discriminated.

As believers, our call is to protect creation — and that means standing alongside those whom the Creator placed in sacred relationship with it.

While Mark Charles focuses much work on responding to Christian nationalism in America, I have encountered similar rhetoric occurring north of the border — especially in recent months with Canada facing a threat to its economy. Many who align with Christian nationalism believe God gave them this land, and thus their success is divinely sanctioned. But that theology misrepresents both Scripture and the nature of God. It echoes the Doctrine of Discovery and Manifest Destiny, which justified land theft, cultural genocide, and ecological harm. This is not the Gospel of Christ — this is empire cloaked in piety.

You Cannot Protect Creation Without Protecting Those Connected to It

To care for the earth, we must listen to the voices of those who have lived in harmony with it for millennia. Indigenous guardians and knowledge keepers hold wisdom that is both ecological and spiritual — and yet, they are too often treated as obstacles rather than partners.

When Canada plans without them, it not only breaks treaty promises, it breaks faith with the Creator who commanded us to “tend and keep” the garden (Genesis 2:15, NRSV). The phase "as long as the sun shines, the grass grows and the river flows" was added to the numbered treaties as the Indigenous signatories to treaty understood that Creator and creation were included in these agreements — they were never excluded because Indigenous peoples understood that they never could be.

When we exploit the land for wealth, we are not blessing creation; we are burdening it. When we silence Indigenous peoples, we are refusing to hear the very voices that could lead us to a new way to build the nation, even ways that will heal the economy.

From Nation Building to Kingdom Building

Christ’s kingdom is not built through extraction, domination, or exclusion. It is built through humility, justice, and restoration. As Christians, our calling is not to defend systems that harm others, but to transform them in light of God’s justice. This means asking hard questions:

• Who benefits from the projects we call “nation building”?

• Who and what is displaced, silenced, or left behind?

• Are our policies reflecting God’s command to love our neighbour — human and non-human alike?

We cannot claim to protect creation while destroying the communities who have always protected it. True nation building must begin with repentance and relationship — not rhetoric and resource extraction.

Creator God,

We confess that we have too often sought wealth without wisdom, progress without purpose, and power without partnership.

In this time of economic uncertainty, we are reminded that we serve a God that created this earth and has infinite resources. Help us to move past fear of losing when Your Word says you will not give us a stone when we ask for bread (Matt. 7:9). Your Word promises that you want to give us more than we can hope for or imagine (Ephesians 3:20), so help us to move beyond fear and trust in your guidance. Expand our imaginations so we know what to ask for in these times.

Teach us to see this land not as property, but as sacred trust.

Open the hearts of leaders to listen to Indigenous voices, and stir your Church to walk humbly toward justice. May we build not an empire of profit, but a kingdom of peace — where land, water, and all your children can thrive together.

We ask that you show your glory in the reconciliation work we do, and above all, that future generations can see your goodness!

Amen.