One Tribe—Are You Native?

Been There...Bought the T-shirt!

While on vacation, we were looking through the large swap meet (crafts, clothing, and food) on Maui, where you can buy all the handmade touristy stuff (for less money) and I saw a T-shirt with some interesting Polynesian-looking art down one side. The vendor said all their art was done by local artists and that it was a very popular tribal band on the front. In thinking of how the Hawaiians from the different islands used to war against each other, I asked, “Which tribe?” She said with incredulity, “There is only one tribe here!” I am not sure if her answer was culturally accurate or merely the view of the dominant culture being expressed. But it reminded me of a song…and a story.

I know there have been (and still are) intercultural tensions here in Hawaii. Whether it was rooted in the whites discarding the Hawaiian culture and language in the past, in the internment of Japanese 70 years ago, in the native Hawaiians' hate for the white person, or the demeaning of the Micronesian, or in the often insular communities of Korean and Japanese immigrants. No place is a perfect paradise. No people are untainted by pride. We have a strong ethnocentric cultural filter that is convinced that our cultural norms are the way things should be.

For years my wife has desired to take the whole family to Hawaii for a family vacation. She is one of those people that lives for a sunny day in the midst of all the grey Oregon winter weather we get. Hawaii has been her dream for weather relief as well as time away. So a couple of years ago in keeping with her Hawaiian focus, I bought her the CD of Hawaiian music Mele O Hawaii (Songs of Hawai'i) they had at the counter in Starbucks which has some very interesting songs. The last song is a rousing, upbeat, song called Are You Native? by Brother Noland. Its lyrics are a bit repetitive as is expected in a Hawaiian dance tune, but I have typed them up as best I can understand them…

One world, one race!

One world, one race!

Nananananana…native!

Nananananana…native!

 

Who are these creatures? Where do we come from?

Who are these strangers with different voodoo?

Who live for danger when we are near

You ask us “Are you native? Are you native?”

They come from outside, then they come inside

Then they make contact as they cross the border

They get a drink of water

Then they ask us, “Are you native? Are you native?”

Someone ask us, “Are you native? Are you native?”

Everybody sing it to me now!

Nananananana…native!

Nananananana…native!

Red, Yellow, Brown, White, Black…Native!

Red, Yellow, Brown, White, Black…Native!

 

I ask questions… will you give answers?

Are we invaders that come to visit or just the neighbors?

Maybe were tourists. Ask us…

“Are you native? Are you native?” Ask us…

“Are you native? Are you native?” Everybody is…

“Are you native? Are you native?” Everybody

Nananananana…native!

Nananananana…native!

Red, Yellow, Brown, White, Black…Native!

Red, Yellow, Brown, White, Black…Native!

“Are you native? Are you native?”

                          (Nananananana…native!)

Are you native? Are you native?

                          (Nananananana…native!)

Are you native? Are you native?

My momma always told me, (Are you native?)

She said,           (Nananananana…native!)

“Son, we are all native of the planet Earth.”

Are you native? (Nananananana…native!)

One world one race! One world one race!

                          (Nananananana…native!)

Are you native? Strut your stuff!

 

My kids in the waves.

It is a fun catchy tune, and the message is clear. On the one hand, there is the sense of being marginalized and treated as “other” in what was once their land. On the other hand, it sees beyond geographic and cultural boundaries to our common trait of being indigenous to the planet. Which leads me to ask, when we see people as “other” is it because our matrix for “native” is too small, too ethnocentric? We all spring from one family—Noah’s—which is brought to mind even more clearly on an island surrounded by the pounding waves of the entire Pacific Ocean. I am certainly glad the ark had more stability than I did on a paddle board!

On a somewhat related note, recent census statistics show that most resident Hawaiians marry someone of either a different race or ethnicity (55% in 2008). So the idea of “One world, one race” is not far from the truth. But as one of my mentors used to say, “What do the Scriptures say?”

·         We’re all created by God…in the image of God

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.

So God created man in his own image,
    in the image of God he created him;
    male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:26-27; 2:7)

·         We are all descended from one man so we are all one family (from Adam through Noah).

“From one man He has made every nationality to live over the whole earth and has determined their appointed times and the boundaries of where they live.” (Acts 17:26 — HCSB) The KJV actually uses the phrase “from one blood…”

·         We are all loved by God

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

·         We are all redeemed by the same blood, the precious blood of Christ.

 “ And they sang a new song, saying,

“Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals,
for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God
    from every tribe and language and people and nation,
 and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God,
    and they shall reign on the earth.” (Revelation 5:9-10)

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”  (Revelation 7:9-10)

·         We’re all of equal value in God’s eyes.

So Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. (Acts 10:34-3)

“For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise.” (Galatians 3:27-29)

·         We’re all to be agents of God for reconciliation in the world today. “…in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” (2 Cor. 5:19-20)

Our human goal is to be able to live our lives in peace as a fully human family—parents and children, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Our spiritual goal is to all be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ. In Christ, everyone has an equal place at the table of God’s family. There every nation, every tribe, every culture, and every language will all be a part, joining together in that new song as one tribe—The Redeemed.