Fallen

When I studied art history in grade 12 we learnt about art representing the "noble savage." This phrase in art represented the early days of white settlement in Australia, when the indigenous people were represented in a noble way. They were depicted as upright and pure, living a perfect culture.

As the colony progressed conflicts with the traditional land owners arose and the debilitating effects of alcohol struck the first nation people, the art changed. We were taught to call this next art phase the "colonial clown." Now the indigenous people were depicted as fools, drunks and trouble makers.

This change in art is about the change in perceptions, not about the actual nature of the indigenous people. That said, they were indeed undergoing rapid and dramatic change brought by the arrival of a European colony on their doorstep, with many tragic consequences.

While prejudices have come and gone over the years, I am surprised at how often the idea of the "noble savage" lives on in popular imagination. There is an ideal that before one nation encounters another nation and therefore changes, that they live an ideal life. Together with this is the criticism that to work alongside indigenous people is to ruin their culture.

I would like to call this out for the falsehood it is. All people, in all places and all times are fallen and in need of salvation. No nation, tribe or language is exempt from this, but all are offered salvation in Christ.

Examples of how this falsehood impacts my work are from the assumptions I have encountered along the way. I have been asked if the family unit continues to be the basis of a strong community or if modern life has ruined this. I responded that multiple wives and the tensions that causes are part of the traditional way in some places, and continue to cause conflict in some places.

I have been judged by shop attendants and hair dressers who want to know why I work in PNG, with the implied accusation that I am a force for destruction of culture. I respond that I am there at the invitation of the community, helping them with their own goals in their own language. They are the catalyst for change; I am assisting them in their work. A culture that does not respond to a changing world with change will stagnate. A culture which is pro-active in driving how it changes is more likely to flourish.

All change is a mixed bag. There are good things and bad things that come from the meeting of cultures. No one culture has all the answers, but all have some of the answers, which is why we can and should always be learning from each other.