Name: Hilary Davis
How did you get started in ethnodoxology?
I first discovered, intuitively, the need for ethnodoxology while living on the Yakama Nation reservation, where I observed the lack of indigenous Christian worship and also the way that artistic expression brought my students alive in a way nothing else did.
What has been one of your favorite moments in ethnodoxology? For years I dreamed of getting Native American students together to write new songs for their contexts and in August 2017 we made this a reality. Students created the album RISE (www.wjefstudio.bandcamp.com) and several months later led worship at the Would Jesus Eat Frybread? conference for a group of 200 of their Native peers. It was a dream come true to hear them collectively singing a song they had written from Ezekiel 37 about the valley of dry bones: "The spirit of life flows through you / and saturates your soul / give thanks for his creation / the nations are made whole..." (a clip of this moment is viewable here with the password "Hilary": https://vimeo.com/247886196)
What do you hope will be different in 20 years through ethnodoxology? In 20 years, I hope that there will be Native American congregations worshiping using contemporary songs they have written themselves (to my knowledge this doesn't really exist anywhere in the continental US). I also hope that there will be a public, national acknowledgement and apology made to First Nations people, and that the art we make will be part of raising national consciousness for such a shift to occur.
