An Indigenous man who once fought to see the light is now using his experience and the power of forgiveness to bring healing through music and faith.
"I'm the son of Andrew Maracle who was a missionary for 55 years in the native communities across North America," says Jonathan Maracle, Mohawk singer with Broken Walls band. "For me as a young man, it had its difficult moments. My mother was English and I picked up her looks and tone. It didn't sit well because I lived on a reservation with mostly dark-skinned people and my father spoke fluent Mohawk. I was picked on because I was different."
For a long time, Maracle didn't like who he was, even though he was proud of being a Mohawk.
"I was going to commit suicide in Hollywood, California. I was a rock and roll singer and I decided I no longer wanted to put up with the way things were. My dad had said to me before I left Canada that when your back's up against the wall and you have nowhere to turn, call on Jesus. I did, and the phone rang and it was my dad. It had been two and a half years since I had talked to him."
Maracle's parents bought him a ticket back to Canada. They invited him to come to church on Sunday and while he didn't want to, he eventually gave in.
"I opened the door and everybody was already in the church. There was this one little old lady, maybe about 80 years old. She walked right over to me and says, 'I love you.' I asked her why and she said, 'Because Jesus told me.' That was my moment of transition. I just felt that love and it seemed to wash over me. At that moment I believe I was saved."
Although Maracle knew he wanted to give his life to God, a pastor from a new church told him he'd have to give up his Mohawk heritage to pursue Christ.
"All my life I had been wrestling with this. I was brokenhearted because I was raised by a dad who loved Jesus. He always said, 'When I gave my heart to Jesus, I became a better Mohawk.' When the pastor said this, I let my Mohawk heritage go in lieu of having Jesus in my life."
Sacred Assembly: A Day of Forgiveness
For 10 years Maracle gave up his Indigenous heritage until he attended the sacred assembly with Elijah Harper in 1995.
"They asked me to come and sing 'Amazing Grace' in Mohawk. When they first asked me I said no, because that was the prerequisite to me accepting Jesus. Elijah's people said, 'Well that's wrong. You need to be who you were created to be.' Right before I was supposed to sing, this elder was speaking, John Sandford. He said, 'There are walls of bitterness that are built in the hearts of the Indigenous People of the world, because of the onslaught of colonialism. These walls of bitterness must be broken.'"
At that moment an entire song flooded Maracle's mind, called 'Broken Walls.'
"When they called me up to sing, I said, 'I apologize. I'm a man who loves to follow the rules, but I've got to sing this song that I've just written.' When I was done, this lady standing behind me put her hand on my shoulder. She said, 'Can I say something? My family discovered that our family was Cree and we hid that. I'm so sorry. Will you please forgive me and my family for our attitude?' She was crying. A native girl on the far side of the auditorium stood up and said, 'I'm Dene from the North West Territories.' She threw her fist in the air and said, 'I forgive you.'"
The entire auditorium started crying and many hearts started to heal that day.
"A Native man walked all the way up from the back, and when he got up there he introduced himself as a chief. He said, 'I've always hated white people for what they've done to my people. But today, I never want to hate white people again. Please forgive me.'"
Moving Toward Reconciliation
Roger Armbruster, who knows Maracle, has organized a free concert, coffee, and dessert night in honour of National Truth and Reconciliation Day happening on September 27 at 7:00 p.m. at the Niverville Community Fellowship. Maracle will be performing at the event.
"The whole purpose of this event is to bring different people groups together in a spirit of reconciliation," says Armbruster, who's worked alongside the Indigenous community for over 30 years. "That's why we're having coffee and cookies after. So that people can interact and get to meet people they've never met before. They can get to know that each person can communicate something of the image of God that we all need to come to greater maturity in the body of Christ as a whole."