Familiar, yet new: ethnohermeneutic and andragogical principles derived from a North American Indigenous context and applied to Bible study design and delivery

The author's ministry with NorthWind Family Ministries (NFM) involves leading Bible studies with interested participants. Of these, Indigenous people who live in Thunder Bay, but come from a variety of Northwestern Ontario communities, comprise the majority. As this thesis illustrates, Indigenous epistemologies differ considerably from European epistemologies. Indigenous epistemologies enable the author to design and deliver Bible studies with familiar learning principles, increasing the students' ability to understand, retain, and enjoy the learning experience. Ethnohermeneutic study, interpreting a biblical text applied to a third horizon, provides a good framework for this quest. The author uses mostly Indigenous-authored cultural, educational, historical, and ministry material to gain a comprehensive picture of North American First Nations worldviews and cultures, applying it to understanding the First Nations people in Northwestern Ontario, and drawing out learning principles for effective teaching. Andragogical concepts align well with Indigenous epistemologies, helping clarify the specific principles. These learning principles, labeled content and format, are delineated individually and tested with NFM participants. Their feedback indicates a sense of satisfaction and going back to their roots in learning. They said this way of learning was familiar, yet new at the same time. The study concludes that understanding is best achieved by using characteristics of each group's own culture. Involvement in the learning process fits the culture's epistemology and aids in remembering the learned content. Bible studies, designed and delivered using ethnohermeneutic and andragogical concepts, framed within a North American Indigenous learning context, were expressed as meaningful for the life experience of the Ojibwe, Cree, and OjiCree people of NFM.