This was a heavy read. It’s a needed weight. Galatians says to carry each other’s burdens and for far too long, the weight of a stolen land has been around the necks of indigenous peoples who have seen their lands taken, their rights removed, their cultures disintegrated, and their way of life destroyed. In The Land is Not Empty, Sarah Augustine shares the burden of it all with her readers in the form of awareness and a call to action.

That burden, in and of itself, is not justice. Simply making others—particularly the descendants of those who took the land—aware of historic injustice does no make wrong things right. Even calling others to action and suggesting the beginnings of healing and reparation and stopping the places where these injustices are current and ongoing is not enough for justice. But it is a beginning. The Land is Not Empty is a powerful and prophetic book that has the power to break down the strongholds of oppression and turn the trickle of justice into a roaring stream.

It begins with the Doctrine of Discovery: a set of laws from the fifteenth century that gave Christian governments the legal and moral right to seize “discovered” lands even though those lands were already populated. From the first sentence of the introduction: The United States was founded on ill-gotten gains. And it has prospered. Augustine weaves her own personal narrative as a Native American along with her experience advocating for indigenous people groups in Suriname. She does so through the lenses of religion, economics, politics, and history providing readers with a damning look at how the very humanity of indigenous peoples has been overlooked and denied in the name of money and power.

Sarah’s connection to this story begins in Suriname. The national government claims that the rainforests that comprise most of the country are uninhabited. But actually walk through the rainforest and you’ll find pockets of civilization where Indigenous Peoples attempt to carry on their ancient traditions and way of life. In the 1980s, Christian missionaries began consolidating the twelve distinct tribes into village clusters, moving the people out of the rainforest and into villages. This made them easier to proselytize (and control) and allowed the government to declare the rainforests to be empty and open for resource exploration and extraction. It was forced relocation to a reservation under a different name. The land was stolen.

Sarah arrived in Suriname as a sociologist, part of a research team investigating mercury toxicity in the Indigenous People. Mercury is used in alluvial gold mining and eventually makes its way into the rivers and streams—the primary food source for the local people. She was there as a nonpartisan observer but a single sentence from a Wayani woman changed everything “This is what I want to know…Are you going to fight with me?”

In the years since, Sarah Augustine has been fighting relentlessly. From personal life choices to activism in Suriname and beyond to working with (and against) government organizations. The Land is Not Empty is part-memoir, part-expose showcasing what most white Western Christian are ignorant of. I don’t know how Augustine’s message will be taken. For years (or centuries), those in power have knowingly and unknowingly looked the other way. The Land is Not Empty stands in defiance to any claim of ignorance. She paints the horror (and the hope) with broad and bold brush strokes that make the story plain. She unweaves the lies and half-truths and sings the unsung song of the oppressed. She calls the powerful and privileged to action through whatever power or privilege they hold. Together we are stronger than the systems of death, she writes. And so we can be.

*I received a complimentary ecopy of this ​book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis: Augustine explores the ways in which the roots of colonialism continue to bear fruit, through the lenses of Christianity and social justice. Augustine offers tangible ways for Christians to combat systemic injustice against Indigenous peoples.

Verdict: Highly Recommend (see Reservations below)
Personal Connection

Prior to college, I thought that racism was (essentially) a thing of the past in the United States. Racism appalled me, but I didn’t realize just how pervasive it continues to be, until I enrolled in a Race and Ethnicity in American Literature class. Through this course, I learned so much more about the exploitation of people groups in the United States. That year, I also attended the university’s SCORR Conference, which is dedicated to racial reconciliation. The same semester, a hate crime occurred on campus. For me, these experiences served to strengthen my desire for racial reconciliation. At the time, I thought I was a white girl learning to interact with people of other races.

Fastforward to September of 2019. On September 11th, my mom and I learned that her biological father was a first-generation Mexican American. My grandmother had lied to my mom her entire life, explicitly because she didn’t want my mom to know she was Mexican. It turns out, I too, had been directly affected by racism and have Indigenous roots. My mom advocates with our people and I believe that social justice is very important. For these reasons, I was intrigued by this book.

Audience

As a new book reviewer, this is exactly the kind of book I wanted to review. A major part of my calling, as a librarian and someone who really, really enjoys reading, is to be an “agent”— not necessarily in the traditional literary sense of the word, but in the sense of pointing to what the Lord is saying, through the people He is raising up. It is such a privilege to serve as an (unofficial) agent for my mom, Kimberly Vargas Agnese, who writes powerful, prophetic advocacy poetry.

With that said, having read Sarah Augustine’s “The Land is Not Empty,” I believe that this is SUCH an important text for Christians to read. As someone who resonates with certain aspects of Conservative Christianity (biblical sexuality and the sanctity of life), I recognize that there is so much room for growth when it comes to restoration and racial reconciliation.

Although the Bible demonstrates God’s heart for social justice, Conservative Christianity all-too-frequently scorns the notion of modern day racism. The Land is Not Empty is a call to action, not only for Conservative Christians, but for the body of Christ throughout the Western world, particularly in the United States.

Themes

The doctrine of discovery, which originated in the fifteenth century, created a legal precedent for “conquering” people groups around the world. According to the doctrine, if people were not Christians, they weren’t really people, so of course they could be wiped out.

This is such an ugly moment in church history, but we can’t turn away from it and ignore it, especially because our society remains entrenched in its philosophy, to this day. Through case studies and personal narrative, Augustine demonstrates that the doctrine of discovery is not an ugly thing of the past, but a present and violent violation of human rights. Augustine cites multiple examples of the oppression of indigenous peoples, who are having their land stripped away by partnerships between businesses and governments— partnerships in which the original occupants have no say.
I use the term “original occupants” intentionally. While my first inclination was to refer to the “rightful owners” of the land, Augustine strongly asserts that the land is not something that can be owned. “When Christians behave as though we can own creation,” Augustine writes, “we are degrading all ecosystems that support life.” Indeed, Augustine placed strong emphasis on our role, as humans, within Creation. According to Augustine, we are not separate from Creation, but part of it. As created beings, we have two choices: “cooperate, co-create with the systems of Life, which is [our] only choice, or [we]can pass away and waste [our lives] following the hollow logic that leads to death.” While this is not a traditional Western perspective, it does align with the original Garden of Eden call for us to steward nature. For us to willingly destroy, or permit the destruction of the earth, is truly to cooperate with a system of death. But, the God of Life is sovereign! “How fabulously foolish,” Augustine writes, “to believe any system invested in the destruction of creation, the Ancient of Days, will stand.”

In addition to depicting the land as something that is not owned, Augustine explores the significance of land within Indigenous cultures, noting that land plays an integral role in every aspect of life. Within the transversal Winti worldview, there is no frame of reference for individuality. Rather, all members of a community, past and present, inhabiting the space are members of Creation, along with the land. Also central to Winti belief is the idea that the strife of past generations affects those living in the present. For this reason, redemption is key to the Winti religion. Augustine adds that “the good news of Winti is dismissed” because of its emphasis on community-wide restoration, rather than on a specific historical moment of salvation. I certainly agree that the Winti belief system offers greater insight into the faith that we, as Christians, profess. I also resonated with Augustine’s emphasis on communal transgression (systemic injustice), as opposed to an individualistic approach to sin and piety. While I am accustomed to the individualist approach, I definitely see Scriptural precedent for Augustine’s assertions.

In emphasizing a community approach, Augustine’s end is not to make the reader feel guilty (yet powerless) as an individual. Although she shares multiple instances in which her efforts have borne little fruit, her goal in writing the book is to catalyze change at the community level— and she describes practical ways of doing so. For example, stockholders who are investing in mining companies can contribute the profits they are gleaming directly to Indigenous peoples. Whole churches that are profiting from extractive industries, can open negotiations with these companies. Most importantly, “the God revealed in Scripture…is a God who is struggling with us and within us to bring about God’s shalom.”

Reservations

• The first few sentences of the foreword, which is not written by the author, references working on “LGBTQ and other justice issues.” To clarify, LGBTQ issues are not addressed anywhere else in the book. I feel that this opening line could definitely affect the book’s credibility with certain audiences and that the social justice issue invoked by the author of the foreword is not at all analogous with the suffering of Indigenous peoples.

• The foreword also noted that, at certain points, the reader may be tempted to “tone down” Augustine’s message. Overall, I strongly resonated with the arguments presented. There were a few moments that gave me pause, mostly in discussions of the insights provided by Indigenous religion. Personally, I believe that elements of their worldview are extremely important to Christianity, elements that have been replaced with worldly western ones. My disclaimer is that the transversal world view is a HUGELY important lens for looking at the world, but that Jesus Christ, as a historical and living person, is central. This is not to say that Augustine’s writing conflicts with Christ’s centrality. However, I wanted to make a clear statement, because of how unfamiliar transversal thought is within the colonized Western world.

I also cannot uphold the Indigenous belief that God cannot exist without the land. Augustine references this belief when discussing Indigenous cosmology— not citing it as her own. Again, my point is that many of the central tenets of Indigenous belief are extremely relevant and insightful for us as Christians, but do not hold complete truth. (Nor do I!)
In Summation

All too often, Christians are known, not for their pursuit of social justice, but for their denial that inequity exists. As Christians, we mustn’t turn a blind eye to the systems on which our country was founded and continues to operate. This is such an important book for Christians to read! Highly recommended.

Sarah Augustine, The Land Is Not Empty
Weldon D. Nisly review
July 4, 2021

“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”
James Baldwin

Most colonial settler descendants on Turtle Island (United States and Canada) stand in the Doctrine of Discovery line even if they have never heard the term. The Doctrine of Discovery is rarely mentioned in “American” history. Yet it holds a defining place in white European Christian exploration of Turtle Island that colonized a continent with stolen land and stolen people. For over five centuries the Doctrine of Discovery has served as the legal, philosophical and moral basis for discovering and dominating the “new world” as terra nullis – empty land.

Recent testimony to the Doctrine of Discovery’s blinding hold on the political landscape was boldly proclaimed by a former U.S. Senator and network TV political commentator. He proudly declared at a political rally, “We came here and birthed a nation from nothing. I mean, there was nothing here.” He went on to boast, ‘We did it for faith and freedom rooted in Judeo-Christian values.’

In her new book, The land Is Not Empty, Sarah Augustine prophetically and poetically dismantles that tragic lie in an effort to Dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery forever. A first step toward ending this five-century devastation is to acknowledge that Indigenous people lived here many millennia before white colonizers arrived and used the Doctrine of Discovery as justification for genocide.

Augustine beautifully weaves together her own personal story as an Indigenous woman of faith and her professional calling promoting human rights by confronting the white settler social construction of reality that perpetuates the lie that this was “empty land.” She brilliantly narrates a legal, philosophical, theological, and biblical critique of colonial settler domination and discrimination ravaging sacred land and people. Her book reads like a novel and reveals like a modern biblical commentary interwoven with searing social analysis.

Full disclosure: Sarah Augustine is a beloved friend and I served as her pastor for over a decade. I can assure you that this book gives living witness to Sarah’s prophetic life and faith as well as her professional gifts and commitment to be the change she wants to see in God’s world! She knows and embodies James Baldwin’s wisdom that, “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”

An honest reading of The Land Is Not Empty will remove the blinders from our eyes and compel us to join this essential dismantling project and relinquish white settler supremacy rooted in the myth of American exceptionalism and entitlement. Read and weep and be transformed by truth in our post-truth time.