Becoming Kin: An Indigenous Call to Unforgetting the Past and Reimagining Our Future

by Patty Krawec

In Leviticus 25, the Hebrew people are told to count off seven years of Sabbaths and that the fiftieth year would be a year of jubilee throughout the land. Rather like the European powers divided the Americas and Africa among them, with no regard for the Indigenous nations already living there, the land of Israel was divided among the tribes with family allotments. They had the ability to buy and sell and to lease and mortgage. But in the fiftieth year, everything reverted back to where it had been. Enslaved people were freed, debts were forgiven, land was restored, and the ledger was wiped free. In this way, families did not accumulate generational wealth, permanently taking more than their share, and if they were impoverished because of poor harvests or poor choices, their children and their grandchildren would get another chance. Land also remained in families, not with individuals, suggesting a more cooperative way of living. Rather than enriching individual members of a family while younger children had to fend for themselves, the entire family was provided for in a way that protected future generations. We see shades of this in the relationship between Boaz and Ruth. Ruth claims a kinship right of support from this wealthy farmer, who had an obligation of care, and in this way, she entered the genealogy of Jesus.