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Paul Chandler and Brian Whelan
WHITE ROBE: An exhibition celebrating the life of Rev. Dr John Roberts among Native Americans
By Jonathan Evens
Wales has a large number of spiritual heroes from St David to Evan Roberts but there’s another Roberts from Wales who is less well-known and primarily celebrated in Wyoming. This year is the 75th anniversary of the death of Rev. Dr John Roberts, a Welsh Episcopal/Anglican priest who served on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming from 1883-1949. His ministry stands as an exemplary model of inculturation, as he honoured indigenous Native American spirituality and embraced their culture and languages.
Roberts hailed from Dyserth, a village in the Clywydian mountain range in North-east Wales, just south of Prestatyn. Born into a farming family, the son of Robert and Ellen Roberts, his mother always hoped that her son would become a clergyman. He studied at Ruthin Grammar School and St David's, Lampeter, before being ordained as a Deacon in Lichfield Cathedral in 1878 by former missionary Bishop George Selwyn.
Their encounter was later described in the book 'My People of the Plains' by Ethelbert Talbot, an Episcopalian bishop who knew Roberts: ‘He was ordained by the great Bishop Selwyn, who had recently been translated from the South Sea Islands, where he had done such heroic service. After his ordination, Mr. Roberts asked his bishop's blessing and permission to leave his native country and cross the Atlantic and devote his life to the service of the North American Indian in the Far West. The bishop had a very high opinion of the young priest, and had already determined to place him in an important position, but his own missionary heart beat in loving sympathy with the cause, and, as much as he loved Roberts, he could not hesitate to wish him Godspeed.’
Following a short curacy at Dawley Magna in Shropshire, Roberts went to Nassau in the Bahamas where he was ordained priest and served for two years at the Cathedral. It was there he met his wife to be, Laura Alice Brown, who later joined him in Wyoming where they married. From Nassau, Roberts went to New York where he met The Rt. Rev. John Franklin Spalding, Bishop of Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico. Roberts asked Spalding for ‘missionary work in your most difficult field'.
As preparation for ministry with the Native Americans on the Shoshone Reservation in Wyoming, he served initially in the cities of Greeley and Pueblo in the state of Colorado before, on 1 February 1883, beginning the journey to Wyoming. There, he was to serve among the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho tribes for 66 years, conducting the funeral for Sacagawea (the guide in the famous Lewis and Clark Expedition), and cultivating close friendships with tribal leaders, including the renowned Eastern Shoshone Chief Washakie and Northern Arapaho Chief Black Coal. He set up a school for girls among the Eastern Shoshone and another school in Ethete for the Northern Arapaho, both on sacred land gifted by the tribes for that purpose. Additionally, in days when treaty after treaty with the tribes were broken by the US government, the tribes would not proceed with any negotiation with US government officials without Roberts being present. He was referred to with deep affection by them and the people as “White Robe” and "Elder Brother.”
His 75th anniversary year is being celebrated through WHITE ROBE: The Story of the Sacred Journey of the Rev. John Roberts among Native Americans, a touring exhibition featuring artist Brian Whelan was jointly commissioned by ArtSpirit of Wyoming and CARAVAN, an international arts charity that uses the arts to build bridges, and sponsored by the Episcopal Church in Wyoming.
Paul G. Chandler, the Founding President of CARAVAN Arts and an Anglican clergyman who curated the exhibition, oversaw the commission for artist Brian Whelan to create a series of 13 paintings on the life and ministry of Rev. John Roberts, a Welsh Episcopal/Anglican priest who served on the Wind River Reservation in the state of Wyoming from 1883-1949. Chandler views Roberts as “a remarkable figure,” because Roberts was well ahead of his time in encouraging his indigenous sisters and brothers “to honor and embrace their own spiritual and cultural traditions” as he shared about the teachings of Jesus.
Chandler sums up Roberts’ approach as follows: “Unlike most whites at that time, he saw himself as truly a guest among Native Americans. He modeled what might be called ‘the Guest Posture’. Not working to be the host - but intentionally focused on seeing himself as a guest. When we are the guest of someone, we have put ourselves at their disposal; we have put ourselves in a state of vulnerability and humility. The fundamental characteristic of a guest is being open to receiving from the host. Rev. Robert’s life challenges us to allow ourselves to be the guest of the ‘other.’ And it certainly is a posture that breaks down barriers.”
As the tragedies of the US Federal Indian boarding schools of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, which were established to enculturate and assimilate Native Americans into white American culture resulting in the suppression of Indigenous culture and languages, are coming to light, Chandler suggests “the life and work of the Rev. Dr John Roberts stands out as an exemplary model of doing the opposite, as he honored indigenous Native American spirituality and embraced their culture and languages.” Chandler has interviewed many Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho individuals, including their elders, and reports that they honour Roberts’ legacy to this day. It has, he says, “been moving to hear the love and respect they have for him.”
Whelan recalls that Chandler first contacted him a few years after seeing his The Passion of Edith Cavell exhibition, a commission from Norwich Cathedral, on a visit to the Washington National Cathedral. Years later, when considering how to artistically commemorate Rev. Robert’s inspiring life, Chandler felt that Whelan’s “contemporary approach to the genre of East Anglian medieval narrative painting would be a powerful way to communicate the unique and moving story of the Rev. Roberts’ life.” Whelan explains that: “Over the last few years, I have been working stylistically on narratives that require several paintings. Edith Cavell is one such. Sometimes the multiple images might even be on the same canvas. A little like the page in a comic. There are some medieval churches in the UK with walls that still show this method of painting. I spent 20 years in East Anglia and enjoyed finding examples of this direct method of telling a story.”
Working in narrative series in this way has synergies with the work of Greg Tricker (series on Anne Frank, Francis of Assisi, Joan of Arc, etc.) and murals about Brother Joseph Dutton that André Girard painted for Blessed Sacrament Church at Stowe in Vermont. Chandler is familiar with Girard’s paintings and windows that commemorate the influential ministry of Dutton in Hawaii and sees similarities with Roberts, as both “tell a story of remarkable servants, whose examples have much to teach us today.”
As a result, Chandler thinks “that artists can lead the way today” and “are more needed than ever”: “Artists provide new pathways of understanding that transcend borders and how we see the ‘other’. Brian Whelan is a brilliant example of someone whose creative gift does this. His focus on the lives of remarkable individuals of faith, whether it be Rev. John Roberts or someone else, enables people to be captivated by their stories, which is one of the most effective means of communicating.”
Whelan began the new commission by plotting his way around the story of Roberts, finding “anchor points” that took their place in a developing narrative: “Using sheets of paper of different colours I took a pair of scissors and began to cut out characters and shapes of objects important to the narrative. Collage is a secret weapon for me. I can change my mind quickly, move shapes about, organise, reorganise, get a sense of scale, assess and reassess, subtract and add. This went on for six months before a drop of paint found its way on to a canvas.”
Initially, he came up with twelve paintings that satisfied him but then, “a little later I thought it needed another painting that summed up the whole package and suggested a central panel on a larger scale”: “I was taken by the idea that close to the end of Chief Washakie’s life he wanted to be baptised by Roberts. As the reservation was on a great river, I put together an imagined scene reminiscent of John baptising Jesus in the river Jordan. Then a number of things I had learned, when researching the symbols Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho used, went into the final panel.”
Whelan felt a personal identification with Roberts through their shared Celtic heritage: “Coming from a Celtic background I felt some connection with him. Roberts came from a country where his own language was forbidden in schools, much like on the reservation. Where his cultural heritage was sidelined, as it was in Ireland, I am sure Roberts had a sympathy and an understanding that was essential to his work on the Wind River Reservation.”
With his curiosity piqued about Roberts’ life, he then wanted “to pique an audience’s curiosity in the way this story piqued my curiosity.” Through the paintings he wanted viewers to consider: “What it must have been like for a Welshman from the valleys to find himself in a completely different culture, landscape, language. Think of the courage it took. Think of the culture shock. As an Irish artist now living in the US, I have experienced some culture shock but nothing like Roberts.”
In a speech given at the exhibition premiere, Whelan identified three Welsh characteristics – education, oratory, authority – which he identified as he had searched “for the spirit of Rev John Roberts”. Education, as the Welsh “have a special regard for education” and “have great faith in its transforming powers to regenerate.” Oratory, as “they are great orators” with Richard Burton “as a supreme example” who “could enthral an audience by simply reading the telephone directory.” Authority, as he remembered a close friend whose “sonorous voice, gave whatever he said gravity, authority, gave it poetry.” Roberts, he thought, “was a teacher, a thinker, led by the Holy Spirit and he didn’t want to dominate anyone.”
Whelan also felt he received direction from St David, the Patron Saint of Wales: “A famous chronicler Gerald of Wales said about St David ‘…he proved to be a vigorous and dedicated pastor, a guide to the religious, a light to the poor, a support to orphans, a father to the fatherless, a rule to monks, and a path to the laity.’ It sounds a lot like what I have learned about Roberts.”
Finally, Whelan reflected further on the influence of Celtic spirituality which “introduced the practice of guidance known as ‘soul friendship,’ a bond that goes far beyond the physical;” a “spiritual bond; in celebration, in understanding, in passion and in peace.” This was something that he felt sure “John Roberts had with Chief Washakie.”
Barbara Roberts, a great granddaughter of Rev. John Roberts, “attended the special WHITE ROBE exhibition premiere in Fort Washakie, Wyoming” to which Whelan contributed, and says: “It was a truly remarkable and memorable event. It was also reassuring to our family that the Native Americans he lived among still highly regard him, given the recent revelations of abuse of Native Americans by various churches.”
Whelan thinks that Roberts’ legacy is buried beneath a narrative that doesn’t represent who he was. That narrative being “the scandal of Native American schools, used to suppress or remove indigenous culture, language and spiritual expression.” In his ministry, Roberts fought against such “dehumanising and authoritarian abuses” and so, Whelan, through these paintings, “wanted to rescue him from that ignominious place” by digging him out “from under the weight of a simple, twisted and incomplete narrative.”
Another great grandchild, Renee Roberts, spoke about the memories of her mother Sally, the only living grandchild of Rev. Dr John Roberts: “My mother has always told me that he was honored by many and he was offered other positions once everyone witnessed how successful he was with establishing the work on the Wind River Reservation, understanding and most importantly the friendships he established with the Native Americans. But he never wanted to leave, as my mother states "he never wanted to leave his people. Growing up, I never really grasped what an important man he was, as I got older and we would discuss the family history, I came to understand what a significant role he played in the history of Wyoming and the Native American tribes that lived there. I am blessed to be a member of the Roberts family.”
Following the premiere on the Wind River Reservation, WHITE ROBE embarked on an exhibition tour, beginning at the Pioneer Museum in Lander, Wyoming, and then followed by other venues in Wyoming. It is hoped that the exhibition may travel to Wales and that it may there create a similarly revived awareness of Roberts’ ministry to that generated in Wyoming. Following the multi-year tour, the paintings will be on permanent display in Wyoming.
Whelan says: “I am so glad Chandler curated this exhibition. It is all very enriching both culturally and spiritually. An initiative like this really can make a difference. I saw it all graphically put in front of me with the launch of the exhibition on the Wind River Reservation. It was very moving, bringing people together to celebrate a beacon of light in a dark period and place in history. Many of the people at the launch of the series of paintings shared a small part of Rev. Roberts. All those parts were joined up at the launch of the show. These are people that would never have met without this initiative. I met Roberts’ ancestors and Washakie’s ancestors. There was a sacred drum ceremony and the cedaring of the paintings and indigenous singing. It created another community we didn’t know existed, into a time and place none of us will ever forget.”
WHITE ROBE: The Story of the Sacred Journey of the Rev. John Roberts among Native Americans - https://www.oncaravan.org/whiterobe.
For more on Brian Whelan, see https://brianwhelanart.com/