Empire of Wild

The novel repeatedly depicts manipulative religious indoctrination (including, but not limited to, Christianity) as a dangerous and damaging force that can result in exploitation at both the community and individual level. Religion is depicted as especially problematic in the context of colonizer-Indigenous relationships, reflecting the ways in which European Christian influences can undermine Indigenous culture, identity, and beliefs.

Heiser runs a traveling ministry and travels to Indigenous communities in the hope of converting people to evangelical Christianity. It is eventually revealed that the ministry is intended to leave people “too busy praying to protest. The missions are good at changing the way people see shit” (220). Heiser himself thinks smugly that Victor’s preaching “mak[es] the work of coming in behind to get project approvals so much easier” (176). Heiser himself has no real personal religious convictions; for him, it is merely a tool he can wield to more easily gain access to, and leverage with, Indigenous communities. In falling under Heiser’s influence, Victor both becomes a colonizer’s tool and risks losing his own Indigenous identity as a result.

The doctrine that Victor preaches to Indigenous audiences renders them more malleable and submissive to terms that are not in their best interest to accept. His Christian teachings imply that Indigenous people are themselves responsible for the oppression they experience. During one sermon, Victor argues, “[W]hy are our youth dying, our men in prisons at such a high rate, our women being murdered and going missing? We are paying for the sins of our fathers” (120, emphasis added). In a grotesque subversion of reality, Victor argues that Christianity can heal the suffering experienced by Indigenous people, when many of these problems can in fact be traced back to how imposed Christian beliefs led to dehumanizing attitudes toward traditional Indigenous beliefs, creating generational trauma through efforts at forced conversion. The work of Heiser’s ministry is a microcosm of how, over centuries, European settlers and, eventually, the Canadian government often used religion as a tool to manipulate and exploit Indigenous peoples.

The experiences of Victor and Cecile both show how fervent religious beliefs can warp and damage an individual, leaving them vulnerable to exploitation and manipulation. When he loses his true identity and becomes the Reverend Wolffe, Victor becomes beholden to Heiser and willing to preach ideology that is damaging to the people who hear it. Victor is particularly useful because he is himself Indigenous, and “people loved seeing a reflection of themselves in the pulpit” (176). Significantly, during the time that he is working with the ministry, Victor literally forgets his name, his past, and even his beloved wife, which symbolically reflects how individuals can lose themselves in fervent religious faith.

Likewise, Cecile has a history of being consumed by religious beliefs, first when she joins a cult in California and then again when she becomes a devout convert to evangelical Christianity. Cecile’s history of addiction and mental illness leave her vulnerable, but she is adamant that “no one could see that what was happening to her was not mental illness, it was her being called” (161). By showing that both Victor and Cecile are traumatized, broken, and not able to fully understand what they are doing, the narrative undermines the idea that their faith is benefiting them. In fact, Victor immediately and decisively rejects the ministry once he remembers who he is, and Cecile’s devotion to her faith ends up causing her death. The novel therefore suggests that religious faith is only empowering when it is genuine and enhances identity instead of manipulating or erasing it.