Building Relationships: Becoming an Ally

“and if we do act, in however small way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvellous victory.” Howard zinn


Flipping through my journal from the past few months I am called to write and share the synchronized teachings that take root in the soil around me. A theme surfacing regularly these days is cross cultural relationship building. Over the past two years I have developed deep rooted friendships with First Nation Elders, children, and youths. I continue to learn transformative life lessons through sharing ceremonies, attending gatherings, grieving deaths and violent histories, celebrating births and weddings, listening to teachings of Mother Earth, attending and dialoguing in alternative, safe, diverse spaces, and becoming an ally.

The Peace and Friendship Gathering at the Tatamagouche Centre is one of those alternative, safe, relationship building spaces. This year we sat in council with the sacred fire for four days, guided by Wampanoag Elder and friend gkisedtanamoogk . We spoke of the devastating effects of national and global structures and policies that continue to steal, destroy, and plunder the very land needed to nourish, protect and sustain all living species and generations to come. Indigenous people globally know all too well the violent destruction of culture, of human dignity and life from a history of unjust and abusive colonial structures that continue to play havoc on so many lives in the name of thriving economies and development.

We spoke of the devastating effects of hydraulic fracking here in Canada ( read “stop fracking in Nova Scotia” or check out websites www.ecologyaction.ca or www.sierraclub.ca/en/we-are-fracking-out) and the Canadian mining companies like Goldcorp who are responsible for atrocious human right violations in countries like Guatemala; and who we Canadians support through pension plans like Canadian Pension that heavily invest in Goldcorp. (for more information about Goldcorp and the Marlin mine, visit the blog of the Coalition Against Unjust Mining in Guatemala at www.goldcorpoutofguatemala.com ).

The dialogue moved around the fire as we traveled by the guidance of a talking stick and spoke of our potential to build relationships and alliances between First Nations and non-native people. We discussed the challenges of finding the courage to not cooperate with the abusive political, economic, environmental and societal structures in our countries and world today. We looked at success stories guided by Sherri Pictou, a Mi’Kmaq Elder from Bear River who spoke passionately about finding meaning from the present and past stories that defy the powers that be. She talked of building alliances and developing non-violent ways of resisting oppressive structures. Sherri spoke of the Marshall Jr. case in Bear River and native and non-native people coming together to defend their rights as fisherfolk, who both have been affected drastically by the privatization and commodification of their very livelihoods ( see www.inthesameboat.net).

The circle moved into discussions about love and peace and how these words have become superficial and shallow in our world today. We discussed how to take back the power and meaning of these words and make them an essential part of our lives, our schools, our communities, our workplaces? How do we make peace a way of life? How do we make love the basis for justice? How do we translate love and peace into justice structures? How do we find our way back to love and its redemptive qualities? Can we begin to see love as a political path? Can we listen and truly understand what it means to live and speak from the heart as Martin Luther King taught us? How can being conscious of the relationships we build all around us lead us back to truly understanding what it means to take care of one another and the earth that sustains us? Can building cross cultural, cross racial, cross gender, cross class, cross sexual, cross able and disabled, bring us closer to this understanding of peace, justice, love?

I can only write and speak from my own heart and what I witness daily from my own experiences. This being the power and transformative potential of relationship building through creating, meeting, and dialoguing with one another in alternative safe spaces where people’s voices are heard, respected and integrated into social, political, environmental, personal, and spiritual activism!

I believe the Occupied Space Movement today spreading like wild flowers throughout the world is a movement that is doing just that, allowing people of many diverse backgrounds to come together and share a space of wanting, planning and moving towards just and equitable changes in our world today.