ROBERTSVILLE, ON REFLECTION: Algonquins and settlers join to protect the earth
February 13th, 2008
CPTnet
13 February 2008
ROBERTSVILLE, ON REFLECTION: Algonquins and settlers join to protect the earth
by Mari Tae
[Note: Tae was a member of a 26 January-3 February 2008 CPT delegation to Algonquin territory.]
I have just returned from Robertsville, Ontario, in Algonquin territory. I spent a little over a week talking with the people—settlers and Natives— who in a rare show of solidarity have come together around the issue of uranium mining in their area.
One evening, our delegation had supper with a respected elder. He recounted some Algonquin history and tradition for us, and explained that the land itself is the core of Native spirituality because the Creator made the people out of the earth. He asked us if that story sounded familiar. In the Bible, God created Adam from the dust of the ground as well, and instructed us to be stewards of the earth, to take care of it. I was struck by the similarity of the two different cosmologies. Our spiritualities have the same essence of reverence for the earth, but somehow we "settlers" have lost our spiritual memory of the call to be stewards.
In 2006, I traveled to Colombia on a delegation with CPT. One of the organizations we met with was ONIC, the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia. Discussing the loss of their traditional land to the government and other actors in the civil war, one Native man quietly told us they were losing their culture and way of life because of losing the land, and so they would have to fight for it. He said that they would probably die during the struggle but there was nothing else they could do. My encounters in Algonquin territory last week reminded me of that quiet determination and commitment to justice I witnessed in Colombia. But this time, seeing and hearing about the solidarity between settlers and Natives uplifted my heart.
[Members of the 26 January-3 February CPT delegation to Algonquin territory included Christine Downing (Breton, Alberta), Jim Hett (Waterloo, Ontario), John Jones (Verdun, Quebec), Craig Kite (Waldorf, Maryland), Joel Klassen (Toronto, Ontario), Ehab Lotayef (Montreal, Quebec), Devora Neumark (Montreal, Quebec), William Payne (Toronto, Ontario), Lee Ann Rice (London, Ontario), Char Smith (Gibson City, Illinois), Dwyer Sullivan (Kitchener, ON), and Mari Tae (Ste. Anne de Bellevue, Quebec)].
13 February 2008
ROBERTSVILLE, ON REFLECTION: Algonquins and settlers join to protect the earth
by Mari Tae
[Note: Tae was a member of a 26 January-3 February 2008 CPT delegation to Algonquin territory.]
I have just returned from Robertsville, Ontario, in Algonquin territory. I spent a little over a week talking with the people—settlers and Natives— who in a rare show of solidarity have come together around the issue of uranium mining in their area.
One evening, our delegation had supper with a respected elder. He recounted some Algonquin history and tradition for us, and explained that the land itself is the core of Native spirituality because the Creator made the people out of the earth. He asked us if that story sounded familiar. In the Bible, God created Adam from the dust of the ground as well, and instructed us to be stewards of the earth, to take care of it. I was struck by the similarity of the two different cosmologies. Our spiritualities have the same essence of reverence for the earth, but somehow we "settlers" have lost our spiritual memory of the call to be stewards.
In 2006, I traveled to Colombia on a delegation with CPT. One of the organizations we met with was ONIC, the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia. Discussing the loss of their traditional land to the government and other actors in the civil war, one Native man quietly told us they were losing their culture and way of life because of losing the land, and so they would have to fight for it. He said that they would probably die during the struggle but there was nothing else they could do. My encounters in Algonquin territory last week reminded me of that quiet determination and commitment to justice I witnessed in Colombia. But this time, seeing and hearing about the solidarity between settlers and Natives uplifted my heart.
[Members of the 26 January-3 February CPT delegation to Algonquin territory included Christine Downing (Breton, Alberta), Jim Hett (Waterloo, Ontario), John Jones (Verdun, Quebec), Craig Kite (Waldorf, Maryland), Joel Klassen (Toronto, Ontario), Ehab Lotayef (Montreal, Quebec), Devora Neumark (Montreal, Quebec), William Payne (Toronto, Ontario), Lee Ann Rice (London, Ontario), Char Smith (Gibson City, Illinois), Dwyer Sullivan (Kitchener, ON), and Mari Tae (Ste. Anne de Bellevue, Quebec)].
