by Christine Downing

In Queen's Park, Toronto, there's a round cement bench designed so people can sit all around it and not have to look at each other. It made me ask how much in our colonial culture has been designed like that, to give us desired space and privacy but also to isolate us from each other. Several years, ago I took a microbusiness course and the facilitator talked about a current social tendency he called "cocooning," which is essentially isolating ourselves in comfortable homes. From this place of weakness and isolation, I recognize that something really unusual and powerful happened at the "Gathering of Mother Earth Protectors" and the "Sovereignty Sleepover" (26-28 May), as three First Nations Communities-Grassy Narrows, Ardoch Algonquin, and Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KI)-gathered with supporters at Queen's Park.

According to a number of speakers I heard from both Canada and Latin America, resource extraction companies on Indigenous lands often try to divide communities by bribing or rewarding individuals while threatening community leaders who try to resist industrial activities causing environmental destruction and human rights abuses on traditional lands. The response I heard from these activists and community leaders is not only that the affected community needs to stand together but also that people around the world experiencing the same abuses and oppression need to unite and raise their voices together.

Father Marco Arana from Peru, in a discussion on 26 May, said this struggle against corporate colonialism is not just economic but is fundamentally an ethical and spiritual struggle. The corporations, in order to get what they want from Indigenous lands, need to change what people believe-the way they experience or recognize the earth as Mother, and the way they perceive and relate to each other in community. He asserted that Bob Lovelace's spirit was just as dangerous in prison as outside.

I am beginning to believe that spiritual strength is rooted in community. There's a delightful story in Acts 12 about an angel releasing Peter from prison in the night. He shows up at a house where many had gathered to pray, presumably for his release. Rhoda answers the door and is so excited to see him that she forgets to even open the gate and he has to keep knocking until somebody lets him in. When the Canadian authorities released Bob Lovelace, spokesperson for the Ardoch Algonquins, from prison and he arrived at the Queen's Park camp the joy was also great and some people could not believe their eyes at first. As in the story of Peter, the prayers, the gathering and the gentle pressure of a large nonviolent presence on the front lawn of the provincial government were not solely or directly responsible for the court decision but they played an important role. The fact that Bob Lovelace and the KI leaders sacrificed their freedom for their communities empowered and mobilized these same communities in a special way, much as the sacrifices of the apostles strengthened the early church.