What if you were in a dysfunctional and abusive relationship? How many times would it be effective for you to ask or demand of your partner that s/he stop the abuse? How many times do you put up with situations where you have no choice but to defend yourself as best you can from vicious attacks against you and/or your children? How productive is it to argue or attempt rational discussion with your abuser in the hope s/he'll see there error of her/his ways? How many times should you appeal to family, friends or authorities to exert influence over your abuser's actions?
![Zainab Amadahy](http://rabble.ca/sites/rabble/files/imagecache/thumbnail/category_pictures/facebook.jpg "Zainab Amadahy is a mother, writer and activist. Her publications include the novel Moons of Palmares (1998, Sister Vision Press) as well as an essay in the anthology Strong Women's Stories: Native Vision & Community Activism, (Lawrence & Anderson, 2004, Sumach Press). Most recently Zainab has contributed to In Breach of the Colonial Contract (Arlo Kemp, Ed. 2008) by co-authoring "Indigenous Peoples and Black People in Canada: Settlers or Allies?"")
Zainab Amadahy
Zainab Amadahy is a mother, writer and activist. Her publications include the novel Moons of Palmares (1998, Sister Vision Press) as well as an essay in the anthology Strong Women's Stories: Native Vision & Community Activism, (Lawrence & Anderson, 2004, Sumach Press). Most recently Zainab has contributed to In Breach of the Colonial Contract (Arlo Kemp, Ed. 2008) by co-authoring "Indigenous Peoples and Black People in Canada: Settlers or Allies?"Healing ancestral relationships is important to activism
"There's a cartoon where activists march bearing placards. ‘No more motorways,' says one. ‘Stop the War,' demands another. ‘Down with the corporations,' shouts a third. And, finally, the guy at the end proclaims, ‘I hate my dad!'"
- Andrew Harvey
While personal pain is probably not the sole motivation for why activists do what we do, we probably all have to admit that it plays some role, even if only to sensitize us to the suffering of others. Perhaps, however, we are unaware of just how much personal pain we carry with us into our work.
Protest culture: How's it working for us?
I live in Toronto and in any given week (outside of G20 season) I receive no less than 10 (and usually more) call outs for protests, rallies, marches, pickets, vigils or other actions supporting a variety of causes. Like every other activist, I support these causes but find it impossible to actually attend all the actions. I further wonder if there might be other ways of serving their goals.
Community, 'relationship framework' and implications for activism
What is community?
It was a question I got asked a lot when I worked for a community arts organization. My first reaction was to scare up definitions in the literature and offer them to the questioner. In the-ball-is-in your-court fashion, I'd invite them to choose whatever definition(s) suited their purposes. Later, I began to answer that question by noting that there were many concepts of "community" and we, as an organization, didn't impose definitions. That still seems a sufficient answer but I've now come to consider the concept of community through a Relationship framework.
In support of Indigenizing activism
'Indigenize' describes an understanding of the process of changing our thinking and relationships to acknowledge our physical, mental, emotional and spiritual inter-connectedness.
