In Living Resistance: An Indigenous Vision for Seeking Wholeness Every Day, Kaitlin Curtice takes a moment to marvel at the fact that she grew up with no knowledge of the Doctrine of Discovery, the international law that gave “explorers” the right to claim land not inhabited by Christians.
With both the shock of scandal and the sigh of unsurprise, she exclaims, “An indigenous woman who doesn’t know the history of colonization on this land?”
As a child of the Potawatomi nation, Curtice was in need of this knowledge, but as a young girl being raised in a Baptist household, questioning wasn’t encouraged and decolonizing was unthinkable.
“It has taken a lot of grief and unlearning” for Curtice to overcome this rupture and find a path to wholeness. And that path has been forged by resistance, a “journey of understanding why I was denied the truth about my personal history, or about my people’s history, and what it might mean for me going forward. How do I resist on a personal, communal, and ancestral level . . . ?”
This question is for all of us, and Living Resistance is for all of us who are ready to find a new way forward that does not rely on doctrines — Christianity, racism, capitalism — that disconnect us from ourselves, from one another, from our history, and from the earth.
Curtice writes like a guide, helping us as we climb the spiral track through the four realms. She takes our hand gently in the Personal Realm and becomes more pressing as she addresses what resistance (and responsibility) look like for the Communal and Ancestral Realms. Taking her hand is an act of trust, and she proves herself more than worthy of the gesture, as she leads us ultimately to the “soul center” of the Integral Realm, a place “where we hold all of ourselves, where our spiritual center finds its grounding and truly shows us the beauty of the universe.”
Curtice defines her subject, resistance, as “the way we use our everyday lives to exert energy against the dangerous status quo of our time.”
For insights on resistance and wholeness, Curtice draws on her own experience but also on a broad bookshelf of spiritual writers. She engages with S&P teachers like Mirabai Starr and Resmaa Menakem but also with many writers whose names might be unfamiliar but whose work feels fresh, necessary and urgent. (Thus, Living Resistance also acts as a portal to a new field and generation of spiritual writers!)
The forms of daily resistance she encourages involve both a rejection and an embrace.
In the Personal Realm, this might mean rejecting disembodiment and embracing self-care; in the Communal Realm it might mean rejecting the disregard for children and embracing their wisdom; in the Ancestral Realm this might mean rejecting the old stories and instead facing history and practicing intergenerational healing; and finally, in the Integral Realm it might mean rejecting the limitations of religion and joining in interspiritual relationships.
This book is an excellent way to practice connection to all of life, especially if you crave indigenous perspectives on kinship. And if you read it soon, please join our Interfaith Reading Group on September 19, 2024, and discuss it with us!
