Communities of Resistance: Public Homeplaces and Supportive Sites of Reconciliation

Abstract

Amid and in opposition to violence and injustice, it is necessary for people to join together to create communities where justice and peace on a small scale are possible. Such communities resist the dehumanizing forces present in the dominant culture. From maroon communities during slavery in the Americas, to Sarvodaya Movement village gatherings in Sri Lanka, to “niches of resistance” in the Irish women’s liberation movement (Moane, 2000), to the Zapatista caracoles in Chiapas, Mexico today, such communities of resistance attempt to birth locally more humane ways of being together. From this base it becomes possible to network with others and to slowly address the larger societal structures that create violence and injustice. This work depends on restoring psychological and community wellbeing.

A human community, if it is to last long, must exert a sort of centripetal force, holding local soil and local memory in place. Practically speaking, human society has no work more important than this. Once we have acknowledged this principle, we can only be alarmed at the extent to which it has been ignored.

(Wendell Berry, 1990, p. 155)