For as much as the Keystone XL pipeline threatens indigenous communities, it has also connected them for a massive stand of resistance.

In Hawaii, Monsanto has turned paradise into ground zero for chemical testing and food engineering, but thousands have decided to be idle no more.

The celebratory energy of Idle No More and its round dances are helping build unity and group power in Utah, where resistance to tar sands mining will soon be needed.

The Idle No More movement began quietly back in early October, when four aboriginal women held a teach-in in Saskatoon about the destructive effects of the Harper government’s omnibus budget Bill C-45. It was not until mid-December, however, that the movement gained widespread attention with the high-profile hunger strike of Chief Theresa Spence of Attawapiskat…
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What began with four women organizing local teach-ins and rallies in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, last fall has grown into a global grassroots movement of indigenous and non-indigenous allies fighting for the sovereignty of indigenous people, the honoring of treaty rights, and the protection of land and water. Because these communities are determined to fight the exploitation…
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My first experience with the Idle No More phenomenon came on Dec. 21, 2012, at Toronto’s Yonge and Dundas Square. The sight of round dances and the sound of drum circles offered a stark contrast to the flashing lights and billboards that surround the city’s commercial epicenter. (Think Times Square.) While the action that day…
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