Living Resistance

An Indigenous Vision for Seeking Wholeness Every Day

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About

In an era in which "resistance" has become tokenized, popular Indigenous author Kaitlin B. Curtice reclaims it as a basic human calling. Resistance is for every human who longs to see their neighbors' holistic flourishing. We each have a role to play in the world right where we are, and our everyday acts of resistance hold us all together.

Curtice shows that we can learn to practice embodied ways of belonging and connection to ourselves and one another through everyday practices, such as getting more in touch with our bodies, resting, and remembering our ancestors. She explores four "realms of resistance"--the personal, the communal, the ancestral, and the integral--and shows how these realms overlap and why all are needed for our liberation. Readers will be empowered to seek wholeness in the various spheres of influence they inhabit. Now in paperback.

"Readers will find abundant wisdom in this accessible guide."--Publishers Weekly

Contents

Introduction
Part 1: The Personal Realm
1. What Is Resistance?
2. Art as Resistance
3. Presence as Resistance
4. Embodiment as Resistance
5. Radical Self-Love as Resistance
Part 2: The Communal Realm
6. Childcare as Resistance
7. Ethical Practices as Resistance
8. Solidarity Work as Resistance
9. Protecting the Land as Resistance
10. Kinship as Resistance
Part 3: The Ancestral Realm
11. Decolonizing as Resistance
12. Generosity as Resistance
13. Intergenerational Healing as Resistance
14. Liminality as Resistance
15. Facing History as Resistance
Part 4: The Integral Realm
16. Integration as Resistance
17. Interspiritual Relationship as Resistance
18. Prayer as Resistance
19. Dreaming as Resistance
20. Lifelong Resistance

Endorsements

"In a moment in which 'resistance' is a hashtag and 'wholeness' is an industry, Curtice's Living Resistance--a reckoning, reclaiming, and remembering--is a lifeline reconnecting us with our human calling. Curtice beautifully honors the ancient and eternal promise of liberation as not only our sacred birthright but our marching orders."

Glennon Doyle, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Untamed; founder of Together Rising

"In Living Resistance, Curtice fiercely yet gently calls us home to care about our souls and our bodies, about each other and Mother Earth. It's a timely and timeless call to live resistance every day as we build the world we want, together."

Rev. Dr. Jacqui J. Lewis, senior minister, Middle Church; author of Fierce Love

"Living Resistance forges a path to a more whole now and a more whole tomorrow. It shows how healing ourselves, our communities, our Earth, and our society are all inextricable, and how to gently integrate all levels of being and doing so that our daily acts of living become ways of resisting oppressive forces and bringing new possibilities into being."

Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg, author of On Repentance and Repair: Making Amends in an Unapologetic World

"In Living Resistance, Curtice lays out a compassionate call to action for all of us to return to the source, to the root, to that which is love. Curtice writes poetically and sets out a clear and beautiful path that feels accessible to all. This book is a bold, reimagined way for us to stand courageously in our truth."

Joél Leon, poet, author, storyteller

"For those who have been hearing the call for a more equitable, compassionate, and humane world, Living Resistance is the road map we have been looking for. Curtice invites us into a multilayered understanding of resistance with love and justice at the center. Through a tapestry of ancestral, personal, and collective wisdom, she shares both practically and poetically. In a time where we are being invited to rise up and move toward liberation for all of our kin, this book reminds us of the fire we hold in our bellies and the spark we carry in our souls. I am so grateful that this book exists; it's a must-read for all."

Asha Frost, Indigenous Medicine Woman; bestselling author of You Are the Medicine

"There's so much injustice in our world today and so many reasons to resist. Yet we don't have many models of how to engage with our world in ways that make our lives better. In Living Resistance, Curtice taps into Indigenous wisdom for how we can push back while also creating wholeness and happiness for ourselves."

Simran Jeet Singh, executive director, Aspen Institute's Religion & Society Program; author of The Light We Give: How Sikh Wisdom Can Transform Your Life

"As a rabbi, as a Jew, and as a human, I am profoundly grateful to Curtice for inviting us into the sacred realm of Indigenous wisdom. For all of us rooted in a faith tradition that seeks healing for a broken world, this inspiring book offers an accessible path of resistance to oppression. May every reader of every background find joy in journeying toward liberation and wholeness together."

Rabbi Jonah Dov Pesner, director, Religious Action Center; senior vice president, Union for Reform Judaism

The Author

  1. Kaitlin B. Curtice
    © Amy Paulson Photography www.amy-paulson.com

    Kaitlin B. Curtice

    Kaitlin B. Curtice is an award-winning author, poet-storyteller, and public speaker. As an enrolled citizen of the Potawatomi nation, she writes on the intersections of spirituality and identity and how that shifts throughout our lives. She also speaks on...

    Continue reading about Kaitlin B. Curtice

Reviews

Foreword INDIES 2023 Finalist for Religion

"In this motivating entry, poet Curtice . . . encourages readers to fight against racism, patriarchy, and gender discrimination to make a more 'whole' world, and to make doing so a lifelong commitment. . . . Curtice delivers her wisdom compassionately without losing sight of her activist aims, and makes a persuasive case for the power of small, incremental actions to initiate powerful change. Readers will find abundant wisdom in this accessible guide."

Publishers Weekly

"[Curtice's] mantra of 'I am a human being. I am always arriving,' underlies a unique vision of resistance, one that is affirming, intensely personal, wrapped in community and history, and consistently developing. . . . Curtice's story of her own arriving, of affirming and integrating larger aspects of her identity than she was originally given categories for, shows how the resistance to colonizing, racist, marginalizing narratives through bodies, words, and actions can be a journey toward spiritual wholeness. . . . A work of both spiritual direction and challenge toward social engagement, with welcoming, lambent prose. Curtice is a fresh and intelligent voice in the genre."

Zachariah Motts,

Library Journal

"Curtice shares an expansive, generous vision for how to find meaning and make a place for ourselves in an often exhausting and hostile world. . . . Though deeply informed by both Christianity and Indigenous spiritual practices, the work Curtice describes is not confined to any one faith (or lack of faith). Rather, it teaches us to hold space for the divine in ourselves, our communities, and our shared history."

Jenny Hamilton,

Booklist

"Much of Curtice's writing will resonate with readers whose faith lives are focused on holistic transformation and kingdom building. . . . Resistance, as Curtice finds, helps us find more than common ground with people we disagree with: it clarifies our vision to look beyond 'us versus them,' in all sorts of contexts, and it brings us away from suspicion to curiosity, which Curtice says is the primary step in resisting hate. And hate is exactly what resistance fights. Curtice's journey of reclaiming her Native heritage helps her face the ways she was taught to hate her brown skin and her 'heathen' roots. Her words are her own medicine. If we listen to them, we too might find ourselves more curious about our own histories, our identities, and our longing for a life that seeks restoration, a life that truly resists."

Allison Backous Troy,

Christian Century

Resources