TATAMAGOUCHE - Scottish environmentalist Alastair McIntosh will visit the Tatamagouche Centre for a weekend in July.
Spiritual Activism: Soil and Soul will run from July 13 to 15.
McIntosh, author of Soil and Soul: People versus Corporate Power, will share his story of successful resistance to a mega-quarry and other land issues in Scotland.
This program is timely, as many Maritime communities are facing potential fracking and other extractive resource issues.
He is a living example of how actions started by one person can ripple out to bring dramatic changes. While working to save a mountain on the Isle of Harris from a mega-quarry, he connected with Mi'Kmaq in Nova Scotia working to protect Kelly's Mountain from becoming a quarry. The Mountain, known as Kluscap Mountain by the Mi'Kmaq, is a sacred area.
An alliance was built. Public awareness was raised. A letter was even written in Gaelic from the highlands of Scotland urging the descendants here to respect MiK'Maq sacred areas. Both mountains were saved.
McIntosh is convinced that the pressing environmental issues of our time expose a loss of soul that manifests as addictive consumerism.
"My concern is not with personal salvation," said McIntosh. "My concern is with how we collectively learn to live, with one another, in community on this earth and the salvation that is inherent within that."
