“The first colony was not territory. It was our way to see the world.” I shared parts of this poem already with you in the community. Now you have it in sounds and voice in this episode.
And you also get excerpts of an interview I did with Cenaida Guachagmira, the strongest woman of the Intag valley in Northern Ecuador. She is also the woman of a previous post in the community: Looking nature in the eye. Today you get more of her wisdom. This time in words and not only her eyes and emotions. Translated and read by me. Cenaida is fighting her government and the biggest copper company in the world to protect the subtropical rain-forest which she calls home. She is doing this with Rights of Nature, with her community and her transformative wisdom that I had the honor to listen to. Here her words are around what being indigenous means and what justice means. And again you will see the parallels between the struggle for nature defenders and the struggle for a free Palestine. Because everything is connected. Always.
Enjoy. Here my two favorite quotes:
The human being is the most guilty in the face of justice. Because as long as we don't have balance we will not be fair with any species that exists on this planet, with any river, with any tree. So it is our responsibility to make good use of these resources that still exist. It is our responsibility to know how to manage our intelligence, our body, our consciousness, our food. It is our responsibility to know where we live. It is our responsibility not to be afraid to transform ourselves, to change. Because fear makes us weak.
In every daily act it is our responsibility to achieve justice worldwide. It is OUR responsibility. Not mine! Ours! Of all of us, it is our responsibility to understand in our daily lives, to know where the food I am eating comes from. To know where the water I am drinking comes from. When I know, when you know, you will want to balance those things out. Knowing what our existence is like, where it is coming from. We cannot exist without nature. Nature, yes, she can exist without us.
Possibilities to work with me and maybe even with Cenaida:
Nature, Rights of Nature, storytelling, social movements, etc.
Or just contact me.
See you in a more just future
Elisabeth
Share this post