Vision
We are a constellation of Queer, Trans, Two Spirit, Gender Non Conforming, Black, Indigenous, People of Color leaders, artists, organizers, mobilizers, visionaries, and solutionaries committed to reclaiming the legacies of our queer ancestors to support the collective rebirth we and our beloved earth are going through. Across our precolonial histories, Queer people have been spiritual leaders in our communities, dissolving the binaries of the masculine and feminine, the past and the future, the sacred and the secular, the creative and the destructive, existing here in the present and in our center. Queer existence questions and threatens the performative colonial reality, and for centuries we have created webs of care, safety, chosen family, and mutual aid.Â
The pandemic has shown us the inevitable impact of the extractive and disconnected relationship so many people have to themselves, to the earth and to each other. The resulting spiritual and mental health crises (inseparable from the health and climate crises) we are facing have reminded us how crucial it is for us to create the world we want to see through embodying and regenerating interdependence, wellbeing, ancestral reconnection and creativity within ourselves, and our relationships. This is not separate from the physical
regeneration of the land because our bodies are one in the same as the earth body.
Capitalism thrives off of us forgetting our histories and it is on all of us to support each other in reawakening our collective memory. We are living in a time of prophecy and we are part of the generation that is here to sustain and protect life during this time for future generations.
How do we center gratitude and consent in our approaches to consumption?
Whom can we center in our system building?
Who is both at great risk and of grave importance for the continuation of life?
We have a responsibility to make room for plants and non-human life, as well as the human bodies that have been subjugated for centuries much like the earth itself. It is vital that we create room for these human and non-human bodies to sustain themselves by offering up healthy and equitable space for them to thrive. The understanding of intersectionality, specifically the intersections in our relationship with the more-than-human world that Indigenous peoples have long stewarded, is key in our journey towards a just transition and reconfiguring our relationship to the future(s).
Outcomes
Our delegation’s priorities were to center presence, relationship building, and to observe the climate talks from a place of letting go of our U.S. privilege to ensure unheard voices rose to the top. Many of the traditional media opportunities SustainUS had access to were forwarded to our global partners, and we largely played a support role via solidarity, herbal support for the nervous system and morale building to Indigenous delegates who traveled the most intense and oppressive circumstances to get to the U.N.
Our major successes were directly related to the significance of our specific perspectives, as Black, Indigenous, Two-Spirit and queer youth of color, being present in the COP space. The radical act of uniting a global Indigenous identity sparked the power of reclaiming our cultures from the lens of colonization. Showing up to COP in this way allows us to affirm that colonization and climate change are directly linked by highlighting commonalities, solidarity, and differences between our Indigenous frontline communities globally.