In an effort to support the narrative of bringing attention to Missing and Murdered Indigenous WXM, Black WXM, Trans WXM lives the International Indigenous Youth Council, 350 Colorado, and Womxn from the Mountain are working together to bring art installations to Colorado to change the dynamic to correlate SOCIAL JUSTICE is ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE.
Womxn from the Mountain are cultural educators inclusive of all women from all backgrounds including those that identify as women.
We believe that to transform towards a healthy future in education, media, and for future generations for girls and Womxn, there needs to be an inclusive and more realistic approach to education now. This directly means preparing the next seven generations for the social justice and environmental issues they are facing now.
We offer educational workshops and curriculums to question are you “colonized or indigenous” in your concerns for the future of the next seven generations as an exercise to bring awareness into the connection to respecting the Earth and why it is sacred. Our Earth is sacred and honoring ALL Women is how we return to the sacred. Several issues that are important to indigenous groups, including 1) human rights and international law, 2) lands and territories, 3) biodiversity and conservation, 4) development strategies, and 5) culture, science, and intellectual property. For Indigenous Peoples, conservation of biodiversity is not new; on the contrary, it is part of their own culture, history, and spirituality.
We are here to correlate the issues of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and girls have long been a direct result of environmental exploitation and degradation. Large numbers of women go missing around factories, man camps, and truck stops around North America and there have been no policies changes to protect a vulnerable population invisible to the American identity.
The political systems that have allowed environmental negligence and protection for these targeted populations are responsible for the exploitation of the land, resources, and womxn. Often times the same banks funding the projects, including detention centers, contribute directly to this plight of slow genocide. Furthermore, the people affected are poor, lower class, people of color that do not have the ability to defend themselves with legal protections and privilege of more affluent people to say “no” to their local resources being exploited.
We are here today to support the narrative Social Justice is Climate Justice because we are all connected socially, economically, and environmentally like it or not and we need to change local and national policies to protect the sacred of our Earth and Womxn.
We support a Green New Deal and a transformation of a change to 100% renewable energy which includes in an immediate halt to all leasing and permitting for fossil fuel projects immediately, including fracking, coal and oil refineries.
Adhering to environmental justice principles to ensure that that transition is equitable for fossil fuel workers and pollution-impacted communities;
Honoring treaties protecting Indigenous land, water, and sovereignty from the impacts of fossil fuel industrialization; and
Protecting and restoring biodiversity through sustainable agriculture and protection of half the world’s land and oceans–including habitat and wildlife corridors in Colorado. The exploitation of land and resources do correlate with the exploitation of women and Indigenous people. The transition must be and should be indigenous-led, and more inclusive of the Indigenous narrative of how to steward and honor our Earth.
A transition that invests in prosperity for communities on the frontlines of poverty and pollution, including reparations for the communities that have been most impacted by climate change and fossil fuel development.
Welcoming those displaced by the cumulative effects of the climate crisis, economic inequality, violence, and lack of opportunity. A just transition for workers and communities who depend on fossil fuel jobs. Ensuring the protection of our air, water & land through enforcement of testing for toxins, pollution & other contaminants
Protection and Restoration of Biodiversity Protection and restoration of 50% of the world’s lands and oceans including a halt to all deforestation by 2030.
Protections for local wildlife including the implementation of wildlife corridors near major highways and development.
Implementation of Sustainable Agriculture. Investment in farmers and regenerative agriculture and an end to subsidies for industrial agriculture.
List of Demands-
We demand political officials and departments, the FBI and criminal justice institutions gather and report accurate data about out missing and murdered Indigenous and Black Wxm.
We demand this information be easily available for public record for families and investigators across state and federal jurisdictions to bring justice to families and victims.
We demand action from our elected officials and law enforcement to work with local communities to create safe spaces for wxm to go for help and protection, no matter their background.
We demand our Indigenous and black Wxm community members and leaders be able to have equal representation in political offices to change and diversify the narrative to bring justice to the issues facing our communities.
– Renee Millard-Chacon