Find Your Way Back
Find your way back
This Halloween marks IGG's third anniversary. Three years ago today we were preparing for our first IGG photoshoot at the Tuba City Fair. The next day we were on our way to Ireland. We dressed to the nines like the Diné matriarchs before us, for the last big social event of the season. The last of the Diné Fairs, hosted in Western Agency’s Tuba City, the village that also borders Hopi Moenkopi Village. It was a magical day at the Max homestead. Immediately after we had to zoom to Phoenix to catch a flight to Ireland.
Keisha, Shania, Tiffany, Kim, Hannah, Tiffany & Shondina stunnin at the Western Navajo Fair.
I was chosen by the International Land Defenders, one of 80 land defenders from around the world. I was also the first indigenous person from the so-called " USA" to be chosen. The Dublin platform is held every two years in Dublin, Ireland. The plane ride there was very telling of what was in store for IGG & my future. As we were in the air en route, the woman sitting next to me mentioned that she had been tracking the hurricane headed for Ireland. Unbeknownst my partner and I glanced at each other.
Then turbulence hit and the captain got on the intercom and mentioned that a hurricane was trailing us and we could either re-route to England. You could hear freight and chatter across this huge plane.I felt the power of the water, thunder, sky and wind beings. We made our quarterly offerings to those beings that gave me comfort and reminded me that this was a moment of sacredness. Even if we were flying in this jumbo plane over the Atlantic. So I prayed, meditated, and thought about the amazing day I spent with my sister working our looks at the Western Navajo Fair (which was dead BTW) so it gave us free range to have fun with the shoot. But also I thought about what Indigenous Goddess Gang could or would be. It was scary and exciting at the same time.
Photo by: The lovely Hannah Manuelito
Speaking at the Frontline Defenders Dublin Platform in the Dublin Castle in Dublin Ireland
Once we landed the plane they closed the airport and the city. This was the first hurricane to hit Ireland in 50 years. I imagined the organizers of the Dublin Platform, and the stress they felt as we were part of a delegation of the 80 frontline defenders from around the world. They were scrambling to go into lock down as the city shut down and trying to find us all at a shut down airport and flights were re-routed. As we landed, we were the last flight in. The city was set to shut down in a few hours when we landed. The internet was down and the phone lines were down. After being awake for 28 hours straight, dodging a hurricane, we made it to the hotel just in time for lock down. We immediately went to bed and slept through the hurricane.
Indigenous Frontline Defenders-Kim Smith Nonhle Mbuthuma and Sindy Joyce on Irish Times Women’s Podcast
We woke up to a week with the fiercest of the fierce homeland defenders, converging to connect, share, learn and grow with. People who are tracked by industry and governments and who had to get special clearance and protections to leave their country. Some nominees couldn't get the clearance to leave or it was safer for them to not come. I shared my life's work in environmental issues. A cumulative teaching and guidance of matriarchs for the thirty plus years of my life.
Work that my community shaped me to uphold. In this space, indigenous people were seen as people of the past. People were shocked to see us and know that we are still very much faced with genocide by the so-called United States. I was the first indigenous person to be registered and nominated for the honor of being named an International Frontline Defender. Being nominated for this was great but the honor was meeting people from around the world doing fierce land and water defense. Especially the women. Myself and two other indigenous women were invited to be on the Irish Time’s Podcast.
Womxn at the platform seemed to have endured great hardship. Sexism, transphobia, racism, homophobia, sexual assault, trafficking were all intertwined in our stories and truths in defending the land and water. This made me really think and pray on creating a space for Indigenous Voices. The beautiful part is that a lot of us have been paying dues and dismantling colonialism and are breaking out of internalized racism and oppression. We are transforming that oppression and turning it into radical self love and liberation! Reclaiming our magic!
I came home from that trip on a mission to create a media space for Indigenous people because even at this prestigious international gathering Indigenous People of the so-called US were seen as a people of the past. But also I was on a mission to uphold the fierceness that I saw in my fellow Frontline Defenders. For the past three years since I have been studying the impacts of living downstream and downwind of coal fired power plants and coal mines and coming up with solutions on how to detoxify water and soil. Studying hemp, sunflowers and ancestral knowledge for true land remediation to heal the land. But also, trying to continue to help create that media space for indigenous stories and voices. After 3 years, this work is what keeps me going. It's a balance of being fractured but relentless and hopeful. Anxious and excited for what is in store for the next 3 years!