“In Iroquois society, leaders are encouraged to remember seven generations in the past and consider seven generations in the future when making decisions that affect the people.”
― Wilma Pearl Mankiller, Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation
Dear Resister,
On this day of collective national attention, we honor and uplift the voices, the fighting spirit, and the resilience of Indigenous peoples across the Americas. We at Resist see First Nations people as a leading authority on the cultural shift desperately needed in the United States and around the world. Now more than ever, with a global pandemic that has ravaged through Native communities, a call for needing to halve our world carbon emissions, and the fragile state of our democracy, we must learn from Indigenous worldviews that prioritize reciprocity (with each other and the lands we occupy), connection, and relationships, if we are to keep life on earth vibrant and abundant for generations to come.
We also recognize that in order to radically transform our political landscape towards healing, connection, and liberation, we must acknowledge and reckon with the long and painful histories (and current realities) of white supremacy and colonization, while working to disrupt these systems in our everyday work and lives. And we commit to hold ourselves accountable in this work by following the lead of Indigenous folks and other marginalized communities who we know have the vision, the tools, and the heart to co-create the worlds we so desperately need.
Today, and every day, we invite you to listen, learn from, and directly support Indigenous-led Resist grantees who embody wisdom and are on the ground taking action for their sovereignty, their dignity, their health, as well as the wellbeing of planet earth.
