Audubon & Toyota Select Queen Quet of the Gullah/Geechee Nation for TogetherGreen

Gullah/Geechee Nation ♦ June 4, 2012 ♦ 6 Comments

Queen Quet, Chieftess of the Gullah/Geechee Nation Chosen as

Audubon Toyota TogetherGreen Fellow!

Audubon & Toyota announced their 2012 TogetherGreen Fellows and on that list is St. Helena Island native and Chieftess and Head-of-State for the Gullah/Geechee Nation, Queen Quet. Queen Quet has been an environmental champion for what has been called the “Gullah/Geechee coast” for more than 30 years. Her fellowship proposal for Gullah/Geechee interactive environmental education programming was selected from over 130 applications from across the United States.

The TogetherGreen Fellowship Program invests in high-potential individuals from all backgrounds, providing them with the tools, resources, visibility, and a peer network to help them lead conservation actions that will help shape a healthier environmental future. Audubon and Toyota launched the five-year TogetherGreeninitiative in 2008 to fund innovative community projects, build conservation leaders, and offer volunteer opportunities across the country to benefit the environment.  Each year, 40 TogetherGreen Fellows are selected to conduct projects in a community or region focused on engaging diverse audiences in habitat, water, and/or energy conservation.  Queen Quet’s TogetherGreen information can be seen at http://togethergreen.org/fellows/fellow/queen-quet-marquetta-goodwine.

Queen Quet’s project is entitled “Gullah/Geechee SEA and ME” and will focus on the elements of the acronyms SEA meaning “saving environmental actions” and ME meaning “marine ecology” throughout the Gullah/Geechee Nation from Florida to North Carolina. She will launch the program with “Gullah/Geechee Famlee Days” on St. Helena Island in July in conjunction with the Gullah/Geechee Fishing Association and the Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition. Additional Gullah/Geechee Famlee Days will follow on Edisto Island on August 3rd as part of the “Gullah/Geechee Nation International Music & Movement Festival™” (www.gullahgeechee.info) and another will be held on Labor Day at the Hunting Island Nature Center. These intergenerational interactive events will focus on the importance of the Sea Islands and the Gullah/Geechee traditional uses associated with the waterways. Queen Quet hopes to assist with inspiring more stewards of the land and waterways for future generations. So, she will not only bring folks to the sea, but will go into educational sessions in the community over the course of the next year to educate on the waterways and Gullah/Geechee links to the sea. Educational groups and marine educators that want to work with her can reach her at www.QueenQuet.com or GullGeeCo@aol.com.

Queen Quet states, “Mi gladdee fa be toggedda wid Audubon and Toyota fa people yeddi me crak mi teet bout who webe an how Gullah/Geechee ain gwine dey ya widout disya lan pun de sea.” She is very pleased to be a TogetherGreen Fellow with Audubon and Toyota and she is pleased that people will get to hear her tell them how Gullah/Geechee culture cannot exist without this special land on the sea-the Sea Islands. “De sea da we!”