Category Archives: Human Rights
Git Rooted Wit We @GullahGeechee! Support Global Reforestry Part 4
As I took in the passion and power of this global interfaith community and listened to the small collective efforts that were being done, I could immediately see the cumulative impact that this would have if we amplified these ideas of positive global micro-changes on a daily basis instead of simply having folks pay attention to catastrophe and disaster during the news cycle or via their newsfeeds. Instead of focusing on what town flooded today, what would happen if we flooded people’s minds with the healing things that they could do for the earth and how they could leave something that would benefit the next generation through a small action like obtaining and planting a tree and/or donating a dollar to help someone else in the world to do the same?
Zooming in on Interfaith Climate Action & Reforestry
Tune in to the 41st episode of “Zooming in on Sustainability” as Queen Quet, Chieftess of the Gullah/Geechee Nation (www.QueenQuet.com) is joined by South Carolina Interfaith Power & Light leaders Alecia Brewster and Fareeha Qazi. Tune in to learn about the SCIPL Global Tree Project (www.SCIPL.org/Global-Tree-Project).
Git Rooted Wit We @GullahGeechee! Support Global Reforestry! Part 3
Given that I am from a hurricane zone and live on a Sea Island that is dealing with sea level rise issues, under so-called “normal circumstances,” you would NEVER hear me encouraging a Tsunami! However, I was immediately intrigued by the Billion Tree Tsunami in Pakistan. Decades of tree cutting and natural disasters drastically reduced Pakistan’s forests. Pakistan has one of the lowest levels of forest cover in the region and well below the 12% recommended by the UN. The 1 billion trees have expanded the forest via planting and natural regeneration.
Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition and 84 Groups Urge Congress to Boost U.S International Climate Finance to Support Resilience, Clean Energy, Emissions Cuts and Forest Protection
possibility of holding global temperature rise below 2.7°F (1.5°C). Strategic investments to help developing countries speed-up the transition towards zero-carbon economies and to protect tropical and intact forests, and other critical carbon-rich ecosystems is essential to delivering the necessary global emissions cuts we need this decade. At the same time, the poorest and most vulnerable in the world – who have contributed the least to the problem – are already facing devastating impacts from climate change. These individuals and communities need scaled-up support to build more resilience to increasingly damaging climate impacts. Robust international climate funding of this magnitude represents less than 0.06% of the federal budget, but scaling-up this funding will provide critical climate protections for Americans, support the most vulnerable around the world, and speed-up global emissions reductions.
Zooming in on Merkin Legacy & Trinidadian Reforestry
Tune in to Zooming in on Sustainability as Queen Quet, Chieftess of the Gullah/Geechee Nation discusses the cultural legacy and history of the Merkins in Trinidad with Sistah Akilah Jaramogi. Sister Jaramogi is the co-founder of Fondes Amandes Community Reforestation in Trinidad. Tune in to learn about the SCIPL Global Tree Project collaboration with the Gullah/Geechee Nation to enhance global reforestry.
Git Rooted Wit We @GullahGeechee! Support Global Reforestry! Part 2
Those of us at South Carolina Interfaith Power & Light seek to bring the type of peace that I felt at Fondes Amandes to others throughout our home state and around the world. We know that trees improve the health of those in close proximity to them. Trees not only cool down the areas which is becoming even more appreciated as deathly heat waves continue to happen in different parts of the world, trees also remove pollutants from the air. Scientists have also concluded that trees reduce depression and stress and increase lifespans. I know that my life force was increased by the journey to higher heights with my Merikin Famlee in Trinidad and I pray that the trees that were planted will speak to the souls of future generations that sit beneath their shade and share our cultural heritage traditions and connections as we did during that journey. Juss likka de tree, we rooted een who webe!
Git Rooted wit de Gullah/Geechee! Support Global Reforestry! Part 1
As I think of how I have seen water move sand, I think of how the roots of the trees remain even when they are exposed. Then I hear in my soul my own voice saying for the millionth time-“Hunnuh mus tek cyare de root fa heal de tree.” Then I give GOD thanks for the mission I was given when this statement first came to me in a vision and I took it around the world thereafter. Given that this is the slogan of my organization, the Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition, within our mission to protect the land and land rights of the people of the Gullah/Geechee Nation, we know that we must insure the rights of nature and protect the trees. Just as people clear cut them, there are those that have tried to clearly cut out Gullah/Geechee culture from our coast.
Where You Gonna Run To? Cultural Heritage Continuation and the Intersectionality of Calamity
…those that truly see the world devastation attached to the spiritual degradation that has led people to being so self absorbed that they are more interested in their distractions than they are in focusing on ways to heal the planet, find ourselves almost unable to rise from our knees to work since we are consistently crying out to GOD to hold back the storms and heal the land. If the root cause of climate change is truly anthropocene and climate inaction has produced and will continue to produce more human health issues from heat induced sicknesses to pandemics and will continue to threaten our food security by bringing about ocean acidification, drought, and wildfires amongst a sundry lists of other issues, “Oh sinner man, where you gonna run to?”
Gullah/Geechee Agro-Culture Fishing & Farming Field Day
who were enslaved on plantations along the southeast coast, Gullah/Geechee represents the only group of African Americans who maintained a significant amount of Africanisms including foodways, land use practices, subsistence fishing, and the spoken Gullah language (Goodwine, 1998; Politzer, 1999). For centuries, Gullah/Geechee communities sustained a way of life predicated on the wealth of close-knit family compounds, and carefully nurtured the resources of the land and water (Dean, 2013). In recent decades, this way of life has been disrupted due to inequitable public policy. Beyond the negative impact on the immediate community, this disruption also has negative impacts on the larger farming ecosystem. Research shows that culture and agriculture ecosystems are inextricably linked – sustain culture, sustain agriculture (Dean, 2013).” Like the cast net, we want to draw in all that will feed the Gullah/Geechee Famlee. We gwine feed de mind, body, and soul.
Beaufort County Proclaims Gullah/Geechee Nation Appreciation Week 2021
Tune in as the Beaufort County Council in SC presents Queen Quet, Chieftess of the Gullah/Geechee Nation with the “Gullah/Geechee Nation Appreciation Week 2021 Proclamation.”