Tag Archives: DC
OCEAN-Ocean Community Engaging Action Now

Although I grew up living in the Atlantic Ocean on the Sea Islands of what is now the “Gullah/Geechee Nation,” no one could have told me that there would be global and national celebrations of this body of water. Of course for centuries, there have been traditional African rituals honoring the waters and the spirits of that element. However, when the world sits down to declare an international Ocean Decade, it seems that folks would immediately take notice. I guess I did because the survival of my people and our cultural heritage is tied to the ocean and the estuaries and creeks that flow to it.
Gullah/Geechee Drums of Freedom Beating During Summer 2023
Build Back Better BIPOC Coastal Cultural Heritage Communities including the Gullah/Geechee Nation

I never thought that my house on St. Helena Island in South Carolina would host the United States Congress or the United Nations. However, due to the on-going global pandemic, I have been able sit in prestigious political places via my computer screen without traveling and contributing further carbon emissions. As I tune in, I am concerned about the omissions- the omissions of the cost of climate change impacts on cultural heritage communities like the Gullah/Geechee Nation on the southeastern coast.
Jayn de @GullahGeechee fa Capitol Hill Ocean Week!

The CHOW 2021 conference will take place virtually from June 8th to 10th. CHOW 2021 will examine how exclusionary practices and systemic racism impact conservation, science, and policy; and how strengthening diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice will improve the sustainability of our ocean, coasts, and Great Lakes. The CHOW 2021 program will explore the intersection of people and the environment and how we ensure that all communities have equal access to opportunities to maintain a healthy environment to live, learn, and work. The Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition is proud to be a sponsor/partner of CHOW 2021, and we’re excited to be part of this opportunity to build a more racially equitable and just movement for our ocean and Great Lakes. www.CapitolHillOceanWeek.org
Gullah/Geechee Nation and Ocean-Climate Leaders Joint Statement Issued During U.S. #ClimateActionWeek

The Gullah/Geechee Nation and United States national, state, tribal and municipal governments increasingly recognize the important relationship between climate and ocean change. The ocean has absorbed large amounts of carbon dioxide and excess heat from fossil fuel combustion, making our ocean warmer, more acidified, more stratified and oxygen depleted. From oyster die-offs and coral reef bleaching to marine heat waves and harmful algal blooms, coastal communities in the Gullah/Geechee Nation, United States and around the world are feeling the effects on fisheries, aquaculture, tourism, and marine ecosystems that are important for sustaining jobs, coastal economies and cultures, indigenous ways of life, and feeding people.
Setting and achieving ambitious emission targets is the most important step in turning the tide of climate impacts on our ocean. And we know the ocean and ocean-based sectors can play a role.
Queen Quet of de @GullahGeechee Joins Earth Optimists in Washington DC
Queen Quet of the Gullah/Geechee Nation Testifies Before the United States Congress
Queen Quet’s Journey from the Lowcountry Up the Hill to the Congressional Black Caucus

This embrace also brought me back to the embrace in Switzerland where we not only sat and provided input in this international arena, but where we also enjoyed a reception at the United States Embassy while we were there continuing the fight for equity, human rights, and justice.
They say that the “journey of 1000 miles begins with a step.” Well, sometimes it continues with a plane ride. These plane rides have allowed me to sit above many issues of inequality that seem wide spread on the ground below, but it is a blessing to land and walk up the Hill to be amongst those that are on the ground working to make positive changes and who are working to heal the land and the people by putting their energy into seeking opportunities to create places of equality.
Gullah/Geechee Heirs Property and the USDA
Gullah/Geechee Nation ♦ August 15, 2019 ♦ Leave a comment
Although, Queen Quet and the Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition (www.GullahGeechee.net) supported the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act in order to assist Gullah/Geechee and African American families with an equitable way to deal with retaining land when some family members want to sell and the introduction of heirs property into the US Farm Bill was linked to the movement of this act, Gullah/Geechees are concerned about the USDA’s current plans regarding heirs property.
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