Tag Archives: sustainability
Coastal Cultures Conference 2022: Sea Island Coastal & Cultural Heritage Sustainability
The Gullah/Geechee have lived on the Sea Islands since the 1500s and have been able to sustain their cultural heritage and their coastal homeland through their own traditional indigenous knowledge practices. They are melding these practices with modern technology as part of their climate action and cultural continuation strategy. Cum fa yeddi bout disya wid we!
Queen Quet of de Gullah/Geechee Receives Community Star Award from EPA and DHEC
Director Daniel Blackman of United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s Region joined South Carolina Department of Environmental Health and Control (DHEC) Director Myra Reece on historic St. Helena Island, SC in the Gullah/Geechee Nation to present Queen Quet, Chieftess of the Gullah/Geechee Nation (www.QueenQuet.com) with the “Community Star Award.” DHEC’s Community Star Award recognizes a business, community organization, collaborative partnership, or individual that goes above and beyond environmental requirements in order to build better community relationships, promote environmental sustainability and resiliency, and/or improve quality of life for communities.
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.
Join the Carolinas’ Queen Quet, Chieftess of the Gullah/Geechee Nation & EPA Administrator Michael Regan for “Stories of Culture and Adaptation”
EPA Administrator Michael Regan launches this event with a special message recognizing the 10th Anniversary of the Global Change Fellows program. Regan’s message will be followed by a Gullah/Geechee greeting from Chieftess Queen Quet, and then a panel discussion focused on how climate change has impacted marginalized communities. The panel will also highlight the need for diverse voices in climate change conversations and narratives, and cultural conservation/adaptation/resiliency in distinct communities.
“Changing Tides: What’s destabilizing North Carolina’s coastal ecology?”
Climate change contributes to rising seas, plus more frequent and severe storms, with a strong impact on fisheries in coastal North Carolina on which commercial and recreational fishing rely. This series examines the changes from the perspectives of scientists, regulators and people whose livelihoods depend on the seas, examining divided opinions, best practices and potential public policy and regulatory shifts that could improve outlooks.
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.
Earth Day Activities @GullahGeechee
Many citizens of the Gullah/Geechee Nation have engaged in Earth Month by continuing the agrarian traditions that their ancestors passed down. Many others have started to engage in citizens science projects and academic field work that will help build capacity in regard to resilience and sustainability not only for the land and water, but also for our cultural heritage community. If haven’t yet participated in the events that were held virtually, join in these Earth Day activities with the Gullah/Geechee Family.
Queen Quet of the Gullah/Geechee Nation Keynotes for Leadership Summit for Healthy Communities
Queen Quet, Chieftess of the Gullah/Geechee Nation (www.QueenQuet.com) will be the keynote speaker for the Leadership Summit for Healthy Communities. For centuries, the Gullah/Geechee people have endured inequities and unfair treatment that have negatively impacted their quality of life. Queen Quet will present on how her people live an active life that supports overall healthy living. The traditional Gullah/Geechee lifestyle has led to many natives of the Sea Islands living into their 90s and 100s and still being viable active members of the community. She will tell you how public health advocates and community coalitions can work with the Gullah/Geechee people to increase access to healthy eating and active living resources and improve health outcomes.
Cultural Sustainability and Who WEBE @GullahGeechee
Cultural Sustainability and Who WEBE @GullahGeechee will be an intergenerational interactive dialogue with leaders of the Gullah/Geechee Nation on April 13, 2021 at 3pm EST.
Queen Quet Standing for Earth and Environmental Justice
Queen Quet, Chieftess of the Gullah/Geechee Nation (www.QueenQuet.com) was the first Gullah/Geechee in world history to ever take the human rights issues of native Gullah/Geechees before the United Nations Human Rights Commission. Since April 1, 1999, she has continued to be a human rights, land rights, and water rights activist and is known the world over by the term that she coined for herself, “The Art-ivist.” It is natural fit for Queen Quet to be engaged in climate action with a myriad of others that are passionate about insuring the sustained health of Mother Earth which will thereby sustain cultural heritage communities like the Gullah/Geechee Nation which Queen Quet is the leader of. Due to the visionary leadership that Queen Quet shows, she has been invited to be a part of several earth justice and environmental events that will conclude Women’s Herstory Month.