ADVOCACY INITIATIVES:
THE HEART WORK
Climate Justice x Intersectional Justice
Rising Hearts began with Jordan - the founder. Her homelands were in danger due to the Keystone XL and Dakota Access Pipelines - extractive methods destroying the lands, water, air, and people. She heard the call to do more. From showing up by herself with signs, it grew to friends and relatives all coming together to fight for justice and stand in solidarity with Standing Rock and the community came together to stop the dapl. We have helped organized multiple marches, rallies, panels, and events to bring the community together - to help mobilize and inform the people the very dangers that these extractive projects cause on the lands and all beings.
We helped organize and/or lead in these gatherings:
Water is Life rally November 2016, Occupy Inauguration 2017, Native Nations Rise March and Rally March 2017; multiple rapid response gatherings to support STanding Rock during their court dates in DC, co-founded DC ReInvest Coalition (get DC to divest from Wells Fargo and reinvest in the community through Public Banking); served on the National and local steering committee and helped organize the Peoples Climate March in april 2017, March for Racial Justice; Prayer Vigil for Savanna LaFontaine Greywind 2017; #MeToo rally; Environmental Justice Panel with California for Progress; No More Stolen Sisters educational forum 2019; Organized the May 5th National Day of awareness for MMIW prayer run and community gathering 2019; advocacy on the Hill and meetings with Congressional members to discuss the fight to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline and missing and murdered Indigenous womxn and girls initiatives; 2019 Youth Climate Strike; 2020 Fire Drill Fridays -Los Angeles; 2020 International Womxn’s Day Rally in Los Angeles and honoring Aleyah Toscano (MMIW) and her family; and more.
We also want to mention that it is important to include the epidemic of missing and murdered indigenous relatives when we advocate for climate justice - Man camps that are often along the pipelines are placed near Reserves (Canada) and Reservations (United States), where high rates of violence, crime, and sexual assault occur. When we can recognize the troubling cycle of violence - violence against the earth is violence against women, we can acknowledge it, repair and work towards healing. Climate injustice all too often occurs against BIPOC communities and marginalized communities and it is time for us to say “no more!” Our lives are not expendable - we deserve clean water, clean air, and a healthy Unči Maka (Grandmother Earth) today, and for our future generations.
We want to collaborate - we help mobilize, organize and speak to these issues or help find the voices that can!
Change the Name / Not Your Mascot
Rising hearts has been helping to organize, participate and raise awareness of this issue to help remove the racism and dehumanization of Native Peoples since 2017.
As of July 2020, the Washington Football team will now be known as, the Washington Football team (for now). This is a big win! And the fight continues to remove all racist and insensitive mascots and names. Amazing efforts that span across decades, have called for this removal, as well as many other teams and schools. Suzan Harjo & Amanda Blackhorse took the NFL and Dan Snyder to court. Myself, Rising Hearts, Rebrand Washington Football, Indigenous leaders, organizers and allies, have put pressure on the institutions that dishonor Native people. Rising Hearts launched a Go Redhawks campaign in 2017, where we designed a new logo, changed 4 letters, and kept the colors, for the Washington Football team. We wanted to show the world what it would look like for Dan Snyder and the NFL - TO DO THE RIGHT THING. It’s that simple.
The Washington Football team has normalized the racism that Native people experience and the dehumanization of Indigenous people while continuing to perpetuate insensitive, harmful and racist stereotypes of Native people. Because of this win, we have to give visibility to the Black lives - calling for justice and equality, by standing with Natives and removing the racist name and logo as they were in the streets all summer calling for the removal of racist segregationists, conquistadors and figures - the Washington Football time got roped into this demand and IllumiNatives, NDN Collective and Native Organizers Alliance seized the moment and created a brilliant campaign that led to this win! To understand why these racist images and names are harmful, here is some content to look over and find out why: “ The results indicate that increased discrimination is strongly associated with increased depressive symptoms among American Indian adults. These effects appear consistent among children. Whitbeck, Walls, Johnson, Morrisseau and McDougall (2009) examined the relation of perceived discrimination to depressive symptoms among 459 North American Indigenous children aged 11-13. Analysis indicated that, even when controlling for family factors, increased perceived discrimination was independently related to increased depressive symptoms.” For many Indigenous organizers and allies in the DC area, we organized and had meetings to remove the George Preston Marshall statue removed at RFK Stadium. He was the founder of the team and named the Washington team the R-word. He was an avowed segregationist and did not treat Black and Indigenous folx with respect. NOW - his statue is gone!
There is no honor in racism. We are not your mascots. We are not of the past, we are in the present - WE ARE STILL HERE. Now, we need more teams and schools to help advocate to change! To stay up to date about actions to replace these names and mascots - we highly recommend following and supporting Illuminatives, Native Organizers alliance, and NDN Collective.