A Mother's Day Call to Protect the Earth

This Sunday is the day of the mother, the day we honor the source of life.  As we give thanks for our very existence, for all the nurturing and resources our mothers provide for us so that we may grow and thrive, we also celebrate our shared mother—the Earth itself.  Without her flowing waters, warm sun, rich soil and fresh air, even our most advanced technologies wouldn't be able to sustain our collective life here.

It feels like just yesterday that WEA's Co-Directors, Melinda and Amira, were both becoming new mothers—and then mothers once more!  But today, they each have two sons, all under the age of three, and it's taken us just a moment to realize how quickly time has flown.

 The women of RENAMITT.  Photo by: Semillas, a partner of WEA

At its heart, our work here at WEA has always been about nurturing women at the grassroots—honoring and uplifting the work of women and community caregivers around the world who are mothering children and mothering movements.  We do this because we recognize the undeniable connection between our experiences as women—as mothers—and the experiences of our first mother, our shared planet earth.

Last week, WEA had the opportunity to attend the Indigenous Birthways convening at the BirthKeepers Summit here in Berkeley, CA.  There, we heard Mohawk elder and midwife, Katsi Cook, speak about these links, and her wisdom is reflected in her written work.  "Women are the first environment," she teaches.  "We are privileged to be the doorway to life.  At the breast of women, the generations are nourished and sustained.  From the bodies of women flow the relationship of these generations both to society and to the natural world.  In this way is the earth our mother, the old people said.  In this way, we as women are earth."

Our grassroots partners around the world remind us of the truth in these words.  In India, the traditional knowledge women hold of seed saving, home gardens and climate adaptation help rural communities usher in locally-centered and sustainable futures.  And in North America, young Indigenous women leaders resisting environmental violence bear witness to the simple truth that everything connected to the land is connected to our bodies.

These fierce women are birthing transformation, not only in their communities, but in the world.  WEA is committed to standing alongside these leaders as they do the essential work of safeguarding our environment and generations to come.

This Mother's Day, please consider making a tax-deductible gift in honor of Mother Earth and the amazing mothers in your world.  Your contribution will help us to continue supporting grassroots women today who are stepping forward to demand clean water and healthy food, protect sacred lands and traditional knowledge, resist dirty energy that harms our lands and bodies, and design sustainable solutions.

Most of all, we invite you to take a moment today to stand on the earth, give thanks for all that she provides, and make a commitment to protect her, for the sake of future generations and all life.

We wish you a peaceful Mother's Day.

I Am Because You Are: A Mother’s Day Reflection

by Melinda Kramer, WEA Founder, Co-Director

Casey Camp and Melinda Kramer at the 2011 Advocacy Training

A year and a half ago, when I was still pregnant with my son, Dune, Ponca Elder and movement leader, Casey Camp, said something to me that I’ll never forget. It was Day Two of our IEN/Women’s Earth Alliance Advocacy Training, linking 60 advocates and activists from around the U.S. for collaboration on indigenous women-led environmental justice campaigns. Casey, a life-long advocate for environmental justice and founder of the Coyote Creek Center for Environmental Justice, sat with me in the WEA office as I interviewed her about her work, her vision, and the power of coming together across cultures for collaboration.

As we talked, Casey looked at my pregnant belly and said, “Right now you’re creating a child, and your child is creating you simultaneously. Your baby is creating a mother.”  These few words, for me, captured the soul of our work at Women’s Earth Alliance: we recognize that our lives are inseparable from one another and that only in connection with and service to others can we reach our fullest potential and offer our greatest gifts. Casey’s comment echoed the South African term “Ubuntu”, which loosely translated means, “I am because you are.”  This wisdom reminds us that we are inextricably linked. Our choices and experiences, our triumphs and pain are bound together in a web of reciprocity.

2011 GEAG/WEA India Women, Food and Climate Change Training

On every continent, at the epicenter of each environmental disaster, women stand arm in arm, imagining change and then invoking it. Women do not become leaders and change-makers without others beside them. Our power and courage grow together. As a woman gains strength from her network of grassroots women's groups, she amplifies her capacities, creates her vision, and raises her voice. This shared strength and collective vision enables others to become stronger, clearer, more fulfilled. When we build ourselves as leaders, we shape one another as leaders – all in service to the first mother, our shared planet Earth.

At WEA, Mother’s Day is a moment in time to honor the work of mothers and community caregivers around the world – women who are mothering children and mothering movements; birthing babies and birthing transformation in their communities. WEA partners with fierce women leaders and groups who step forward to demand clean water and healthy food, who are determined to protect ancestral homelands, and who design solutions to counter the environmental destruction we all face.

Today, as I reflect on my journey of motherhood and at WEA, I appreciate once again the truth of Casey Camp’s statement. I am humbled by the teachings my child has already bestowed on me: patience, presence, endurance, compassion. And I am proud to stand in solidarity with women worldwide, who are doing the essential work of mothering – for their own families and for other families; for their homes and communities; and for the Earth.

Learn more about Women's Earth Alliance or send a special card to a mother for Mother's Day!

2011 GWWI East African Women and Water Training

In the blogosphere: WEA on Care2

Read WEA's Call for Action on Mother’s Day, which was posted on Care2.

Read it online here.
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