Looking Seven Generations Ahead
The past few months have been jarring.
Climate justice and reproductive justice have become existential battlegrounds that are defining physical, mental, and spiritual health, and collective wellbeing. According to the Seventh Generation Principle of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) people, the decisions we make today should result in a sustainable world seven generations into the future. This ancient Principle is often applied to thinking about how to make conscious decisions about the use of natural resources, but I think this wisdom should extend to the ways that we value and care for people and relationships. They ways in which we care for each other, or don't, are a guide to how sustainable our society will be in the future.
Across the spectrum of identity and lived experience, people are organizing to create spaces of freedom, joy and sustainability. Women are pushing back against domination. People who believe in the right of every person to have bodily autonomy are organizing. Communities that see and feel what the deterioration of the natural world means today, and what it portends for the future, are demanding solutions. Young people all over the world are leading new movements to protect themselves and our planet as the pandemic continues and new global health threats emerge.
For IWES, the turbulence in the world is reminding us why we were founded 29 years ago – to fight for the reproductive health of women of color and to work collaboratively to make all communities places where people can thrive. In the past few months a member of the IWES team and a young leader went to Bali to be a part of a global youth summit exploring the connections between gender norms and health as part of a global study. Here at home we participated in a Prospect New Orleans workshop on healing with young artists who are using creativity to connect their art with activism, and an IWES team is leading groups for womyn in recovery that emphasize mindfulness and self-expression as an important part of the path to healing. Recently, members of our Louisiana Youth for Health Justice council went to the Capitol and raised their voices to ask the Governor and other representatives to protect their rights to health and invest in their futures. This is an amazing time to watch a new wave of activists emerge with a passion for justice and vision of what it means to have a future full of possibility. Through their agitation, movement-building, and organizing, we may actually be able to envision seven generations ahead—or even MORE—and we're grateful to be a part of this work and create more opportunities for change.
Letter from the Editor written by Lisa Richardson, PhD, IWES Chief Impact Officer