SOLIDARITY WITH BLACK LIVES MATTER

We cannot care for the people unless we assure justice for all people and

assert the value of every person’s life.

Solidarity Statement, Black Pemaculture Network - Pandora Thomas, Starhawk

Statement by Starhawk, Earth Activist Training and Pandora Thomas, Black Permaculture Network

We wish to publicly state our support for the Black Lives Matter movement and the ongoing fight to end all police violence against communities of color.

Permaculture is a system of regenerative ecological design rooted in indigenous knowledge and wisdom. Its three core ethics, care for the earth, care for the people, care for the future lead us to call for accountability for police who currently target, harass and murder people in communities of color, and especially the black community, with impunity.

We cannot care for the people unless we assure justice for all people and assert the value of every person’s life.

Permaculture teaches us to look at patterns, and we see a recurring pattern of devaluing and dehumanizing people of color that extends back through the centuries, including the histories of enslavement, the genocide of indigenous peoples, segregation, exploitation and much more. We cannot build a vibrant future unless we acknowledge this painful past and recognize that its legacy continues today.

We see this current system is designed to benefit certain people at the expense of others and is part of the concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a few. Out of this comes an opportunity to redesign a truly restorative way of dealing with injustice, conflicts, competing needs, and past wounds.

At this time of grave environmental crisis, we recognize that the divisive impact of all forms of discrimination and prejudice hamper every effort to shift the path of our society off of the road to ruin and onto the path of regeneration. Our economic, political and social systems can only find ecological balance when they are founded upon justice.

One of the core permaculture principles is that diversity creates resilience. We are committed to envision, design and create a world in which we affirm and celebrate human diversity, where we can learn from one another’s perspectives and support one another’s struggles. We are proud to lend our support to all those who work to make that vision real.