Her Voice & Your Voice: Get Loud for Climate Justice
Remember by Joy Harjo
Remember the sky that you were born under,
know each of the star’s stories.
Remember the moon, know who she is.
Remember the sun’s birth at dawn, that is the
strongest point of time. Remember sundown
and the giving away to night.
Remember your birth, how your mother struggled/ To give you form and breath. You are evidence of/ Her life, and her mother’s, and hers./ Remember your father. He is your life, also./ Remember the earth whose skin you are:
red earth, black earth, yellow earth, white earth,
brown earth, we are earth.
Remember the plants, trees, animal life who all have their/ Tribes, their families, their histories, too. Talk to them,/ Listen to them. They are alive poems./ Remember the wind. Remember her voice. She knows the/ origin of this universe.
Remember you are all people and all people
are you./ Remember you are the universe and this/ universe is you.
Remember all is in motion, is growing, is you.
Remember language comes from this.
Remember the dance language is, that life is.
Remember.
Joy Harjo is a member of the Muscogee/Creek Nation and the first Native American U.S. poet laureate. (Image credit: Faith N, created through the 2020 National Poetry Month Contest for Students.)
Image caption: Members of the 2026 Her Voice cohort include: Jennifer S. Brown (Waccamaw-Siouan), Breana Chavis (Haliwa-Saponi), Cheyenne S. Daniel (Haliwa-Saponi), Windy Daniels Kennedy (Waccamaw-Siouan), Brianna Howard (Meherrin), Lily Rose Hunt (Lumbee), Alexandra Monk (Coharie), Tessa Morgan (Lumbee), and Rachel Wood (Meherrin).
NCCJC is launching our very first Her Voice: Indigenous Women in Climate Justice cohort – and we cannot dream of a better way to celebrate the Earth and the people working to protect it!
Representing the Meherrin, Lumbee, Coharie, Haliwa-Saponi, Waccamaw-Siouan, and Tuscarora nations, the cohort participants will spend 6 months developing climate justice campaigns based on NCCJC’s 4Rs of Social Transformation and implementing tangible solutions within their own tribal communities across North Carolina.
Her Voice Program Coordinator and NCCJC Resiliency Organizing Fellow, Hannah Jeffries, reflected, "These women are not just responding to a crisis; they are the architects of a new, sovereign future. By centering the voices of young Indigenous women and learning from our Indigenous women elders, we are returning to a model of leadership that has sustained this land for thousands of years."
Join us in congratulating and learning more about each member of the cohort via NCCJC’s Instagram!
Getting loud with YOUR Voice!
While the Earth Day festivities remind us to appreciate the wonders of the natural world, we must also speak up about the profound harm that our government and corporations are doing to our planet and peoples. The Trump Administration has dismantled or weakened every bedrock environmental regulation. Every climate justice policy has been reversed. The Administration has weaponized the Environmental Protection Agency to destroy the vulnerable places, communities and species it was created to protect, while proclaiming climate denialism. All climate justice advocates are being targeted as if we are the criminals for decrying the systemic violence against our collective life support system.
I’ve heard that Right-wing pundits are gleeful about the relative silence and perceived inaction from our movements in the face of these inexcusable attacks on our planetary home. And I’ve also been reminded by this week’s retrospectives on Earth Day that it was the consistent public outcry which forced real progress on the biggest environmental issues of my childhood–closing the hole in the ozone layer, reducing acid rain and bringing endangered species like eagles back from the brink.
It’s time to move beyond platitudes and slogans, to go beyond recycling and individualistic notions of green capitalism. How are you using your voice? How are you speaking up, pushing back and unequivocally naming the wrongs that our government and its corporate allies are perpetrating against the Earth?
While the path forward will be distinct for each of us, our 4 Rs for Social Transformation offers a framework for how we can align across differences to get into formation and GET LOUD!
RESIST: At the root of resistance is the refusal to pretend that everything is fine when it’s not and identifying creative opportunities to disrupt business as usual. Non-cooperation is key.
Connect with our new Lead Organizer, Molefi Ramos, if you’re interested in learning more about the creative resistance that NCCJC is organizing across our state.REFORM: The November elections present a critical moment to reclaim our democracy. We need to hold many of our current leaders accountable for their silence on environmental and climate justice, and demand they take this polycrisis seriously.
NCCJC is leading accountability sessions, non-partisan voter education and GOTV across the state as we look ahead to November elections. Reach out to our Community & Civic Engagement Director, Ms. Kristal Suggs if you’re interested in participating!RE-IMAGINE: We know art is what moves our movements! We’re calling on creatives from all disciplines and from across NC to envision and communicate about the world we want and to challenge the wrongdoers working against our vision.
NCCJC supports climate justice artivism through our TapRoot Cultural Program. If you’re interested in getting involved, connect with our Cultural Organizing Director, Dasan Ahanu.RE-CREATE: Our boldest visions only become reality when we build them, step by step. Through our Resiliency Organizing Hubs, we learn together how to shape regenerative economies rooted in localized food and energy systems.
