#iwd2016

Women leaders of the Sápara and Kichwa people of the Ecuadorian Amazon with international allies outside of the United Nations, New York City, September 2015. Photo: Emily Arasim 

Patricia Gualinga, from the Sarayaku territory of Ecuador, who we got to see speak at the Women’s Earth & Climate Action Network event at the UN Climate Talks in Paris, is leading a coalition of women from the Ecuadorian Amazon in protests on International Women’s Day against Ecuador’s controversial deal with a Chinese oil company that hands over Sápara and Kichwa tribal land to oil exploration. 

STATEMENT OF AMAZONIAN INDIGENOUS WOMEN IN DEFENSE OF LIFE, TERRITORY, AND ‘GOOD LIVING’ (BUEN VIVIR) 

Puyo, Ecuador, Feburary 02, 2016

In the city of Puyo, we, Amazonian indigenous women, representatives of the Sapara and Shiwiar Nationalities, the Kichwa Kawsak Sacha and Sarayaku Peoples, and the communities of the Bobonaza Basin, want to express our deep concern with the contract of exploitation and exploration signed by the Ministry of Hydrocarbons with the company Andes Petroleum for Blocks 79 and 83 that directly affect the Sapara, Kichwa, Shiwiar, and Sarayaku territories.

We reject the signing of this contract which will affect our territories, the forest, the water, and the air; exactly how we have seen it occur in Block 10 in the Province of Pastaza. This is where serious social and environmental impacts have been generated, where women are the main victims and their ability to feed their families becomes impaired. There is deterioration of family health, and they suffer the division of their communities and other forms of violence.

This government policy has infringed on our rights since we have not been adequately consulted. We as women have not been considered and we have not participated in those government informational meetings. Plus, the consultations were not carried out as mandated by the ruling of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) in the 2012 case Sarayaku v. Ecuador.

Blocks 79 and 83 affect more than 40% of the Sapara Nationality’s territory which was recognized by UNESCO as a “Masterpiece of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity” on May 18, 2001 because their language and culture are in danger of disappearing. This threat is increased with the development of an oil project in these territories.

Therefore, we reject this oil policy of the government and the possibility of further oil concessions in the southern Amazon; We denounce that deceptive mechanisms have been used to obtain signatures of community members in order to justify supposed prior consultation processes. We stand firm in the defense of our territories, for the defense of life and the good living of our families and communities.

In her opening remarks at the WECAN event in Paris, Osprey Orielle Lake, founder of the U.S.-based Network, recounted a conversation she’d had with an indigenous Sarayaku mother. “We carry our babies on our backs at night through the jungle,” the woman told her. “We can do anything.”

Hi, everybody! @nrdc Science Reporter Perrin Ireland here. I love upping rad women who kick butt on behalf of the environment, so in honor of International Women’s Day—the best day of the year—here’s a look back at some of our favorite sheroes.

Put Rachel Carson on the $20 bill! 

Shannon Bennett, virus hunter.

Step aside, gentlemen. Women from around the world are leading the way on solving climate change. Never was that more apparent than in Paris—below are some of the fierce women we encountered who are making moves to stop global warming.

We got to see Sylvia Earle and Jane Goodall, two science pioneers, tell it like it is in Paris.

And, of course, the legend that is Patti Smith shared her hope with us at a concert.

I got to go to the California Academy of Sciences for the Women in Science Summit, scribing talks from Goodall and Earle, as well as many other amazing women in the field.

Turns out Sylvia Earle likes scribing, too!

And here at NRDC, there are many inspiring women leaders who light the way toward climate solutions. We’ve featured them this past year in our #womancrushwednesdayposts. 

Thank you to all the women fighting for our forests, rivers, clean air, homes, and families. We are so proud and grateful for you! 

The fact that bleeding for a week (every single month) is NOT the hardest thing about being a women, says a lot about our society.

A #PledgeForParity Event at the US Ambassador’s Residence in London

It’s always and forever International Women’s Day here at TrowelBlazer Towers. One of the things we’ve been trying to do a little bit more of is to use the amazing platform we’ve got here to push the world more towards the shape we’d like to see it in.* That means talking about the lessons we’ve picked up from our own experiences, and those that people have shared with us, to make big giant bullet points that we repeat ad nauseum until people stop telling kids what they can and can’t be when they grow up based on their biological phenotype.

For #IWD2016 this year, I won the raffle to accompany the fantastic Suw Charman-Anderson of the Finding Ada Project to the official residence of the US Ambassador to the UK.

Suw Charman-Anderson and Brenna chilling with a fern and a portrait of George Washington.

Ambassador Matthew Barzun and his wife Brooke do immense amounts of work to promote women in leadership, in science, and regularly host events at Winfield House, in swank-tastic Regent’s Park, that bring together some very impressive people.

Winfield House/ Scenes from Winfield House - of course there is a skateboard ramp #USA /Brenna’s personal favorite thing: dress made of 10,000 adamantine dressing pins in the Green Room

Over the course of the day, I met women with a lot of letters before and after their names; women representing their countries, their companies, universities, themselves – the guest list was a roll call of achievement (and me). Ambassador Barzun led a fascinating dialogue that allowed each of us to reflect our own experiences, before refereeing a wide ranging discussion of how the hell you get to equality from here.

Key Things:

• Get a mentor. Be a mentor. Networks matter.

The women we spoke to were pretty unanimous in affirming what we here at TrowelBlazers have said for a long time. It takes support to infiltrate a foreign culture, be it the Academy or a Fortune 500 company; mentors are critical to getting you that internship / training / interview. So start a conversation, ask for a 15 minute coffee, find a mentor. And when that bright eyed undergraduate comes knocking at your door, don’t just turn off the overhead lights and hope to god no one saw you come in – she may not have anyone else to help her out.

• Role models reset imaginations.

This is such a TB obsession…for a reason. So many of the women at Winfield House talked about how important it was to see and be seen, just to let the next generation know what can be possible. It’s critical to support (read- don’t make fun of or generally denigrate the time spent on outreach) staff/employees who are willing to go that extra mile to widen participation because IT AINT HAPPENING OTHERWISE OK? And don’t forget you can’t just expect someone to want to do outreach, or to make a *deal* about being a woman / minority / under-represented group. Support those who do, but remember that’s an extra burden.

In the spirit of advice recounted from President Obama, sometimes you need to ‘just listen’; so here’s some of the things we heard:

• Solidarity is key - bringing together different disadvantaged sectors can make any one group more of an ally of the others.
• Hearts and minds can be changed, and the dinosaurs are dying out; it’s too shameful to be seen as a misogynist these days…and that’s a good thing.
• Unconscious bias training is absolutely critical to reshaping attitudes

Finally, the Embassy staff asked participants 'What would you tell your 20 year old self?’.

Apparently my answer? Let your hair grow long ;)

Reportagery by Brenna.

*Essentially, the shape of a woman in a fancy hat wielding a mattock sliding down a pyramid.

It’s March 8th! Which means it’s International Women’s Day. We here at TrowelBlazer Towers have made a point of celebrating women’s achievements EVERY DAY, but sometimes it’s nice to sit back and look at the big picture.

So here’s a big picture:

It’s lovely, isn’t it? As are each and everyone of you. For International Women’s Day we’d like to celebrate the amazing experience of looking out into the void that is the internet and seeing so many dedicated, engaged, and generous people who are willing to take the time and energy to contribute to our little project. So thank you. Thank you to the archivists who find treasure in bad handwriting and worse typography. Thank you to the museums and collections who have gone out of their way and down into the stores to bring forgotten stories back to life. Thank you to the researchers and writers who have uncovered secret histories and mislaid lives. Thank you to the few, the proud, the inspired — the members of the Order of the Blazing Trowel, and everyone who has taken the time to write for us.

Mostly, we just want to thank you. Thank you for being a part of our community. Thank you for caring about equality, about historic inequity, and resetting imaginations. Thank you for providing a better future for the next generation, and giving a voice back to the generations before. It may not seem like much, but, in the words of Margaret Mead:

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.

Keep on TrowelBlazing!

with much love from @brenna,@suzie,@becky, and @tori