Seeding Sovereignty

For the climate movement, when the Standing Rock protest took place in late summer 2016, it felt like a spontaneous upwelling of feeling, a nexus of sorts, that pulled people out of their everyday lives to join a movement determined by a new collective voice. But it wasn’t just that it pulled all these diverse participants together; it was the way that it happened.

The rapid growth was a challenge, but the experience managing it was memorable….I did not expect that all to happen. And I was so energized,” [Phyllis] Young recalls. “People from all over the United States started coming, semi[truck] loads of food from all over the country.

– Phyllis Young, organizer for the Lakota People’s Law Project

An Indigenous-led community, reciprocity and mutual aid is what inspired Janet MacGillivray, an environmental attorney, former whistleblower and social change activist, to found Seeding Sovereignty. The organization’s projects operate under the “tenets of mutual aid, community defense, emancipation through education, and solidarity with underestimated brilliant, and often marginalized populations,” and seek to amplify the role of Indigenous knowledge for environmental justice and regeneration.

Seeding Sovereignty is a women and Indigenous-led collective, seeking to disrupt the colonialist narrative and associated power through land, body, and food sovereignty work, community building, and cultural preservation.

With 2018 came an opportunity to participate in a historic lawsuit meant to recognize a constitutional right to “wilderness” as a component of substantive due process. Seeding Sovereignty joined Animal Legal Defense Fund and several individual plaintiffs declaring wilderness is a prerequisite to American citizens’ ability to exercise other constitutional rights, specifically the right to privacy, free association, and autonomy. As such, the federal government has a constitutional obligation to ensure that wilderness exists and that citizens have safe access to it.

In June 2021, a large contingent of supporting organizations and celebrities, including Daryl Hannah, Riley Keough and Mark Ruffalo, filed an amicus curiae (“friend of the court”) brief in support of this revolutionary case. Find out more about the status of this lawsuit here.

In 2020, the musician Fiona Apple recognized Seeding Sovereignty with her support for their COVID-19 program. They launched a mutual aid fund in partnership with the Pueblo Action Alliance—the Rapid Response Initiative & Community Care Fund— for those needing access to testing and treatment in the Apache, Pueblo and Navajo communities in New Mexico. The program also provided personal protection equipment, food and medical personnel for essential workers and elder community members as well as books for students in lockdown.

Seeding Sovereignty’s ongoing programs include:

Ancestral Acres Farm & Garden – Food scarcity is prevalent within every city in the U.S. The pandemic, systemic oppression and escalating climate change have exacerbated existing needs. One solution to food scarcity is food sovereignty and community health. In 2021 Seeding Sovereignty embarked on our first-ever farming adventure. Welcome to Ancestral Acres Farm & Garden on Tiwa Territory in Albuquerque, New Mexico!

Medicine Wheels – Amidst an ongoing mental health crisis spurred by rising violence to gender expansive BIPOC folks and COVID-19 isolation and stress, Medicine Wheels gifts an immediate infusion of joy and a tangible commitment to those who need it most, working to provide the tools and mentorship to support BIPOC & LGBTQIA2S+ folks’ physical and mental health, create accessible, safe community spaces, and celebrate connection with the land.

MMIP – A Storytelling Project – The number of Missing and Indigenous People (MMIP) is still unknown. Despite the efforts of Indigenous communities and awareness groups, this epidemic sadly remains unaddressed. Systems in place for other communities fail ours. Often family members search on foot, sharing photos of their last seen relative on social media, communities respond in crisis, victims of violence and loved ones of murdered relatives are tragically left to try to heal alone. This is for them.

the kakichihiwewin project – The kakichihiwewin project aims to create strong bonds in Indigenous communities by continuing the healing process of those affected by the residential school system, boarding schools, the sixties scoop, foster care, and forced removal / assimilation.

Written by Michele Gielis