Intersectional Movement Building
“Intersectionality is a lens through which you can see where power comes and collides, where it interlocks and intersects. It’s not simply that there’s a race problem here, a gender problem here, and a class or LGBTQ problem there. Many times, that framework erases what happens to people who are subject to all of these things.”
History and Introduction to Intersectionality
Originally coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989, Intersectionality is a framework used to analyze and describe the experiences of oppression within marginalized communities and emphasizes their relation to each other. For Indigenous Climate Action (ICA), intersectional cross-movement building is an approach to deepening our response to climate justice. Taking lessons from the land, ICA observes the ways in which the diversity in the ecosystem models to us that we can be strong when we work together and share our love and nutrients with one another.
Extractive industries have been impacting the mind, body, emotions and spirits of many relations on this Earth. It is vital that we uphold our duty to all our relations through active listening, reciprocity and working to uplift solutions—created with collective safety and care at the foundation. As we build towards this community care, we must also recognize our responsibility not only to our human kin, but also to the land, water, air, and animals. To honour and work towards climate justice it will take all of us to do this work.
Visioning Forward
By nurturing diverse experiences and voices within movement spaces, new insights can emerge that will broaden the scope of the solutions we can act on. By creating collective gathering spaces to share best practices, experiences, and knowledge with one another, we are better equipped to take on the challenges of colonialism and white supremacy.
Have a project or initiative that uplifts intersectional movement building in your community? Reach out for collaboration.
Intersectional Movement Building Report
Annotated Bibliography and Summary Report
As part of the Indigenous Climate Action (ICA) Intersectional Movement Building research internship, the desired outcomes for the project were two-fold: create an annotated bibliography on the history of social movements in so-called Canada over the past 50 years (1970–2020) as well as gather contact information for relevant organizations and coalitions that ICA could potentially build relationships with or work with in the future.
The purpose of this report is to summarize the themes that emerged from the annotated bibliography and provide recommendations for how to move forward with this research.
All Our Relations | Intersectionality and Prophecy Webinar
This virtual offering gives a brief introduction to prophecies internationally and the work being done to support the Earth. The session is meant to support knowledge sharing with youth from various elders, grandmothers, and Earth workers on what is happening on the Earth and how it includes all of our relations within this work.
This event was hosted on March 27, 2023.
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