Fighting for Indigenous Rights
2/26/21 - A planned tar sands pipeline through Northern Minnesota crosses tribal land and would disrupt waterways and wild rice cultivation. Tara Houska is Ojibwe, an attorney, an environmental and indigenous rights advocate, and has a long history on the land Line 3 would travel through.
Transcript below.
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CREDITS
Executive Producer: Gina Delvac
Hosts: Aminatou Sow & Ann Friedman
Theme song: Call Your Girlfriend by Robyn
Composer: Carolyn Pennypacker Riggs.
Producer: Jordan Bailey
Visual Creative Director: Kenesha Sneed
Merch Director: Caroline Knowles
Editorial Assistant: Laura Bertocci
Design Assistant: Brijae Morris
Ad sales: Midroll
TRANSCRIPT: FIGHTING FOR INDIGENOUS RIGHTS
Aminatou: Welcome to call your girlfriend.
Ann: A podcast for long distance besties everywhere.
Aminatou: I’m Aminatou Sow
Ann: And I'm Anne Friedman.
Aminatou: Hey, hey!
Ann: Hello. What's happening? Tell me nothing. Tell me nothing’s happening.
Aminatou: No, not much. Um, I personally am in a pandemic. So nothing is happening over here. But [laugher] I look forward to hearing the exciting things that are happening to you.
Ann: Yeah, I feel like the headline that I feel on most Fridays is just like another one like another week has slid by? Like, truly, uh yeah, that the disappearing weeks is the headline, non-headline--
Aminatou: Yeah
Ann: Of my fridays
Aminatou: Whew. Time is so elastic... But I feel that early on and, you know, seasons one and two and three of this thing, I never knew what day of the week it was and for some reason right now, I know exactly what day of the week it was. And like just like an older person, I just marvel at the passage of time. Like, wow--
Ann: Fully.
Aminatou: Again, we're here again. Love it.
Ann: Yet again. I am saying can you believe it's Friday?
Aminatou: Yeah, Groundhog Day, love to see it. [laughter] What are we talking about today?
Ann: Ah we have such a great guest. today. I chatted with Tara Houska, who is a member of the Bear Clan from Couchiching First Nation and she is a tribal attorney, and environmental activist and advocate for indigenous communities. And right now she is one of many people in communities who are at the forefront of the fight to stop Line Three, which if you are not aware of it is a proposed pipeline expansion that would bring nearly 1 million barrels of tar sands per day from Alberta, Canada, down through Tara's home region in Minnesota…
Aminatou: Wow.
Ann: …And on through to Wisconsin. And so there is there has been an ongoing and concerted effort to stop the line three expansion, but also just you know, like she has a really interesting work history activism history and has a lot to say about the intersection of a lot of these different areas, the law, the environment, indigenous communities and how all these things fit together.
Aminatou: I can't wait to hear this.
[theme song]
[Interview begins]
Ann: Tara, thank you so much for being on the podcast.
Tara: Yeah, for sure. Thank you for the invitation and the space.
Ann: I really want to start off by asking you where you're calling me from and you know, what, what? Where are you in this moment in time?
Tara: Without giving too much away, I am along the proposed Line Three route of Enbridge’s tar sands pipeline that is slated to go through our territory and attempting to go through our wetlands or watersheds... I'm part of a direct action collective that's engaged in sustainable foods and harvesting and mutual aid work that's been in existence for the past three years, living just off the pipeline's route, preparing, readying ourselves for this, this moment in time.
Ann: And this moment in time being this kind of moment of focus and sustained protest. Is that what you mean?
Tara: Uhh the moment in time being that Enbridge got its last greenlight needed to begin full on construction and destruction of our territory.
Ann: Yeah, that was my next question about what construction or completion of the construction would mean for your land?
Tara: I mean, the reason that we've been fighting this all these years is because we were trying to stop the machines from moving like they are now. We've been fighting this pipeline for almost seven years in the regulatory process, and the review process, and the court process, the political process. Every last piece of, piece of it has been thousands and thousands of people and hours and comments and time has been spent on this project trying to get the governor to recognize that can't build a pipeline without permission of the tribal nations that are sitting in his past. And you can't claim to be a climate advocate if you're building the largest tar sands land and infrastructure alone in North America, as tribal people and as a tribal person to me this is about the continuation of cultural genocide… Line Three is proposing to go through over 200 water bodies and 800 wetlands and… by nature of that, and all of what's downstream, including the Mississippi River. Uh proposes to cross the Mississippi River twice actually through its headwater, again through a little bit further down, when it becomes a full on river and not just a tiny stream… are dozens of wild rice beds. Wild Rice was at the centerpiece of our culture. It’s who we are as people, we were told to come here by creator, to where the food grows on water. And this is the only place in the world that grows... So to me, it's, it's very personal.
Ann: For those of us who have never experienced it, tell me a little bit about wild rice. Its properties, what it tastes like, what, what its uses are.
Tara: Yeah, sure. So well, this is actually a grass, it's not a grain, we oftentimes call it a grain just because it's easier for people to understand.
Ann: [laughter]
Tara: It's a, it's a grass that basically like during the end of the summer, early fall… it's ready to be, to be harvested. And so you are out in canoes and you are knocking rice with these a cedar knockers that we make, carved out of cedar trees. And you knock it into the bed of your canoe, and you're kind of like in this floating field of rice. And being really careful to not bend or break your stocks, or to not break your socks, but just to bend them. And then there's this intensive process that follows… So there's the knocking, and pulling, and paddling, whatever the depending on the terrain of the lake or river that are in through the rice itself. And then there's the drying, the parching, the roasting, the dancing on the rice to separate that delicate grain from the chaff, and eventually the wailing. And the eating, which is one of the best parts… Through all this intensive, like steps in the process to becoming food, it is a grain and grass that really teaches you about, you know working hard and the smells that come during the course of that are just like so powerful. Like first, the first scent is water, right, and the sun and this incredibly rich environment, because you're going through, like you're passing through these stocks of rice. And then the roasting, I mean, you can smell all the lake or the river coming off and you can smell the grass itself starting to cook and turn into something else… And you can smell the smoke on it too. And the final product and we get the last piece... And you feel connected to it too because the process is so intensive. You know, you're touching and spending time with each grain of rice. I mean, the, the final step is, after wailing actually, the handpick where you go through and you're going by hand to find the little pieces that haven't been separated from the chaff… But yeah, actually, you know, I first started getting involved in some of this environmental kind of like, I guess... I wouldn't really call it protection but at least like becoming aware of… what was happening around me because I was in like undergrad, and in sciences, and I went to this lecture with Winona LaDuke about the genetic modification of wild rice. Because I was working on looking at that specific issue, because the commercial industries couldn't figure out how to commercialize that part where we dance on rice to separate it, otherwise you break it.
Ann: mmhmm
Tara: And they couldn't figure it out, so they genetically modified it to make the whole thing really hard. That's why wild rice that you buy on the shelf typically takes like an hour or two to cook versus like 30 minutes... It's been changed and modified. And then some of that stock was crossing into our wild stock. And it's I mean, it's kind of like the same story of everything, where something's been manipulated and changed into something that it’s not. You know, and what does the rest of that pose to the living thing that's still there. The last piece on wild rice is it's a, it's a superfood, it's very nourishing. It's got tons of protein in it. It's something that's meant to keep our people through the winter... And like that's how like the.. traditional life cycle as we know it goes, like you knock rice in the summertime… And you have food for the winter and then you've got the fall time when you're out hunting right and then you've got your meat for the winter and then that usually gives that around the springtime when you have the suckers running and trees begin to run with sap. You know, it's a very cyclical life cycle that is based in seasons and not so much in short incremental time, like I think, some nature culture puts us into.
Ann: Yeah and also so specific to place, it seems. You know, I mean, I think there is like a catch phrase-y way local foods or whatever are talked about and that feels just like such a watered down version of the really highly, like specific food process relationship that I just heard you describe.
Tara: Yeah, so it's a pretty, it's a pretty heartfelt thing to be in a place where you were told by creator to come and to the only place in the world that it grows. To the to where that place to where that, that sacred being they told you to come to grows. Something like tar sands, and even just the, honestly, like the construction itself is incredibly damaging to these really, really delicate ecosystems. So rice is all different in every week in every river. It's adapted to that particular place, so when you're looking at finished rice in your hands, you can actually see the difference between rice from a certain place. Like the rice, where I'm from is really, really long and it's like, really big rice. And then some of the other, maybe like river rice is, is short and kind of fat. But like really juicy.
Ann: [laghter]
Tara: It’s how I best describe it. But yeah, it's all different. And it's all been adapted to that specific lake. And it's a very, very, very sensitive plant.
Ann: Can you tell me a little bit more about the place where this rice grows? For people who have never been there with their own bodies? What is it? What does it look like? And what is the rest of the scene? Like where, where we find or where you, you know, experience this rice?
Tara: Yeah, so I mean, I think and where this project is proposed, I'm actually from a little further north, around about three hours north. I'm on the Canadian US border, where I'm from is more like, it's just west of the Boundary Waters. And this big national park called Voyageurs National Park. I guess the park actually is, is on us.
[laughter]
Tara: It's kind of like, you know, the, I don't know, you look at all those shows about the cabin up north, and there's the lakes, and the boats and the mosquitoes and the big, huge, beautiful pine trees and the loons that you hear in every single movie, whenever they show a lake, they play a loon call. That's the place where I'm from... This beautiful… ideal, I guess for a lot of people, but for, for me, it's a reality, right? It's how it's how I grew up… It's the place where everyone comes up to go fishing and go hunting and, you know, be outside and wear the flannel or something like that. But wear it for real, not for fashion.
Ann: [laughter]
Tara: Where this is at on the proposed route, there is a lot of that still. There are places that are like, that line three actually wants to go through, this untouched section of what's now northern Minnesota for a specific reason, because it's existing pipeline quarter is all crowded. And so it wants to go through, you know, over 1000 acres of untouched wetlands for a reason. It wants to send in four more pipelines is actually the plan. And in those places, it's still like that, you know, there's these big beautiful trees and you know, a whole ecosystem of biodiversity... and, you know, wolves and bears and all these different animals that are living out there, you know, deer and fox and rabbits and everything. But then there's also sections you know, as I've spent more time in the southern part of the territory that are... already in a place where the the land has been harmed. Minnesota was a place actually where a lot of the big cities around here like Chicago and things like that when they were first forming, they were getting all their logs and all their timber from, from here. So the first relocation is the Anishinaabe people and the Dakota people here was that vast of, of timber and the intentional overharvesting of the sturgeon in the rivers. Sturgeon are super fatty fish that we keep in the winter also. So it's kind of like, when I say it's the continuation of genocide. It's this, it isn't the first time that our people have encountered what excessive greed does to the land and to our people.
Ann: Do you remember when you first learned about Line Three you know how long ago and where you were and what was happening in your life at that time?
Tara: Yeah the first time I encountered it actually was when I was a full time DC lawyer. I was living and working out... doing representation for all kinds of tribal nations across the country and up on Capitol Hill... I started to engage in some of these environmental pieces because they were really important to me as a person and not just like as a lawyer or whatever but there was something that I was passionate about because I mean I think largely because I come from this place like this you know and I have a very strong connection to the environment. It's, it's been quite jarring for me actually to step into places where people don't understand or have any connection at all to the land around them. I mean the land underneath the pavement or whatever but it's still there you know the land is still there... And so I moved back in like 2014 and I had went to my very first protest against Keystone XL. Keystone XL was actually passing through Obama's white house my intern there back in 2011 and met Winona LaDuke, again for the second time...
Ann: [laugher]
Tara: And she found out I was a DC lawyer and where I was from, and then you know I was from way up north and trying to do my best to represent tribes from all over the country and get our sovereignty issues in front of decision makers and … and try to learn as much as i could to help my people and… she had probably about the Line Three project which was then actually called something else it was the Sandpiper project and specifically the piece that it was looking at at that time was something called the Alberta Clipper. The Alberta Clipper is actually the entry point of this particular tar sands line into the United States. So normally when there's a like an international border that has to be crossed, there has to be a full review by the state department and like all that stuff is triggered by right about that. But Enbridge was billing the Alberta Clipper as a maintenance project even though it was like triple the expansion and it was an old crossing and they were putting in a brand new crossing. They said it was maintenance and the Carry State department actually agreed at that time. But that was when I first started getting involved in working with Sierra Club and finished in 350 and some other NGOs about those DC pieces.
Ann: And it's, it's interesting to me that you learned about this when you were living and working far away from, from that place and I'm you know I know we're speaking now you're you're a lot you know physically closer to where this proposed project is going. And I'm just, I'm wondering about that, about how this work may be shifted for you, you know, when you decided to spend more time back home. I guess it's a question about geography and where you find yourself and how, how these issues and how these struggles land for you?
Tara: Yeah for sure. I actually had intended on being away for a little bit longer you know. I mean I'm born and raised here as in I grew up a very in a very very small community out in the woods and then went to the big city to go to school or whatever, but I still stayed at University of Minnesota all the way through undergrad and law school so I was like very tied to this place. And I was out in even a bigger city, out in DC learning new things, but then I went to the Standing Rock Sioux reservation, out in North Dakota because of the Dakota Access Pipeline being fought. And I had already started doing some, like urban organizing at that time, like in DC that you know the Keystone XL pipeline and Oak Flat, the copper mine being proposed in Apache sacred territories is still an issue right now actually. And I was trying to kind of use different connections and learn the ropes about you know how do I get more mainstream media onto some of these issues, how to make these connections with the people, and then like push the legislative pieces right, I was getting all that experience. But then stage runners came out from from Cannon Ball, North Dakota and they they ran all the way to DC for their message about this pipeline through their territory that they had said no to and Facebook live had just started and LaDonna Allard went on Facebook live and you know ask for help… And I could tell she really meant it you know. She really meant what she was saying and so I rented a car and packed with everything that I, that I had and drove to north dakota thinking i was gonna be out there for like a couple weeks and I stayed there for like six months. And I don't think I really came back after that… well I went back to DC, sort of like physically but you know, my heart was with the land because I had spent time back on the land, right. And then they started building Line Three around my home state, around Minnesota. And when they started building around the state, I knew that I had to move home. Like, it wasn't, I couldn't stay away anymore. I had to be there because it was coming, you know, and I understood what was about to happen. And that's when the camp actually got formed, it was right around that time.
[Music]
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Ann: And tell me what the camp is like now for people who have not been able to see, you know, footage of it or posts about it online or media reports. What does it look like? And what's going on there?
Tara: Yeah, sure. And there is no coaster footage online of our camp.
Ann: [laughter] Okay, I was just talking about myself. But yeah...
[laughter]
Tara: Yea but no, that's for everyone. I think it’s a secure space. So it's not open to the public. And it's something where you reach out to us and get screened, and all that. Tor COVID protocols, but also just like, for what happens when you're working in nonviolent direct action… which is, you know, a lot of intense surveillance, and attempts to get inside or whatever, and figure out how things work, which is… a really sad aspect of the work, I think that, you know, there's so much effort put on trying to infiltrate and destroy people's rights to organize and demonstrate together. But especially indigenous people, I mean, it's, it's quite telling to me that they've been using Customs Border Patrol drones over our camp as Indigenous people. Apparently, they're trying to stretch the risks of us to the US border, which is pretty crazy to me. But, I mean, we're Americans before...there wasn't America, right? Like we're, we're people who've been here since before the United States began. Before North America and South America were the names that they are now. I mean, this is Turtle Island to us. Or at least for me, it is… But yeah, I can't. I mean, it's a it's a it's a community, you know, it's about not only learning and training folks, and you know, not just direct action, but also campaigning and, you know, how do you try to push on decision makers, through the legislature through... we just watched this huge deep online three campaigns, so targeting the bank, find industry. How do you learn how to leverage different relationships with other non-government, non-governmental organizations or other allies or groups that are maybe not always on the same page as you, but that have a similar goal, which is protecting the land and protecting the water or stopping climate crisis, or at least trying to mitigate climate crisis in some real way… The bulk of what we do is actually living sustainably and growing food and harvesting rice, like I talked about. I mean, I got to bring out a bunch of youth that were knocking rice for the first time in their lives this year. And that's really powerful and beautiful to do, you know, to, to take people out in canoes and have an experience with what it's really all about, and what it's for. And we harvested a bison like about a month ago now. And we've been, we just finished canning and stretching that height and we have access to that now for ceremonies and we've got a sweat lodge in camp and that was the first structure that was built… When the camp was actually opened up, I invited a bunch of matriarchs, including LaDonna Allard and Pua Case from Hawaii, over to to bless the space and... begin what we, what I really thought was needed.
Ann: mmhmm
Tara: It’s meant to be a healing space. And it seems like it's been doing that for, for a lot of different people over the years.
Ann: And I'm curious about, how you feel about the different ways of approaching this, this work, you know, so I know you have this rich legal background, lots of advocacy in dc experience but then also this very, you know direct, direct action, you know direct connection aspect to what you do and I'm wondering if you think that there is a place for all of it? Is there, is there a place for you in all of it? Do you have a preference for how you show up to this work? Do you have a preference for how others show up to this work?
Tara: [laughter] You mean the whiplash code switching that I do?
Ann: [laughter] Thank you that was a much more succinct way of putting my question.
Tara: Yeah you know, I mean I think I'm at a point in my life where I'm able to look back on, on a little bit you know. Like I’m old enough that I can look back a little bit and try to reflect on what I've learned so far and maybe some patterns that I see in my life and just where I come from and seeing that kind of play out over and over again and I think… I grew up in a border town right off the rez right. It was, the rez was like actually across the lake and across the lake of Canada and I grew up on a little town on the US side so I'm a US citizen and so I've always been kind of in between right like in between these, these spaces so not quite from the rez, not quite you know from the, from the quote unquote white community, but this, this weird space where you're kind of never really fit… And I think that's played out in later life. Like where I think that oftentimes my role is being this bridge in between spaces so I'm I'm able to bring a perspective of the lodge and traditional teachings and the wisdom that is so viciously held in those spaces because I'm a Sundancer and I'm a day lodge member. I know and I bring that perspective and everything that I do. But then I also have this US legal background and so and all these different connections and understandings of that whole system of governance and other different pressure points and how to use that in a way that can be effective at times. And that goes through I think the more nuanced approaches to to financial engagement and things like the equator principles and you know the UN and how that all intersects and can actually be effective when you're trying to target it particularly Europe, European banks that actually do comply with a lot of those principles. And then this piece of grassroots direct action organizing. I think the reason that I that I've chosen to go the way that I am currently at in my path of life… is that I've observed a lot of different places and spaces through all those different streams I guess that are kind of flowing through my life and it seems like there's... a need for a space to… not only… fight this pipeline and fight this particular project but to… empower young people by instilling deep values into their hearts. Because I think you know we're, we're looking for young people and so you know youth and climate and all that stuff like to kind of right the wrongs that have been committed for, for centuries. But I think there's also like an immense need for showing them the at least the some of the ropes and I think a lot of the ropes are pretty broken and pretty jaded but I think some of them are actually really needed in terms of leadership and having a really strong understanding of what you're doing and why. I've written about this extensively. I mean I think the climate movement does a huge disservice by separating ourselves from the land through the language of climate and statistical analysis and data and all the things that are so commonplace, but I think do… a huge amount of damage when it comes to actually like having a real relationship instead of this disconnection. The land isn't a real thing when you're talking about it and facts.
Ann: Yeah I mean I'm thinking about that phrase the land isn't a real thing, because you know earlier when you said something about just the pavement separating us from the land is like you know I'm, I'm really very it's very present for me listening to you how disconnected... I am and how many, many people listening to this podcast I'm sure are from from the land itself or from maybe what might be naturally occurring in that space if without this built human environment over it and I'm wondering how you know you think people like me should kind of reforge that connection or, or you know what what might it look like to, to kind of move beyond just like a statistical argument for caring about climate change? Or like a solidarity or logical like yes I want to stop Line Three to something that feels maybe a little bit more direct as you say or maybe a little bit more emotional, and physical, and present.
Tara: Yeah that emotionality and that physicality is so important I think at least that's my own understanding so far and my life about why we are where we’re, where we are. And oftentimes they like, you know… Indigenous people are 5% of the world's global population and we hold 80% of the world's biodiversity. That's for a reason you know it's for reshipping because we're still deeply interconnected right and we understand that the the earth is a living being and… we are in community with her whether or not we want to admit it. You know and she can kill us and she does all the time. I mean, I think when you when you begin to just even like moving your mind into a different mindset instead of seeing manipulated stone and water and thinking like that’s concrete, that's a structure right. When I'm sitting in rooms like that where it's like super filtered air and you know it's glass and steel and like all that and there's like some, usually man, sitting across me with like a three piece suit…
Ann: [laughs]
Tara: Who's looking at me like I'm like you know like the dirtiest bug or something like that or like this like pitiable kind of thing that he's like there to try to feel sorry for but really is just gonna keep doing what everything because I'm like you know too… I'm too inept or idealistic to possibly give him any information that would change his mind right… it's just the way that it's just the way things go is it's a mindset oftentimes… or it's just the way things are you know. What can, what can I do? I’m sitting in a room like that and I'm thinking about how I have to remind this person that they drink water, about how I'm going to remind them that the steel that's making up their building comes from the earth and that the glass that that they're looking through is made up of sand and that they're surrounded by the earth all the time. That their body is made of the earth and the clothing that they're wearing is manipulated elements of the earth. And then, whenever that happens like I've actually seen people physically kind of like look at their shirt. [laughter] you know like that kind of like looking at their hands…
Ann: [laughter]
Tara: Like feeling that for just a moment and it's, it's hard because I know that generally as I've seen things like people are able to brush things off and go they were, were, were people that settle into patterns and familiarity most easily, because it's like the path of least resistance right. It's hard to open your mind to these things, it's hard to grapple with climate crisis. It's, it's climate grief right like it hurts to think about and it hurts to see and to internalize it, sometimes for people can feel really really overwhelming. You know and maybe there's like guilt associated with it or… There's all these different pieces that can… lead people to inaction or feeling like they they just can't do anything at all… I don't think that's true at all and I think that everything I've learned in terms of like what the lodges have taught me is that I'm a lifelong student right, and I'm a lifelong political human as just trying to make my way through. And we're all doing that we're all in various stages of growth, and it's as long as we stay focused on growth like that's the important thing right and I'm talking about like exponential like profit growth.
[laughter]
Tara: Spiritual growth which is so important and those things are deeply out of balance right. Like we prioritize the economy over people that are well... Like one of the best lectures I've been to where I was listening to other people because oftentimes it's like you know there's it's science and it's people trying to get through to people in the language that we're most familiar with but one of the lectures I saw was this woman who was talking about economies of care…
And how… that's so readily discarded because it's not quantifiable in the terms that we know. But having well people is enormously important to, to having successful businesses or whatever the heck it is that they're trying to build and create, right? Having well, members of society is incredibly important. And so just dismissing that outright, dismissing caregiving, you know, under... resourcing, or disrespecting that type of work, just doesn't seem to... make any sense. And that's the same thing with spirituality and that type of internal personal growth… I mean, I feel like we're kind of inundated all the time. Although lately with the pandemic everyone's been,
it's been time given for self reflection.
Ann: mmhmm
Tara: I think, I don't know, it's interesting to me to fight a massive infrastructure project like this, during a pandemic. A number of reasons, it's really hard, because it's like, you know, there's, you gotta be real careful with how many people you got coming out and worrying about your friends in jail or myself in jail, and, you know, getting COVID and maybe passing on somebody else, you know, it's terrifying. But then there's also like this, understanding that people are being forced to grapple with what's most important, which is, you know, their friends and their family and… their neighbors and their, their communities… And that the Mother Nature seemed like she kind of just told us to slow down. And think about it for a little bit, you know, just to me, she can shut down the whole world if she wants to, and she did.
Ann: Weirdly, that makes me feel better about the whole pandemic, I'm like, Oh, Mother has shut it down, that feels a lot better than I'm trapped at home, you know.
[laughter]
Tara: It's beautiful, like, it's, there's hard things, right. But there's also really beautiful things about it, like, at least for those of us who are privileged enough to have a space that can be warm, and that we can live in, and we can eat food… And I think there's an enormous opportunity for self reflection. And for also recognizing for those who don't have that access, who don't have that comfort and privilege… that we need to do better to take care of the vulnerable… And, I mean, I hope that that is really starting to get through to people when they see these big lines of people trying to get food. Or when they see, you know Texas's got people who are freezing to death, they don't have anything, especially black and brown people, poor people, houseless people? I know, that's, that's reflective of the whole. And if it's native people that are crying out to their voice to the earth, and… you know, we're systematically and systemically invisiblized, erased, and silenced... And I hope that we give thought to that and pause to that. As nature's been silencing us at least to an extent, or at least slowing us down.
Ann: What would you ask of people who are listening to this who are far from, you know, the frontlines and far from your camp? And who are, who feel a real alignment with what your work is there and the protesting that you're doing, and the pushing back, what would you ask of them?
Tara: I mean, we have groups coming out from all over Turtle Island that have been traveling in pods and, and coming out to actually really stand with us, you know, to stand side by side and respond urgently to this urgent problem… And I think that that's a huge thing you can do if you're able to. But if you can't do that, I mean, there are distributed ways to get involved. There's, you know, this Defund Line Three campaign I just mentioned, stop-the-money-pipeline[dot]com. There is, you know, a series of actions that we're looking at doing nationally during the I think it's like the second week of March… There's spreading awareness, sharing awareness, tweeting at Joe Biden and Gina McCarthy to be aware of this project and what's happening. It's like petitions you can sign and things like that… I think also just like the work it takes to… understand who the native people are around you... To understand and be in community with the earth. Whether you're in the most urban center or not the earth surrounds you all the time including yourself, you know you are of the earth and doing your best to, to... learn those values in a really deep way. I think that empathy and that love is so deeply needed... And you know, we’re creatures of things right in front of us, that’s that short term thinking. We see the comfort right in front of us, we see the danger that’s right in front of us. But to me, like the environment is not an issue, it’s not an issue area because without it we don’t have any issue areas. We don’t have a life. There is no racial justice, gender justice, social justice, you know, any of that without having the planet to live on. We don’t get to keep progressing as people unless we hand something off to those future generations.
Ann: Tara, I really really appreciate your, your time and you sharing your work and your brain and your wisdom with all of, all of us today.
Tara: Yeah I do quite appreciate that and I don’t know, just praise you well and thank you for being so thoughtful about how crazy. Yeah I’m kind of hard to get a hold of these days. It’s, it’s been wild. We have people who just got out of jail like two days ago. And they were in for another extra day. And like there were people in pipes on Tuesday, there’s people like walking down today like as we’re having this call. There’s an all out, all out battle happening right now for mother earth, in this place, in this space.
[Interview ends]
Aminatou: Ah that was so good. There’s just so much I didn’t know. Like how informative!
Ann: Yeah, I also have to say that there are some longer interviews and talks that Tara has given that are on Youtube, which is how I learned about her and her work. So if you want to hear from her, I I recommend that. And we will also link to her work and ways to get involved with Stop Line Three in the show notes.
Aminatou: I will see you on Youtube.
Ann: [laughter] See you on the internet.
[outro music]
Aminatou: You can find us many places on the Internet: callyourgirlfriend.com, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, we're on all your favorite platforms. Subscribe, rate, review, you know the drill. You can call us back. You can leave a voicemail at 714-681-2943. That's 714-681-CYGF. You can email us at callyrgf@gmail.com. Our theme song is by Robyn, original music composed by Carolyn Pennypacker Riggs. Our logos are by Kenesha Sneed. We're on Instagram and Twitter at @callyrgf. Our producer is Jordan Bailey and this podcast is produced by Gina Delvac.