Our Values & Principles
Written January 2023, Ratified April 2023
Our Values
Core beliefs that shape who we are and how we work.
Interdependence. We live in an interdependent web of life. Everything is connected.
Sovereignty and rights of land and all beings. The land, waters, air, plants, fungi, human, and more-than-human creatures are valued stakeholders and protagonists in their own stories and futures. All life has a right to exist according to its own nature.
Decolonization & repair. We are in a human-made climate emergency, created by the devastation of racial capitalism. Today’s power structures and mainstream culture — rooted in white supremacy, colonialism, and extraction — were/are created by white people and institutions for their own material benefit and power. This system has systematically stolen, denied, and harmed the lives and lands of Black and Indigenous people, immigrants and refugees, the working class, and people of the Global South over centuries, continuing through to today. This requires active undoing and repair. To begin to make amends and move toward wholeness, these times call for rematriation, reparations, and regeneration of land. Not only is this the morally right thing to do, but it’s the best thing we can do to ensure a livable future for all of us.
Healing land & lineage. We are grateful for the gifts of our religious and cultural heritage(s) and that of the religious communities with whom we work, and we recognize the parts of our lineage(s) that must end with us. We know our communities, our cultural worldviews, and our ecosystems are in profound need of healing, which is both material and spiritual work. We work to hospice our dominant and destructive systems, as well as midwife justice, liberation, and beauty.
The long road. There is no quick fix to the current systems of oppression/extraction that dominate our society. The work of land justice is intergenerational, and our work exists within, and because of, centuries-long lines of land & life defenders, political prophets, community organizers, and accomplices. We are committed to honoring that lineage and to this lifelong work, for ourselves and for future generations.
Yes, love. Land justice is about love. It’s about removing barriers for loving the land, and for expanding who gets to love the land (or even be a ‘who’). There are infinite life-giving ways to love Creation; this work is about removing the barriers that obstruct or diminish that love. We do this work because we love the world.
Our Organizing Principles
The intentional culture and practices of our movement, informed by our values. The tools we have to both protect our movement from problems that might arise and keep it healthy.
Orientation to spirit.
Transformative relationship.
Trust & humility.
Ecological & racial repair — always both.
Sovereignty & self-determination.
Solidarity & centered accountability within movement.
Creating a world beyond racial capitalism.
Strategic allegiances & inclusion.
Plurality of paths.
Place-based & grassroots.
Aliveness & the ‘funky prophetic.’
Stories for cultural change.
Orientation to spirit. Our work flows from an attentiveness to Life, and we cultivate practices of contemplative leadership.
Transformative relationship. We move with respect and reciprocity, at the speed of trust and authentic relationship. We prioritize relational organizing, building ‘for-real’ and just relationships amongst ourselves, our partners, and our base.
Trust & humility. We right-size our role within movements, our relationships, and in the ongoingness of creation. We’re honest about our learning edges, leverage our power where needed, and trust the larger ecology of our movements.
Ecological & racial repair — always both. There’s no climate justice without racial justice; no racial justice without climate justice. We prioritize both environmental and racial healing in our work, not one at the expense of the other. We seek not only to reduce harm, but to repair and make whole.
Sovereignty & self-determination. We respect Indigenous sovereignty. We stand with people’s right to self-determination, and are committed to dismantling the pattern of colonial, white-settler violence so that lands, peoples, and cultures may thrive. We also recognize that no group is a monolith and we must let people speak for themselves — that, too, is self-determination.
Solidarity & centered accountability within movement. We take proactive steps to ensure our work is aligned with, and in service of, movements for climate justice, a solidarity economy, Indigenous sovereignty & landback, and Black liberation and reparations. We do so because we believe a shift in power is owed and necessary for a just and liveable future. We do whatever we can not to reproduce the oppressive patterns of the dominant system and move toward solidarity with struggles on the frontlines.
We do not dehumanize ourselves, the communities we work with, or folks with race/class privilege. We do not do this work out of shame but out of love for life and what could be possible. We can contest for power for the sake of our movements, our values, and our goals — “If it’s the right thing to do, we have every right to do it.” (Movement Generation)
Creating a world beyond racial capitalism. Our work is in support of a larger, complete transformation of society. A different paradigm is actually possible, and we see it alive in a Just Transition: distributing wealth, power, and the means of caring for and creating life, rather than continuing to concentrate them; creating localized, bioregional democracies; championing community rights to energy, land, water, food sovereignty, and culture; and developing economies that provide dignified, productive and ecologically sustainable livelihoods governed directly by workers and communities.
Strategic allegiance & inclusion. We organize predominantly-white, Catholic/Christian landowners who have benefited from our current system; and we invite anyone to do land justice because this healing will require everyone. We center the interests of communities who have been dispossessed & oppressed by our current system: Black, Indigenous, and communities of color as well as working class and rural communities whose land, wealth, and labor have been stolen or exploited. We center these voices in our educational programming and stay connected to their social movements to inform our strategic decisions.
More specifically, we seek to be in accountable relationships to partners who share our values and center climate justice.
Plurality of paths. There are many ways up the mountain. There’s no singular “right way” to do land justice. Land justice is contextual to each place and story, and we need thousands of stories to be part of the movement. We’re not purists or fundamentalists, but work along a spectrum with an array of tactics, steps, and strategies for the goals of land justice.
Place-based & grassroots. Industrial society is often placeless and displacing, so we seek to be place-based and place-restoring. We work community by community. We prioritize and seek out local, grassroots knowledge and community-based organizations that already have or are reclaiming their relationship to place. We seek to listen to the land as an equal partner in our work, and invite those with deep kinship to the land to be a voice for the land as well.
Aliveness & the ‘funky prophetic.’ We honor and take care of our bodies, hearts, minds, and spirits. By practicing wellbeing, joy, play, and community care, we support the health and boldness of our movements — and more closely embody the world we want to live in. We take risks, delight in mischief, and bring creative sass for the pursuit of justice. We magnetize the aliveness and potency of truth, including hard truths, to build energy and grow our movements.
Stories for cultural change. This work requires us to be good storytellers — to change the public imagination by telling the story we can tell, amplifying the voices and narratives of land justice, and being as transparent as possible about our work. We lean into the vulnerable edge of learning in public and in sharing honestly about what we’re doing, how we’re doing it, what’s working and not working. This is not only important for staying accountable and contributing value to our movements, but necessary for growing them. We don’t hoard the medicine.
Endnote Definitions:
Land Justice: the practice of centering ecological, social, and racial justice in decisions about how land is used, loved, and governed by people. Land justice incorporates three components: protecting the land from extraction/harm, regenerating Her health, and expanding land equity to Black, Indigenous, and other dispossessed communities.
Racial capitalism: refers to the mutual dependence of capitalism and racism. (Add Neville Alexander and Harold Wolpe definitions) “The simultaneous historical emergence of racism and capitalism in the modern world and their mutual dependence.“ (Peter Hudson) “A sort of capitalism that relies upon the elaboration, reproduction, and exploitation of notions of racial difference.” (Walter Johnson)
Just Transition: a framework for a fair shift to an economy that is ecologically sustainable, equitable, and just for all its members. Constructing a visionary economy for life calls for strategies that democratize, decentralize, and diversify economic activity while we damper down consumption and (re)distribute resources and power. (Movement Generation)
Regenerate: to restore, reform, and recreate again what has been taken or lost; a spiritual rebirth. (Sogorea’ Te Land Trust)
Rematriate: Indigenous woman-led work to restore sacred relationship between Indigenous people and their ancestral land; honoring matrilineal societies & ways of tending to the land. (Sogorea’ Te Land Trust) also “Returning the land to Herself.” (Pat McCabe)
Reparation: to make amends of a wrong one has done by paying money to the impacted party or otherwise mitigating harm; the act of repair. (Sogorea’ Te Land Trust)
Frontline communities: people who have been most negatively impacted by the climate crisis because of systemic, economic oppression. They are most often Black, Indigenous, and people of color, as well as poor and working class people.