LIL MILAGRO HENRIQUEZ-CORNEJO on Climate Resilience Rooted in Ancestry /249
Photo of fungi clusters growing from a decomposing mother log surrounded by fallen leaves and forest duff; Courtesy of Sigmund.
In order to limit global temperature from exceeding a 1.5°C increase, we need to cut global emissions by 45% in the next 10 years. However, recent reports indicate that if our current global pledges were enacted, we’d only reduce our emissions by 1%. We are living through what some might define as an ongoing climate emergency, and this will only continue for future generations. Instead of fixating on how to “stop” climate change-related disasters or putting our trust in ineffective government bodies or greedy purveyors of “green” technology to “save” us, this week, we think about how we can have community resilience, ingenuity, and wellbeing amidst unpredictable circumstances with guest Lil Milagro Henriquez-Cornejo of Mycelium Youth Network. For Mycelium Youth Network, the capacity for community resilience is inextricable from reconnecting with ancestral knowledge and reestablishing our relationships with one another and Earth.
In conversation, Lil Milagro highlights the absurdity that dominant education is not meant to equip young people with the kind of basic skills that would allow them to feel empowered about the future we are all aging into. We discuss the importance of science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM) curriculum that is rooted in ancestral knowledge, the importance of normalizing our fear and anxiety as we channel it into action, and the importance of dismantling common narratives around frontline communities as groups of people who need “saving”, while completely ignoring the wealth of wisdom that derives from frontline communities when it comes to navigating failing systems and tending the land.
“Be prepared to walk incredibly humbly and gently because we are all trying to figure it out together.”
Photo of Lil Milagro Henriquez-Conejo
Lil Milagro Henriquez-Cornejo is the founder and Executive Director of Mycelium Youth Network, an organization dedicated to preparing and empowering young people of color for climate change. Lil Milagro is a veteran of social justice organizing with over 18+ years of experience working on a myriad of issues, including access to higher education for low-income people and communities of color, food sovereignty, environmental racism, union democracy, and labor organizing, among others. In 2017, she founded Mycelium Youth Network. She is a current recipient of the Women’s Earth Alliance fellowship.
♫ The music featured in this episode is “I Wish” by Harry Foster, “What Did the Music Sound Like” by Lea Thomas, and “Kandinsky” by Ian George.
Episode References
“Keeping Bees at the End of the World” by Lil Milagro Henriquez-Cornejo
Reading Recommendations
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse
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For The Wild is a slow media organization dedicated to land-based protection, co-liberation, and intersectional storytelling. We are rooted in a paradigm shift away from human supremacy, endless growth, and consumerism. As we dream towards a world of grounded justice and reciprocity, our work highlights impactful stories and deeply-felt meaning making as balms for these times.