NIRIA ALICIA on Pockets of Joy in the Resistance /260
Photo of botanical arrangement over dark background by Katelyn Greer.
How many times have you questioned whether or not your life was in alignment with your purpose for being here? With the ever common phenomenon of burnout, fatigue, and drain, it’s becoming increasingly common for us to have these never-ending thoughts. This week on the podcast, we take a moment for some deep heart salve with Niria Alicia who guides us to think about ancestral instruction, precious purpose, rituals for liberation, and what it means to be human in this time. This warm and rich conversation looks at spiritual crisis in tandem with climate crisis, the allure of self-sabotage, and the problem with the many “solutions” we are offered to the problems our world faces in this epoch.
“We must commit to rituals that liberate us as much as we must commit to showing up to protests and actions.”
Photo of Niria Alicia by Cilviana Garcia
Niria Alicia is a Xicana Indigena community organizer, human rights advocate, educator and storyteller dedicated to protecting the sacredness of Mother Earth and the dignity of historically oppressed peoples and the more-than-human world. Born 500 years after Columbus’ invasion in a migrant farmworker community, her struggle for love and liberation exists at the intersections of migrant justice, climate justice and indigenous rights.
In 2020 she was given the highest honor the UN awards young people by being named the Young Champion of the Earth for North America. Niria’s proudest accomplishments and honors have been learning how to make tortillas in the traditional way for her abuelita, growing her first milpa from her family’s heirloom corn seeds and inheriting her great-great grandmother’s metate, a culturally significant ancestral tool made from lava rock that has the hand imprints of the strong women she is proud to descend from.
♫ The music featured in this episode is "Uno" by Santiago Cordoba, "Mujer Torbellino" by Palo-Mah, and “Jasmine Vines” by The Range of Light Wilderness.
NIRIA’S Recommendations
Warrior of the Light: A Manuel by Paulo Coelho
Lifting Hearts Off the Ground: Declaring Indigenous Rights in Poetry by Lyla June Johnston and Joy De Vito
Dancing Salmon Home & One Word Sawalmen (films from Run4Salmon)
We aim to be a gathering place for ideas and solutions ensuring that the growing body of work that we steward remains accessible to the public. If you want to see us continue, or perhaps are especially moved by the episode you are listening to today, please become a monthly sustaining member through our Patreon or consider making a one-time donation directly to us through our website. To stay up-to-date on our work, sign up for our newsletter.
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.