This week we are rebroadcasting our interview with Queen Quet, originally aired in November of 2018. The Anthropocene tells the story of compounding injustice towards people and planet. It tells the story of growth for growth’s sake, living beyond boundaries sacredly assigned to us. In this episode, we are honored to be in dialogue with Queen Quet, Chieftess and Head-of-State for the Gullah/Geechee Nation, who is striving for justice on the front lines of the most pressing Anthropocentric intersections: climate change, resource extraction, corrupt and negligent government bodies, encroaching development, and exploitative tourism.

Facing the onslaught of colonial terrorism towards both Black and Indigenous lives, Queen Quet's vision is lighting the way forward in troubled times in terms of sovereignty, land rights, and climate change resilience plans. The Gullah/Geechee are descendants of the first enslaved Central and West Africans who remained isolated along the inland, coastal area, and Sea Islands between present-day Jacksonville, North Carolina and Jacksonville, Florida. However, over the past several decades Gullah/Geechee ancestral land has been targeted for exploitation and development, most notably revered golfing and vacation paradise for the wealthy, Hilton Head, which receives almost two million incoming tourists annually to visit the over 25 golf courses and so-called “plantations” - built on top of Gullah/Geechee heritage, cultural, and burial sites. In this episode, we explore the rampant development of land, building community resilience beyond political organizing, and understanding the true scope of natural disasters outside of economic impact alone.

Queen Quet, Marquetta L. Good-wine is a published author, computer scientist, lecturer, mathematician, historian, columnist, preservationist, environmental justice advocate, film consultant, and “The Art-ivist.” Queen Quet was selected, elected, and enstooled by her people to be the first Queen Mother, “head pun de bodee,” and official spokesperson for the Gullah/Geechee Nation. As a result, she is respectfully referred to as “Queen Quet, Chieftess and Head-of-State for the Gullah/Geechee Nation.” She is the founder of the premiere advocacy organization for the continuation of Gullah/Geechee culture, the Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition. 

Queen Quet has won countless awards for being a woman of distinction, for her scholarship, writings, artistic presentation, activism, cultural continuation and environmental preservation. She was the first Gullah/Geechee person to speak on behalf of her people before the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland and at the United Nations COP 22 Climate Change Conference in Marrakesh, Morocco.  

♫ The music you heard today was by The Gullah Singers – Live recordings from Gullah/Geechee TV Nayshun Nyews with Queen Quet and The Gullah/Geechee Nation International Music & Movement Festival. 

Episode References

The Gullah/Geechee Nation

Queen Quet’s Recommendations

WEBE Gullah/Geechee Cultural Capital & Collaboration Anthology

Take Action

Donate to the Gullah/Geechee Land & Legacy Fund

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