RUTH ŁCHAV'AYA K'ISEN MILLER on Relations of Reciprocity /252
Handcut collage with mother bear and two cubs trailing her through an abstract landscape; a female face gazes downward beneath the hollow of a tree inhabited by an owl; by Carmen Loretta, www.pacificspiritbear.com.
“If this new green economy continues to perpetuate the same ethos that resource extraction has, we will not find any solutions and we will see our suffering perpetuated.” Heeding this call from Ruth Łchav’aya K’isen Miller, we explore the fruitful spaces between radical imagination, public policy, and on-the-ground activism as we think about what it means to take meaningful steps towards creating a non-extractive future. In this week’s episode, Ruth shares how tending to the future must center Indigenous values and lifeways. With this in mind, we look at the totality of what a “just transition” can offer us beyond limited definitions shaped by economics, policy, and job growth. Instead, Ruth shares the ways in which a just transition can be understood as a cyclical movement inspired by kinship, care, and reciprocity.
In this magnetic conversation, Ruth and Ayana consider where a politics of love can breathe, radical softness, mindsets of abundance, climate justice advocacy, and the steps we can take to create systems of wellness. In recognition of what might feel like a painful transition for many, Ruth guides us to think about what practices and acts of care we can implement with each other as a way of willing a more beautiful world back into existence.
“It is a sign of strength to be soft. It is a sign of care and devotion to our bodies, our first territories, our first vessels”
Photo of Ruth Łchav’aya K’isen Miller
Ruth Łchav’aya K’isen Miller is a Dena'ina Athabaskan and Ashkenazi Russian Jewish woman, raised in Dgheyay Kaq (Anchorage), Alaska. She is a member of the Curyung Tribe from the Lake Clark region, and also has roots in Bristol Bay. She is a recent graduate from Brown University, built on occupied Wampanoag and Narragansett lands, and received a BA in Critical Development Studies with a focus on Indigenous resistance and liberation. Ruth is the Climate Justice and Just Transition Director for Native Movement, a matriarchal grassroots Indigenous organization that fights for the rights of Indigenous peoples. She has worked many years towards climate justice and a regenerative economy for all on her lands and beyond, her work also includes international advocacy, including attending the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, the UN Youth Climate Summit, COP25 in Madrid, Spain, and the Continental Gathering of Indigenous Women of the Americas. She is a daughter, a granddaughter, an aunty, a language learner, a traditional beadworker, and a subsistence fisherwomxn.
♫ The music featured in this episode is “My Heart Beating Drum” by Madelyn Ilana, “Don’t Steal the Land” by Høly River, and “Snow Knows White” by Mariee Sioux.
Episode References
“The Serviceberry” by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Alaska's Just Transition Collective – Kohtr'elneyh
All About Love by bell hooks
Emergent Strategy by adrienne maree brown
Alaska Native Renewable Industries
“A Material Transition” by War On Want
Ruth’s Recommendations
“Decolonization is not a metaphor” by Eve Tuck & K. Wayne Yang
On The Land Podcast hosted by Deenaalee Chase-Hodgdon
Land Acknowledgement Workshop by Melissa Shaginoff
Emergent Strategy by adrienne maree brown
"We The People" TEDXTalk by MIchael Charles
Take Action
“Educate and activate! Learn whose traditional homelands you are on. Self-assess and reflect using decolonization tools and education materials to grow into better allyship with Indigenous communities and communities of color. Learn how best to take care of yourself and those around you – mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritual. Practice radical softness.”
Native Movement Action Resources
Defend the Sacred Action Toolkit
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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.