Women defenders of territory and life, leaders of original peoples, Afro-descendants, of Mesoamerica and Abya Yala (America), survivors of centuries of extermination, genocide and persecution, salute the peoples of the north in these times of great transformation. We strengthen our ties with plurinational internationalisms, mainly with bodies and territories most marginalised and extinct, and because our commitment is of intergenerational dignity, we honour the knowledge of their ancestors and we also recognise the children.

We salute their lives, we embrace their paths. We place deep love at the centre in community, in relationship with the land and in territoriality and we give you this coral message, this message of mandala, of encouragement and inspiration, like a seed of recognition of life: we need to elevate the immune system of Mother Earth.

One more time the countries of capital have brought to our land contagious death. It is not the first pandemic that reaches us, produced by a toxic, irresponsible and disrespectful doing. The virus is the capitalist, racist and patriarchal system that destroys life! And still, we are here, alive, healing, denouncing, standing. We have gone through history. We can handle the threads of the fabric of life, threads of resilience, resistance and recognition of the knowledge of our ancestors. And here we come today to remind you that we are peoples of love, of creativity that germinates, and that you need us more than ever.

Ourselves and our impoverished peoples are not part of the humanity that has brought nature to this place, the original peoples are not the ones causing this pandemic. The water that you use comes from the rivers that we love, your medicine from the plants that we cultivate, your foods from the seeds that we preserve. We have been looted and attacked, we are still being killed and oppressed with impunity, the extractive companies continue to destroy our territories… But if today we point at our wound once more it is to remind you that it is out vulnerability that makes you totter. Because you are me and I am you we know that the destiny of the most fragile is the destiny of all. I am you, you are me, an ancestral term in our territories that in maya is said Tzk’at (reciprocity and complementarity) and in garífuna Aura buni, Amurü nuni (me for you and you for me). For that, convinced that our lungs are also those of the pacha mama (Mother Earth), we announce to you that we are resisting with all our joy, energy and anger, without feeling guilty, because our commitment with life is universal.

As original peoples we are distributed across the planet, like knots of a network that today tenses. Many of our women defenders are in your land, exiled, migrated, persecuted, impoverished and, still, territorialising, including in their defence the neighbourhoods and the houses where we are confined. Neither stopping nor silent, wherever we are we put life at the centre from minute zero because care is political. Faced with this crisis, we give new meaning to the value of ancestral knowledge and community care, and we affirm that food and health sovereignty is the only revitalising path.

Because we love Mother Earth we honour the legacy of our ancestors. Their voices transmit identity, culture and knowledge to us, that is why we prioritise the protection of elderly people in our communities. This moment is a wonderful opportunity to recover and strengthen the ancestral knowledge of our people and, moreover, to recognise that we know how to organise. In the village of Garífuna, for example, they have created autonomous health centre to control the disease and seek solutions that focus the attention on the elderly and they go on rounds of life checks in communities and common pots, they locate the sick to create a chain of care, they purify the water in those houses that were denied access to the sources, they regain the use of our medicinal plants … The first elderly women with coronavirus treated with their herbs and intakes are starting to be out of danger. Our holistic conception of health compels community work to take new political meaning as individual and collective self-care.

Our ancestors are also those of all humanity, and that is why we make our knowledge available to the peoples, in defence of this urgent sovereignty of health that the entire planet needs. Food, resources, the sharing of mental health, laughter and the living word are all part of health care. We are seeing that in many countries the shortage will generate speculation and there will be people who will have nothing to eat. It becomes clear that the coming food crisis is terrible. That is why we continue to plant and give food to the communities, we reject the micro-credits that are offered to us because they are a poisoned candy that seeks to get us into debt, we return to the exchange with the local fishermen, we defend the existence of the markets to become independent from the supermarkets… and we continue to go out into the streets in an organised way to protest to the authorities because we do not have access to food, knowing, as has happened, that we will be arrested and prosecuted.

Image of some of the webinar participants.

We move forward with love, commitment and humility. Despite our knowledge, we are rethinking our forms of organising, because this crisis also questions us. Although this pandemic did not come from the countries of the south, we are part of the web of life and this implies living with the western world. Respect our origins, respect our knowledge, recognise our power, we invite you to take care of life with presence and attentive listening, because the planet needs us united.
Let us rethink together. It is time to work on feminist alternatives starting with community knowledge. It is urgent to create new coalitions, to initiate new learnings. But doing so without inequality, recognising and questioning privileges, honouring the knowledge of those who are in the territories facing the cruelty of this system. Let’s work to think about what we can do after the lockdown. Let us generate new paths from the territory of our homes. We have to respond to a model of life that is killing us, this is the legacy that we will leave to our descendants. We are called to materialise our political object, to take care of ourselves in common and from autonomy, the moment has come.
We demand from the worlds that we do not ask for a return to normality, because normality centred on neoliberal, colonialist, racist and invading patriarchies was killing us. After the lockdown, as humanity other fabrics are possible, other inspirations connected to Mother Earth are possible, other models of life are possible.
Let us listen to each other alive, let us feel alive.
So be it

*This text emerges from the collective knowledge contributed by the participants in the virtual dialogue ‘Let’s talk about life: women defenders of the territory and of the common good contribute with knowledge and alternatives in the face of the current crisis’, convened by: Iniciativa Mesoamericana de Defensoras, Consejo de Pueblos K’iche’s, Calala Fondo de Mujeres, Pikara Magazine, Agencia Vasca de Cooperación, Red Nacional de Defensoras de Derechos Humanos en Honduras, Organización Fraternal Negra Hondureña y Red de Hondureñas Migradas. The text was integrated and revised by Martha Zein, Lolita Chavez, Miriam Miranda and Marusia López. Here you can listen to the entire conversation.