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As we speak is World Environmental Education Day, which has been celebrated each year on January 26 since its inception in 1972. This yr, ESSENCE is profiling Wanjiku “Wawa” Gatheru, an Oxford College Rhodes Scholar and the founding father of Black Woman Environmentalist.
Even though many Black girls “traditionally…had been explorers and caretakers of the earth, and lots of nonetheless are immediately,” that’s oftentimes not the picture most minds conjure when requested to image an environmentalist.
However as Gatheru advised ESSENCE, “Altering the narrative requires us to reposition it. The mainstream environmental area continues to wrestle with valuing Black voices and experience,” which is ironic contemplating that “the grassroots, environmental justice motion was led by Black and Indigenous matriarchs which have led numerous social actions.”
As an example, “Ella Baker built-in environmental racism as a core focus of the Southern Christian Management Convention (SCLC) within the 60s. A Hymn to the Night by Phillis Wheatley is among the earliest examples of American Nature Writing. The Inexperienced New Deal was [co-authored] by a Black girl, Rhiana Gunn-Wright,” Gatheru famous.
“We’re right here. We’ve all the time been right here. It’s a matter of us creating areas for us to pay attention and be taught from each other and utilizing our collective energy to advocate for a simply local weather future that enables us not solely to outlive, however thrive,” Gatheru added.
That is what compelled Gatheru to begin Black Girl Environmentalist in 2021 as a nationwide group “devoted to addressing the pathway and retention challenge within the local weather motion for Black women, girls and gender-expansive folks.” The group is dedicated to growing the recruitment and retention for Black girls and women within the environmental sector.
“I began Black Woman Environmentalist in order that younger Black women and Black gender expansive people had an area for them, by them within the local weather area,” declared Gatheru. “The local weather area is notoriously white and Black youth are fairly actually on the sidelines. Black Woman Environmentalist inherently validates our existence and distinctive experience as leaders within the local weather motion. Our programming works to empower the following technology of local weather leaders of shade by group empowerment, inexperienced workforce improvement, and narrative change – all created by the very demographic we search to serve.”
“Whereas it took me some time to determine with the time period ‘environmentalist’, I’ve all the time been one,” Gatheru said. “Being an environmentalist comes all the way down to values. Do you care about clear air? Clear water? Entry to wholesome, culturally competent meals?”
“Most individuals would say sure. From a values perspective, most individuals are environmentalists. Nonetheless, for many of my life, the time period sat in an ivory tower of privilege, wealth, and whiteness,” says Gatheru.
Sadly, “the environmentalism I knew of– and what was represented in media– concerned actions, manufacturers, and locations out of contact for me.” Fortuitously, “issues modified after I took an environmental science class at 15 years outdated, after I discovered about environmental justice.”
If Gatheru was to show her personal grasp class, she desires to make sure that folks perceive that “the atmosphere doesn’t solely embody woods-and-water conceptions. [It] can also be the locations we eat, sleep, pray, and play in. Our our bodies are additionally part of the atmosphere. I’m an enormous advocate of self-preservation as being environmental motion. If we’re burnt out, how can we feed again into our collective ecosystems? How can we save our planet if we will’t save ourselves? As of us have a good time World Environmental Schooling Day, keep in mind that our our bodies are additionally integral components of our collective ecosystems that deserve and require care.”
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